Study finds little healthy in school vending machines

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Ignoramus27444 - 13 May 2004 14:09 GMT

Study finds little healthy in school vending machines

May 12, 2004

BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter

Eighty-five percent of snacks and 75 percent of drinks sold in vending
machines in middle and high schools are junk food, a study released
Tuesday by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found.

The study took stock of vending machine offerings in 251 schools
across 24 states, including Illinois, and categorized items as
"healthier" or "less healthful."

The findings were "much worse" than expected, said Margo Wootan, the
center's director of nutrition policy and the study's lead author.

"I had no idea there was so much candy," Wootan said. "I thought that
with communities and schools being more conscious of rising obesity
rates that more of the beverage options would be healthful ones."

The survey found that candy, chips and "sweet baked goods" accounted
for 80 percent of available snacks, while sugary sodas, juice drinks
and sports drinks accounted for 70 percent of beverages. Bottled water
made up 12 percent and milk only 5 percent of beverages.

Fruits and vegetables -- and refrigerated vending machines that can
stock items like salads and veggie sticks with low-fat dip -- were
even harder to find. Of the 9,723 total snack slots surveyed, just 26
offered a fruit or vegetable, and much of that was dried fruit snacks,
Wootan said.

"If a child buys lunch out of vending machines, it's almost guaranteed
to be high in sugar, salt, calorically dense and virtually devoid of
nutrients," she said.

The center is pushing Congress to give the U.S. Department of
Agriculture greater authority to regulate vending machine foods, as it
already does for cafeteria meals.

The study comes as school districts across the nation, including
Chicago, are considering or putting in place bans on junk foods in
vending machines to help stem what health experts have called an
obesity epidemic.

On May 26, a proposal to ban candy and chewing gum and set
restrictions on the sugar and fat content of vending machine snacks in
all Chicago public schools goes up for vote before the Chicago Board
of Education.

Chicago public school officials are waiting on bids to replace a
five-year beverage vending machine contract with Coca-Cola. In the new
contract, only water, non-carbonated sports drinks and juice drinks
with no less than 50 percent real fruit juice can be sold.

Vending machines are a valuable revenue stream for school
districts. But in case studies of 14 schools sites, CSPI found that
schools did not lose money after switching to healthier vending
machines snacks.

At Mundelein High School, vending machine sales are down a third over
last year after the school replaced soda and candy with items like
granola bars and baked chips, but officials aren't worried,
spokeswoman Kelley Happ said.

"Yes, we've lost revenue, but we're doing the right thing," Happ said.

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