Drinks and snacks in vending machines across the United States have been changing drastically over the past eight years as the obesity rate is rising among students Pre-K through 12.
An article “School Kids in for Sugar Shock” in the New York Post, discusses the crack down on providing healthy snacks and drinks for students at school to prevent obesity rates from rising as well as health issues.
Snacks provided in vending machines are now regulated to be under 200 calories, have less than 200 mg of sodium and less than 10 percent saturated fat.
(NOTE: This criteria for vending machines is misleading however because in a Kellogg Pop-Tart package there are two tarts provided, each 200 calories. Most consumers will eat both which amounts to 400 calories and the nutritional content is very minimal as well.)
Making vending machine choices healthier is a step in the right direction to helping kids makes better choices when eating. If that however is their goal, then why are they putting snacks like Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts and Famous Amos cookies still in them?
Kellogg’s has a variety of low calorie, vitamin filled snacks and bars that they could provide these vending machines to sell to kids. It is obvious that kids in general are more inclined to buy Pop-Tarts and Famous Amos because they satisfy the sweet tooth, but if these products are NOT available to students, but rather the healthier snacks, they will only have the choice to choose among nutritional snacks, which is the idea right?
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