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          Business View Magazine
        
        
          Fresh Healthy Vending
        
        
          
            Leading the revolution for healthier drinks and snacks
          
        
        
          According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
        
        
          and Prevention, more than one third of the country’s
        
        
          adults are obese. Obesity-related health conditions
        
        
          include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and
        
        
          certain types of cancer - some of the leading causes
        
        
          of preventable death. Childhood obesity is also a seri-
        
        
          ous problem in the United States. Children and adoles-
        
        
          cents aged 2-19 years have an obesity rate of about
        
        
          17 percent – that’s 12.7 million American children
        
        
          who are clinically overweight.
        
        
          While the causes of obesity are complicated and di-
        
        
          verse, it is commonly accepted that poor nutritional
        
        
          habits, especially the intake of too much high-calorie
        
        
          “fast” and “junk” foods, contributes mightily to un-
        
        
          healthy and unnecessary weight gain. In contrast, eat-
        
        
          ing less-processed foods that contain fewer refined
        
        
          sugars, fewer starches, salts, and fats, and thus, fewer
        
        
          empty calories, is a recipe for a healthier, leaner body.
        
        
          In addition, junk foods are often rife with artificial
        
        
          sweeteners and colorings, and added caffeine and
        
        
          preservatives – no boon to good health.
        
        
          Historically, the vending/automatic merchandising in-
        
        
          dustry has been complicit in the distribution of less
        
        
          than healthy, obesity-enhancing products: candy, so-