School Safety: Has removing vending machines from schools helped?
Posted by
Megan RothSeptember 30, 2008 11:12 AMToday I’ll use my post as a sort of follow-up to my previous post concerning vending machines in schools and on-campus. It’s ironic that, almost immediately after posting the aforementioned article, I read a similar position piece in one of New York’s Dailies.
Turns out, the article I read had originally been published a couple weeks earlier than my article was posted; however, recent updates in information required that the original article be appended. Those updates concerned the unsuccess of removing soft drinks from vending machines on school campuses.
Researchers claim removing soft drinks from vending machines on campus does little in the way of lessening the total amount of soda and high-calorie beverages consumed by children; they found there was little difference in consumption rates of students at schools with vending machines and students at schools without.
But what about students at the college level? How does having vending machines and junk food at their disposal affect their health? As we all know, college students are naturally thrown off in terms of diet and overall health. Their schedules are chaotic, they experience a newfound freedom to do as they wish, and there’s no guiding hand to watch over them and make sure they consume their 5-9 fruits and veggies everyday. Like I said, they experience newfound freedom – and the vast majority of students love it. What they don’t love, is the extra insulation they tend to pack on as a result. We all blame pizza and beer for the added poundage, but let’s be honest: pizza and beer alone isn’t doing it. Equally to blame is the mindless snacking and late-night trips to the vending machine for junk food and other munchies. These trips are often done either with friends for a sort of social gathering or alone as the result of boredom (either from studying or a lack thereof...)
But what if that mindless snacking is done as a sort of replacement for meals? I mean, students who snack rather than eat whole meals are not really consuming excess calories, right? Technically, this is true; however, consuming empty-calorie snacks actually limits the amount of nutritious foods a student is receiving and can actually lead to malnutrition. Seem strange that consuming foods high in fat and calories can lead to both obesity and malnutrition? Perhaps, but it’s true. Such snacks displace calories that should come from nutrient-rich foods, thus leading to weight gain and a lack of nutrients. Bada-bing – malnurished and obese, all at the same time.
Perhaps this contributes to the fact that certain students have requested the removal of vending machines from schools. They crack this request up to the conservation of energy / greening effort; however, I think subconsciously it may be related to much, much more...