{"id":3849,"date":"2010-08-20T00:28:05","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T22:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=3849"},"modified":"2015-12-07T11:51:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:51:23","slug":"healthy-vending-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/healthy-vending-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Vending Machines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was doing my weekly\u00a0surfing of trade publications for news, when my eye was caught by a headline: “Healthy Vending Machines Enter Schools<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.\u2014Four Tallahassee schools recently tossed out their old “junk food” vending machines in favor of Fresh Healthy Vending machines provided by local businessman Brandon Stallings. The new machines are part of a nationwide effort to combat childhood obesity spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign and the “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.”<\/p>\n

…”You’ve got everything from yogurt to 100-percent fruit juices … everything short of a four-course meal,” said Darren Wallace, assistant principal at Griffin Middle School in Tallahassee. \u201cIt’s astounding because I didn’t realize there was this much available when it comes to healthy snacks in vending machines. The variety provided by Fresh Healthy Vending is amazing,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My first thought, naturally, was “great idea!”\u00a0 And it is… in principle.\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, my\u00a0enthusiasm was tempered somewhat after\u00a0I\u00a0clicked on\u00a0the\u00a0freshvending.com link<\/a>\u00a0in the article,\u00a0and looked over the snack choices being offered by the company.<\/p>\n

It’s a\u00a0real mixed bag, IMHO.\u00a0 My overall impression is that many of the\u00a0items aren’t explicitly “healthy” in the sense of making a strong, positive contribution to one’s diet; rather\u00a0they’re categorized as “healthy” simply because they’re natural\/organic\/low fat.\u00a0\u00a0For example, take Fresh Healthy Vending’s “Snack of the Year”…<\/p>\n

San Diego, CA \u2013 June 15, 2010 \u2013 Fresh Healthy Vending LLC today named popchips<\/em> <\/strong>as its best selling \u201csnack of the year\u201d. \u00a0\u201cWe are thrilled with the sales of popchips<\/em> <\/strong>in our healthy vending machines\u201d, said Jolly Backer CEO of Fresh Healthy Vending.\u00a0\u201cOur school location vending machines often feature several rows of popchips<\/em>\u2122 <\/strong>and the kids simply cannot get enough of them\u201d, said Backer. \u00a0popchips<\/em><\/strong> are a healthier alternative to the fried (unhealthy) or baked (undelicious) chips currently found in many vending machines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ok, let’s take a look at PopChips…<\/a><\/p>\n

INGREDIENTS: NATURAL POTATO INGREDIENTS (POTATO FLAKES, POTATO STARCH), SAFFLOWER OIL AND\/OR SUNFLOWER OIL, RICE FLOUR, SEA SALT<\/p>\n

Calories: 120
\nCalories from Fat: 35
\nTotal Fat: 4g
\nSaturated Fat: 0g
\nTrans Fat: 0g
\nSodium: 200mg
\nTotal Carbohydrate: 20g
\nDietary Fiber: 1g
\nSugars: 0g
\nProtein: 1g
\nVitamin A: 0%
\nVitamin C: 0%
\nCalcium: 2%
\nIron: 2%<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ummm… so PopChips are seasoned potato starch.\u00a0\u00a0It’s obvious that they don’t offer much\u00a0in the way of vitamins, minerals, protein or fiber – so the cals are largely empty ones.\u00a0 The carbs are likely high-glycemic index, too.\u00a0 So what – specifically – makes this a “healthy” snack that will help put a dent in childhood obesity??? By contrast, an ounce of Lay’s potato chips<\/a> contains 150 calories – a bit higher, but the 30 cals difference isn’t much of a savings.\u00a0\u00a0And yes, they are\u00a0higher in fat (10g vs. 4g), but there’s nothing\u00a0intrinsically wrong with this, IMHO… “low fat” no longer has the allure it once did<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Overall, the Lay’s chips are\u00a0lower in carbs, higher in Vitamin C and – believe it or not – are a more “natural,” less processed product,\u00a0since they’re made\u00a0from whole, fresh\u00a0potatoes, vs. the equivalent of instant mashed potatoes (FYI, the Lay’s Classic ingredient list reads simply: “Potatoes, Sunflower Oil and\/or Corn Oil and Salt. No preservatives added).<\/p>\n

Now, don’t get me wrong… I’m not\u00a0saying that\u00a0the Lay’s product is\u00a0a\u00a0good, healthy\u00a0snack – it’s not.\u00a0 It’s simply a point of comparison.\u00a0 Just because something is advertised as “healthy” and is manufactured by a smaller, “alternative” company, doesn’t make it so, in any realistic sense…\u00a0the “health halo” isn’t real<\/a>.\u00a0 Calorie-and-nutrition-wise, there’s\u00a0only a razor’s edge of difference between the two snacks.<\/p>\n

This holds for a lot of other of the snacks featured on the site too, I’m afraid.\u00a0 What’s healthy about organic “sandwich cookies,” or Thai Kitchen noodle dishes?\u00a0 What makes Barbara’s Bakery granola bars “healthier” than General Mills’ Nature Valley brand? Even 100% fruit juice\/juice drinks aren’t all they’re cracked up to be<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, school officials are taking a good, hard look at exactly which products are being\u00a0sold in their school vending machines, and weeding out the more obvious clunkers.\u00a0 But at the moment, I’m not convinced that the new “healthy” vending machine offerings are\u00a0significantly less obesegenic than the old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was doing my weekly\u00a0surfing of trade publications for news, when my eye was caught by a headline: “Healthy Vending Machines Enter Schools.” TALLAHASSEE, Fla.\u2014Four Tallahassee schools recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,14,28],"tags":[1848,1497],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10332,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions\/10332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}