Health food Nazi's at it again

[mission vending]

Check this out

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_37f211ce-eee5-56fd-b9bb-43d1c25f60c8.html

Did you catch the part where the grant money came from the CDC portion of stimulus $$? Another fine example of our tax dollars being wasted.

Thank you President Obama and your stimulus program. 

[RJT]

The way I see it vendors have three choices.

1. Try to elect officials that have our interest in mind.

2. The vendors simply pull out of the locations and say it is not cost effective for us to do business with these type of locations.

3. Comply with the new regulations and try and make it work.

IMO the only option is #3. The reason is simple, someone is always in power is going to be pushing for more regulation. Their will always be a vendor willing to do what it takes to earn and keep business so the option of pulling out does not work but shoot yourself in the foot. However, you as a company will have to decide if it is worth it to you to do business with these types of locations. I have learned that sometimes certain segments of business is not worth the hassle.

[WillisNYC]

That county is out of its golphering mind!  Some other fool can have that county account!

[mission vending]

The way I see it vendors have three choices.

1. Try to elect officials that have our interest in mind.

2. The vendors simply pull out of the locations and say it is not cost effective for us to do business with these type of locations.

3. Comply with the new regulations and try and make it work.

IMO the only option is #3. The reason is simple, someone is always in power is going to be pushing for more regulation. Their will always be a vendor willing to do what it takes to earn and keep business so the option of pulling out does not work but shoot yourself in the foot. However, you as a company will have to decide if it is worth it to you to do business with these types of locations. I have learned that sometimes certain segments of business is not worth the hassle.

It's number 3 for me. If you guys recall, several months ago the City of San Antonio mandated to our partnership that all items (100%) meet a minimum nutritional criteria. Needless to say its been an interesting couple of months. Here is a link to the original thread.

http://vendiscuss.com/forum/index.php?topic=9195.0

Once we get past September I will have a three month history to report on as well as some of the other things I have learned during this experience.

Stay tuned.

[dogcow]

relevant to this thread

http://consumerist.com/2010/09/ohio-school-puts-carrot-only-vending-machine-in-cafeteria.html

[NinnJinn]

Oh brother!!! 

[mission vending]

Here we go again:

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/09/20/city_may_curb_sales_of_sugary_beverages/

[NinnJinn]

They are probably nothing but coffee drinking idiots trying to be like the White House idiots and trying to rule the city...

I say, take the coffee away from them idiots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then they will understand us soda drinkers stand point.  After awhile, water gets rather old.  Its not like we can take a gallon of ice tea or kool aid  to work with us, Heck.  unless you are not in the majority,  You gotta have sugar in those too!

Health Insurance?  What health insurance.  as for me and my wife,  we pay MORE for insurance AND Co pays than the actual insurance company does.

IMO, the only time INS is good, is if you have the misfortune of having to have surgery of some kind.

[dogcow]

Here we go again:

http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/09/20/city_may_curb_sales_of_sugary_beverages/

article hits the nail on the head, comparisons to anti-smoking legislation are false.  soda is not an addictive drug and as the article notes, consumption does not directly harm others, though one can assert in some cases it may cause negative externalities and costs on society through since obesity is a public health problem. however most juice drinks contain as much sugar as soda. not to mention most machines contain at least one diet selection.

[soco]

"Any explanation of the root causes of the current obesity epidemic must account for its sudden appearance. Six million American adults are now morbidly obese (BMI 40+), almost twice as high as 1980 severe obesity rates, while another 9.6 million have a BMI of 35-40. The percentage of overweight children 6-11 has nearly doubled since the early 1980's." (Source: US Census 2000; NHANES III data estimates).

and

The Caloric Balance Equation

Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance. This involves eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.

Body weight is the result of genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status.

Behavior and environment play a large role causing people to be overweight and obese. These are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment actions.

Adapted from U.S. Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, 2001

[soco]

Mission, I'm not sure I understand what it is you are saying about healthier snack and beverage choices in vending.  I believe I have read that you are modifying some of your accounts with healthier snack and drink choices because you are required to, but then you start a thread like this one which seems as if you are against the trend.  Can you clarify?  Are you  ?!

[NinnJinn]

You want a fat kid to lose weight?  kick his golpher outside.  throw all the video game golpher away and buy him a bike to ride.  If he is a teenager, kick him off his golpher and get him a paper route.  kids these days have it made.  When I went to school, you got there a little early so you can find a parking spot for your bike.  now, it is rare that you see a bike parked in the racks at all!  kids have the hand held games to take everywhere, a PS3 or an x box at home. 

In Indiana anyways, during the summer kick their golpher out and have them detasseling corn.

THEN, you won't have all these fat golpher lazy kids everywhere.

The early 80's is when the home video game consoles started coming out.

[NinnJinn]

Oh, and as for over weight adults,  WALK!!!  burn more calories than you consume and you will be all set.  Walk to work, walk to the gas station for that soda or Twinkie!!!

An ex girlfriend of mine was 5ft 2in tall and weighed around the 210lb range.  She had an accident and her Insurance had lapsed So she lost her license for 6months.  She had to walk her kids to the sitters.  Walk to work. etc.   I always gave her a ride to the store every week to get groceries.

No lie folks!!!  In the 6months she had to walk everywhere,  she dropped down to 140lbs and did NOT, I repeat, did NOT change her mt. dew and chips for lunch eating habit!

She happens to be my daughter's preschool teacher and 7yrs later, she still walks to work, and still has a mt. dew on her desk. And I honestly believe she has lost even more weight.

My wife, is 5ft 11in tall and was over the 270 mark,  she joined this curves for women thing and took it very seriously.  She did NOT change her eating habits.  in 10 months she was down to 190 then we found that she was pregnant so she stopped going.  

4yrs. later she is as big if not bigger than she was before.  now, she has health problems, bad feet and knees.

Our Soda, Snack, and Candy machines are making people "obese" They have just become to golpher lazy, and don't want to get off their lazy golpher and do anything.

Ok,  I will now step off my soap box and stop preaching and putting the poor "golpher" filter to work.

[mission vending]

Mission, I'm not sure I understand what it is you are saying about healthier snack and beverage choices in vending.  I believe I have read that you are modifying some of your accounts with healthier snack and drink choices because you are required to, but then you start a thread like this one which seems as if you are against the trend.  Can you clarify?  Are you   ?!

You are correct that I have been required to modify my selections, but only snacks.

There is no doubt that obesity is a societal issue with tremendous costs associated with it. Its sad to see our politicians and the general public at large refusing to deal with this and the other major issues confronting this country. If the people running this country, both R and D, can't explain the problem and present a solution in a 5 second sound bite they don't seem to be interested in doing anything because the general public has the attention span of a six week old puppy and fails to hold them accountable. If you watch the evening news and read all the stories about taxing "junk food", the proposed "sugar tax" in many states and the banning of soft drinks in schools you would begin to think that soft drinks and chips are the root cause of obesity in this country.

I guess the easy answer is that I'm somewhat bipolar on the issue.   On a personal level, being of a Libertarian mindset, I absolutely hate the idea of anyone telling me what I can and cannot sell in my vending machines. I find that the idea that because people are in the position to make arbitrary rules about someone else's behavior and decisions that they then take it upon themselves to do so disturbing. This is not a belief that I grew up with. My personal beliefs will be reflected by the choices I make on election day.

On the other hand, as a businessman I have accepted the fact that there is little I can do about it, other than vote. In order to support my family and make payroll I must make decisions that I believe are in the best interest of my business. So to that end I am working on learning how to make this work as best as I possibly can and get them to try some of the new stuff and hopefully keep them coming back for more. I am viewing this as an opportunity to learn something that few others can or will even consider doing in the hope that I can leverage this knowledge into new business.

Hopefully this makes some sense.

Final note: It's good to see you post again soco, hopefully we will see you around a little more.

[The Mage]

I have spent a good portion of my life learning about diet and exercise.

I avoid eating the things I sell, although when I do eat candy, I often choose PMM's partly because of the low GI (glucose index) it has.  I focus on eating healthy and exercising to benefit myself.  But that is what is important to me.

I may suggest to people how they can eat healthier, but I have no right to force anyone to eat that way.  What is right for me is not right for anyone else. 

One of the problems out there is the fact that a lot of people in charge really don't know what they are talking about.

In the 80's jogging became real popular as the way to get healthy.  But one of, if not the person who really made jogging popular as the healthy thing to do died of a heart attack at a young age.  (I can't remember his name right now, and am too lazy to search.)

Also started in the 80's was the whole fear of fat, or the idea that fat makes you fat.  Well the consumption of fat dropped from 30 some percent to 20 some percent, (being lazy again,) and yet obesity rates jumped.

Coincidentally the government has also been subsidizing corn, helping to fuel the high fructose corn syrup explosion.  This caused many companies to switch from sugar to HFCS, which isn't as bad, but it also fueled its inclusion into many products because it became a cheap filler.  While people were cutting fat, they were in fact just replacing the fat with sugar, and playing havoc with their insulin levels.

There is another problem with subsidizing corn, and that makes corn a cheap filler for many products.  Many people don't realize that corn is used by the cattle industry to make the cattle fatter.  (And it works great for humans too.)  Corn meal is one of the worst culprits. 

All of this is the result of people and the government making bad decisions for other people.  And now we are supposed to trust them to know what is right for us.

What needs to be understood is that one Twinkie, one can of pop, (or soda, or whatever your area likes to call it,) or a handful of any candy is not going to wreck your health, or make you obese.  If that is all you eat, then yeah, but your health and weight is based on everything you do. 

I don't want people who know a tenth of what I know about nutrition telling me what I am allowed to eat.

[soco]

Mission-Thanks for clarifying your thoughts for me, and having the good grace not to see this as a negative question.

[dogcow]

In the 80's jogging became real popular as the way to get healthy.  But one of, if not the person who really made jogging popular as the healthy thing to do died of a heart attack at a young age.  (I can't remember his name right now, and am too lazy to search.)

you are probably thinking of Jim Fix his heart disease was a result of heavy smoking despite being a marathon runner.

Coincidentally the government has also been subsidizing corn, helping to fuel the high fructose corn syrup explosion.  This caused many companies to switch from sugar to HFCS, which isn't as bad, but it also fueled its inclusion into many products because it became a cheap filler.  While people were cutting fat, they were in fact just replacing the fat with sugar, and playing havoc with their insulin levels.

There is another problem with subsidizing corn, and that makes corn a cheap filler for many products.  Many people don't realize that corn is used by the cattle industry to make the cattle fatter.  (And it works great for humans too.)  Corn meal is one of the worst culprits.  

this is accurate, but only half the story outside of florida its not well known

but sugar is subject to heavy regulation making it very expensive compared

to other countries. import of sugar is restricted highly, and the government sets a price floor on domestic sugar so that the market price cannot drop below a certain rate, if it does the government buys and destroys the excess supply. this results in making real sugar more expensive than it could be, it also makes florida sugar magnates like the fanjul brothers fantastically rich.

[snack dude]

I run two to four miles a couple times a week. no schedule just get it in when i can. The reason I do that is A) I like it and so I can keep eating and drinking what I like.

I am a Mt. Dew and sweet tea addict. Any part of a hog on a grill is the best

And just about anything is better fried in bacon grease the way god intended.