I believe it might be based on misunderstanding the generic category "vegetables". I.e. "I eat lots of vegetables! I had french fries on Tuesday, mashed potato

I believe it might be based on misunderstanding the generic category "vegetables". I.e. "I eat lots of vegetables! I had french fries on Tuesday, mashed potato on Wednesday, ..." Reminds me of the classic regulatory decision (which I actually looked up to make sure that it wasn't an urban myth, that's how crazy it sounds) that the tomato paste on top of pizza is classified as a vegetable for school lunches [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup_as_a_vegetable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup_as_a_vegetable