A study showed that no one bought the healthier options at fast food places. The chains kept them on the menu though because just having them on the menu tripled the amount of french fries they sold.

I've seen a vending machine where the healthy options were marked with a green dot.The only product with the dot was a bottle of spring water. I don't think you can live too long with that.

It's like the machine is saying:

Choose sensibly.

You can see this machine contains an assortment of unhealthy foods.

Healthier alternatives include kiwi, strawberry, apple, lime (?) and orange.

HAHA, "Choose sensibly" -i.e., nothing in this machine. Quite fitting, actually.

"Now go round up an apple and forget you saw these Fritos."

Frankly, I'm more annoyed that the vending machine has the gall to tell me what to eat. It's my money and I want a god damned Crunch bar!

I am the office manager at my work. We got a soda vending machine to cope with the office's addiction to Diet Coke. I almost never drink soda so I was a bad office manager when I didn't notice that we "needed" a vending machine.

As soon as it arrived, people began complaining that the choices were not healthy enough. The options we had were voted on by the office. The supposed healthy folks wanted tea drinks or fruit flavored drinks in the cans.

I was so sick of the whining, I started telling them that I could offer them two "healthier" choices. I pointed to the water cooler as one. The second choice was nothing at all. I was shocked how the very presence of a vending machine seemed to 'force' these people into choosing to pay for something from the machine.

That is one passive aggressive vending machine. It shames your choice and yet doesn't allow you to make any other choice!

In my workplace diet drinks are 15% cheaper than full-calorie drinks.

I like that. Good observation in this post though. Like the blog.

On a slightly unrelated note, Dr. Grumpy's blog may be a wee bit unpleasant for people who aren't thick-skinned about a little bit of fat-hating and a touch of insensitivity to PWD. Just fyi.

On the plus side, I think I do see some peanuts there!

We feel that having candy bars and snacks that are high in fat and calories shouldn't be considered a 'healthy alternative.' This is more like making kids think about eating heathier foods, but it also persuades them to purchase the unhealthy snacks because its right in front of them.

What most people don’t seem to understand is that most convenient choices are unhealthy. If these people want healthier choices, go out and buy them. Even if the vending machine is advocating picking out healthier choices, but doesn’t support them, is that really surprising in today’s society? Yes, there are people that choose to watch their diet and maintain a healthy lifestyle, but these people have to work for it. They don’t always have a vending machine with options for them. Maybe if people walked to the parking lot to get in their car to pick up their own healthy choices, they could lose a few carbs in the process. It’s not about the vending machine going against its message, it’s about understanding that even if it says “pick something fatting” people have the willpower to ignore it and pick a healthier choice.

This is a perfect example of a contradiction. Just showing a picture of fruit at the bottom of a vending machine does not mean that the person is going to go run a grab a piece of fruit. This also does not make people feel better when they are reaching down to grab their calorie filled, fat gram infested treat that they see a piece of fruit sitting in front of their face telling them that they need to go eat something healthy. This is just the way the vending machine companies of America want to bring in their customers. By telling America that if they buy something from there machine that they will in turn choose a healthy alternative later in their day. Which lets be serious everyone may not be the case.

Also, the vending machine makers are just self-depriving themselves of a profit. By saying to go buy a heathly choice but not offering one is like a top line designer saying her clothes are too expensive so you should go down to the local walmart for some cheap Miley Cyrus leggings.

if we think about it americans are getting fatter and fatter every day! children are born with chips at their house and they learn they like french fries at 9months!!! since wen do the older adults care about "eating healthy"? vending machines are just their to make us think we are hungry when we are not! pack an apple, grapes, a small sandwich or a low calory cheese stick... it has less calories than chips and they will keep you full for longer... all they are made of are pretty much suger and that is distusting

Vending machines should make it easier to eat healthy and not harder especially when you are on the go. Most of the time though they are chalk-full of candy bars, fatty chips, and high sugar foods. It is ironic they showed fruit on the bottom of the machine but nothing in the machine contained fruit. No wonder America is the fattest country in the world! Look at the food options we deem "healthy."

I agree. The option of HEALTHY needs to be in vending machines. Some people don't like to eat unhealthy food, but when that is the only option, then what else is going to be eaten? I myself am an average weight and find it obnoxious about how it tells me that it isnt going to make me fat. This is appalling.

I'm sure that vending machine was originally supposed to hold actual healthy alternatives (whatever those may have been—maybe dried fruit?), and it got restocked with junk. If the healthy foods weren't selling well, the company probably discontinued them but reused the machine.

I think the issue is that we don't equate vending machines with healthy food, which means people only go to them when they're in the mood for junk. I know that when I stop at a vending machine (not often anymore) I'm in the mood for chips, not fruit or whatever. If I want that, bring my own.