Question

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 89 percent of middle schools in the United States have vending machines.

Based on this information and the facts about childhood obesity, what conclusions can you draw about vending machines and childhood obesity?

Answer 1

At present (as of 2017 statistics), the national childhood obesity rate is 18.5 percent. The percentage of children who evidence obesity rises as children get older. The obesity rate for 12- to 19-year-olds (middle school through high school) is 20.6%.

Dietary habits have a large role in children's weight issues, and what is available at schools influences what children and teens will eat and drink. As a January, 2011 article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health asserted: "Schools are in a powerful position to influence children’s diets; therefore attention to foods sold in them is necessary in order to try to improve children’s diets." You could look for that article for more information. It's titled, "Foods Sold in School Vending Machines are Associated with Overall Student Dietary Intake," by Alisha J. Rovner, Tonja R. Nansel, Jing Wang, and Ronald J. Iannotti.

Answer 2

More American children are more likely to be overweight today than they were forty years ago. One of the reasons for this is because kids are eating more unhealthy snacks during the day. Because vending machines provide students with access to unhealthy foods, they could be contributing to kids making bad choices when it comes to snacking.