School Vending Machines: Why Your Kid Is Fat

School Vending Machines Are Making Students Obese

Let's face it, kids in America are fat. In fact, almost 30% of them are obese! What is causing this obesity epidemic? Where is the mistake? It's not fair enough to blame the children themselves; they are too young to make smart food choices when their parents are not around. And what about their parents? What do you teach kids about healthy eating habits? You can do your best at home and serve a full and round meal at dinner but the kids spend most of their days at school where you cannot control what they eat and how much they eat. We all know that school lunches are not the healthiest food in the world. Processed foods show meats and flour do not have the fruits, vegetables and grains needed to maintain their proper weight. Where else can kids get food at school? Fearful school vending machines take your kids' money and make them fat.

Impact of Eating Food at School

There are many reasons why children should not eat snacks at school. Not only does it affect their physical health, it also affects their mental health. Eating a bunch of empty calories and processed junk does not fill you up and it zaps your energy. Children do not get any "value" from this type of food. It does not generate their bodies or give them the energy to exercise throughout the day. They will experience a sugar rush followed by a sugar crash that causes them to crave "high" sugar and a vicious cycle. The same goes for carbohydrate-eaten snacks. Carbohydrates only turn to sugar and have a similar effect on the child's metabolism. Snack diets can also cause children to lose their focus, lose weight and do poorly in class and tests. Blood circulation can even slow down if you eat too much snack and get fat. Brain capacity can also be compromised as a regular diet of snacks will result in a lack of oxygen, nutrients and protein to your brain. Further side effects include heart disease and high cholesterol. As you can imagine, having health issues as a child can have a huge impact on a child's long-term life. It's much more difficult to fix this health problem than just avoid it from the beginning. Fat children become obese adults, which is why more than 25% of Americans are obese. Adopting the right eating habits as a child will help these children maintain a healthy weight and lower body fat percentage. School self-service machines do NOT help children make healthy eating choices.

Why Do Schools Have Vending Machines?

It seems obvious that if you run a vending machine at school, the kids will eat better. That's not easy, unfortunately. Our schools are very poor and the vending machines offer the flow of profits they need to finance their operations. Schools receive money from the government under the National Lunch Program which feeds more than 30 million children daily at over 101,000 schools. But that's not enough. One dollar per student is not enough to give them a healthy meal. Thus, the school increased its cafeteria offerings by adding self-service machines as food options for students. The profit margin of the vending machine is huge because the mark-ups are very high. And the students will visit the vending machines again and again as the sugars and carbohydrates have a strong body.

Changes In Store For School Sellers

There is a light at the end of the food tunnel. Elective legislation that could mark the end of the school vending machine era. The Healthy and Hungry Children Act will provide more money to schools and will allow the Secretary of Agriculture to establish nutritional standards for schools. Parents and schools can also play a major role in our children's eating habits. Schools can voluntarily produce snacks and / or replace them with healthy self-serve machines that offer children nutritional choices that will fill and help them focus throughout the day. Parents, real change needs to come from you. Start with the way you eat. Children notice what you eat and they are more likely to listen to your nutrition advice if you are eating healthy foods. You can't eat pizza and expect your kids to eat salad. Get your kids involved in healthy eating. The more they invest in the process, the more likely they are to eat something they don't like. Perhaps most importantly, parents need to put pressure on their children's schools to make the necessary changes. Most school administrators will just let the vending machine stay put if they are not encouraged to remove it. If you stand up for your children's health, the school will have to make changes.

We all know that change must happen to help our kids get back on track. They are just too fat and the blame lies on schools and parents. Self-serve machines are a major cause, however, as they continue to provide our children with snacks that compromise their health and their ability to learn. Changes need to come from parents and schools to eliminate these machines and improve our children's opportunities in life. Their success in school, college, their professional life, and their health depends on it.

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