It’s an interesting debate and one that Jamie Oliver, the British chef and entrepreneur, made his mission in the US in 2010, following his activity in the UK to ban the Turkey Twizzler as it was useless on a nutritional basis. Banning vending machines and junk food, and its calorie-laden contents, would undoubtedly make the on-site access healthier; especially if the vending machines substitute the sugary Cokes and Pepsis for fruit juices and pieces of fruit (perhaps in an honesty-box policy where people can drop in a nickel for an apple or somesuch), the overall mood of kids would increase, since there would be no swings caused by sugar highs and comedowns. However, a lack of chocolate and candies on the school site may give rise to the phenomenon of kids leaving school grounds and gorging themselves on chocolate and Pepsis which are not provided on school grounds. The true success story would be the parents at home encouraging kids to drink healthy drinks and eat fewer carbs; everything is good in moderation and contributes to a balanced diet with all necessary food groups catered to (think of how breakfast cereals push the image of their product as ‘part of your complete breakfast) and it would be terrible to deny kids their little rewards after long hours learning new things, especially when learning about biology and digestion and such. Therefore, vending machines should not be banned, as they are also a useful money-spinner for the school because they know that desires of kids will be met on-site. The option ought to be given for degrees of health, as it is in a supermarket, and the power to be given to the consumer. Exercise will shed the excess flab gained from any vending machine products, as should the toil of academic life and pop quizzes. A healthy mind, after all, is a healthy body, vending machines or none.
