The vending machine in our office was the root of all evil! With the amount of fatty snacks they provide to tempt us during office hours, they are surely one of the biggest evil in the dieter's world. Vending machine used to offer only either sugary snacks such as chocolate based snacks or crispy fried snacks such as cheetos.
Often we need a boost during mid morning or mid afternoon to keep us going. The time before and after lunch (see my Tuna Pita recipe and Negative calories lunch) is the most likely time where we would like to snack. And if the choice of boosters are all in vending machine, most of the times we will eat whatever those machines offer.
To me sometimes vending machine is a huge vertical sarcophagus. Sarcophagus is brightly decorated and so is vending machine. The flashy colours, the huge sponsor logo, the red-green-yellow snacks bar are the decoration of vending machine. But on the inside it's just unhealthy foods, not only for dieters but also for all people especially children. But thanks to the raising awareness of weight problems (especially in states), more choices of vending machines are available.
One of the breakthroughs in vending machine industry is that now vending machine incorporate more healthy choices of snacks in the machine. However the most notable breakthrough according to me is done by Horizon. Horizon is an Atlanta-based technology company offering comprehensive food service solutions.
Horizon in fact is contributing to stop the high obesity rate amongst children. Children are pretty much a good target market for those vending machines since children tend to like the colored snacks or the huge sugary snacks which are junk for them actually.
Due to the huge availability of vending machines all around the schools, children can easily eat whatever they want without any parent supervision. And most of them end up craving and getting full on those snacks which alter their foods preferences.
Horizon gives a solution to it. They offer a programmed and a tracked healthy vending machines. So children will be given prepaid cards or PIN which they must enter before they buy the snacks from the vending machine.
Then the parents can log on to check what their children ate today at school. Horizon also gives a detailed nutritional value of each snacks consumed so that parents can evaluate their children's nutrition intake.
Of course even this wonderful machine has no loophole. Children can easily organize and ask other children who are not heavily watched by their parents to buy snacks for them. But this is still a wonderful machine so far. At least the first steps to fight unhealthy eating habits in school are taken. Gee, technology has some uses, hasn't it? Coupled with Wii gaming environment that encourages children to exercises, children can really live healthier.
If you are keen about this idea, try to talk to the school principal to suggest these vending machines. Personally I would not mind if these machines are set up in offices too, but I doubt that other employees have calories freaks parents like mine.
First vending machine picture is a product of GSVending Service.
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