According to the National Institutes of Health, vending machines around the country will soon have labels pointing to choices that offer the proper diet as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. Whether you are working out at a 24 Hour Fitness or sitting outside an already-closed Target after midnight, you can still decide whether a soda or a snack from a vending machine is good for your health, at a time when you have less access to food outside your home. While it may be disputed as to whether access to a vending machine at a gym or after a weight-loss session is a good idea or not, people who believe it is may find such a labeling process useful.

I haven’t seen such a label on a vending machine in Southern California yet, though I am sure such machines are being installed slowly and steadily throughout the country. Even though all vending machine owners must follow a nutrition standard if they wish to operate, vending machines usually serve as a backup at times when there isn’t a supermarket nearby, or when it’s a hassle to drive over to a gas station just to get some cookies and there already is a vending machine right next to you. People still consider the servings of any product in vending machines to be similar to those offered by the same products in the supermarkets, though majority of the people do not buy the same product at the vending machine with the same valor that they display when buying the exact brand at the supermarket. The fact is that the vending machines have different servings of different things, and many times at higher prices than a supermarket deal, even if the packaging looks the same. I have never seen a person at night who bought something from a vending machine and then read the back of the item they just got [whether it's chips or a drink] before consuming the product. Having a label right at the point where we have to read the price of the product and then press a button to choose a product, before we actually have the item in our hands, is a good and easy way to get the message across.

While having labels over every product at a vending machine may sound like a hard job to do, we should keep in mind that the vending machines in the U.S. still mainly offer only drinks [sodas and water most of the time] and snacks. Countries such as Japan offer dozens of different things through the vending machines. These products range from cigarettes to eggs to flowers and batteries. The simplicity of this program is that the vending machines only have to apply the labels with the information already provided to them by the FDA. Thus, it is fairly easy to have programs such as Better Choices expand efficiently and be updated regularly also, since the main focus is on the snacks and drinks only. Though each vendor can choose not to display such information, since it may turn away people who are very strict about their diet and notice any extra calories or sugar in a certain snack, vendors will eventually have to put such information so as to gain customer trust at a time when people will expect each vending machine to have such information, or ponder over the question of what the vendor is “hiding” by not showing the nutrition label on the showcase window. A good example is the “Healthy Vending Program“, which offers vending machines that follow a healthy nutrition guideline.

I personally never let the calories or amount of fat in any product be the deciding factor when I am eating. However, I know many people who practice a lot of control over their health, so I am sure this new program is going to benefit many people today. It may also entice people to go to vending machines more, specially those people who previously didn’t like vending machines because of the idea of the supposed “unhealthy” food. While I personally think people should not be paranoid over food labels everywhere, obesity is a serious issue right now that does cause actual harm in the long run in both personal [such as relationships, sleep disorders, mental issues or extreme inferiority complex, etc] and public [jobs, interaction and social skills, etc] life. This labeling program may help in reducing this condition.