The vending machines’ cornucopia of treats satisfies students craving something crunchy or sweet. Then again, some of those snacks are better off being left behind the glass. Ingredients like processed sugars and fats can cause of plethora of problems. Reading the labels on packaged foods is the first step to being in charge of your health. With the right knowledge, it’s easy to avoid poison in the vending machines.
Keebler Elfin Crackers
Ingredients: enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, vitamin B-1, riboflavin, vitamin B-2, folic acid), sugar, soybean oil with TBHQ for freshness, high frutose corn syrup, contains 2 percent of less of leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate), salt, soy lecithin and other natural flavors.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS): This corn sweetener is extremely common, especially in soda, baked goods and candy. Although the commercials claim that it’s the same as regular sugar, it’s quite different on some very important levels. The body treats different kinds of sugar differently. The two main types of sugar in food are fructose and glucose. One hundred percent of fructose is metabolized by the liver, which means HFCS metabolizes very quickly into fat. Glucose only relies on the liver for 20 percent of processing, and cells use the energy from glucose to run.
Milky Way
Ingredients: milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, skim milk, chocolate, lactose, milkfat, soy lechithin, artificial flavor), corn syrup, sugar, hydrogenated palm kernel oil and/or palm oil, skim milk, less than 2 percent – milkfat, cocoa powder processed with alkali, malted barley, lactose, salt, egg whites, chocolate, artificial flavor.
Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil: The process of hydrogenating palm kernel oil creates trans-fatty acids. These toxic fats have been shown to cause heart-disease and cancer. Banned in Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Sweden, many American food companies, restaurant chains (even cities), are taking measures to ban or reduce trans-fats in foods.
Cheetos Crunchy
Ingredients: enriched corn meal (corn meal, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin monoitrate, riboflavin and frolic acid), vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean or sunflower oil), whey, salt, cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes), partially hydrogenated soybean oil, maltodextrin, disodium, phosphate, sour cream (cultured cream, nonfat milk), artificial flavor, monosodium glutmate, lactic acide, artificial clors (including yellow 6) and citric acid.
Monosodium Glutamate: A traditional Asian food seasoning, Monosodium glutamate (MSG) was incorporated into the American diet after World War II. Japanese rations tasted way better than American ones due to the MSG in the canned goods. This artificial spice enhances foods flavor, but has been linked to obesity and neurological damage, causing symptoms such as depression, fatigue and headaches.