Category Archives: healthy snack vending machines in New York City

Healthy Vending Options Help New York City Employees

Healthy Vending Options in New York City

Everyone can agree that eating healthy is important, but making it happen every day can be a challenge. According to a recent survey from the American Heart Association and Aramark, a U.S. based food service company, participants expressed that availability of healthy foods (43 percent), “convenience (60%) and taste preference (54%) as having a great deal/quite a bit of impact on choosing an unhealthy lunch.”

While those numbers aren’t the best, there are two other numbers that are better. “More than 4 in 5 (82%) agree that having healthy food options at work is important to them and more than 2 in 3 (68%) value help from their employer in becoming healthier.” 

Understanding these statistics and taking the next step can help employers determine the best way to provide break room refreshments for their employees. Rather than assuming which products employees would like to have available, employers should survey their employees to find out. Different individuals will have different preferences that develop from a number of factors including upbringing, genetics, culture and individual experiences.

So, what makes a snack better-for-you? The broad definition is a snack that has a high nutritional value or one that is high in protein, vitamins, minerals and fiber but low in calories, fat, sugar and sodium. A popular example is nuts. While nuts are high in calories and fat, they have lots of important nutrients. 

Healthy Vending Options in New York City

The following are three suggestions for choosing healthier snacks.

  • choose a snack that has between 150 and 250 calories. Always check the portion size on the nutrition label. The portion size and the size of the package are often two different amounts.
  • choose items that have about 3 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein per serving. Since fiber and protein can create a feeling of fullness, New York City employees are likely to stay full longer, decreasing the overall amount eaten.
  • avoid snacks that have more than 12 grams of fat per serving. Consuming too many saturated fats can raise LDL or “bad” cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Whether New York City employees need an unplanned pick-me-up or didn’t have time to fix something at home to bring to work with them, access to healthy vending machine snacks and beverages is a great option.  It also supports what employees are looking for—convenient and tasty choices and help from their employer to become healthier and access to better-for-you choices at work.

We at Healthy Vending believe in supporting the New York City area by providing a large selection of organic and all-natural snacks and beverages in our vending machines. For more information about our product offerings or vending solutions, please contact us at 917.572.3671.

Savory Snacks Fill a New Role in New York City

Healthy, savory and tasty snacks are exactly what New York City employees are looking for when they need a quick bite to eat. A recent survey about the Global Health & Wellness (H&W) market for Savory Snacks found that the growing number of health conscious individuals and the increase of awareness about obesity and its complications have contributed to the increase in demand for healthier and more nutritious choices.

But New York City consumers are looking for more specific information about their snacks. Reading that a snack might be healthy isn’t enough. They want to know if a specific savory snack is ‘free from’ or ‘food minus’ certain unhealthy ingredients. For example, the demand for savory snacks that are ‘free from’ a particular ingredient such as cholesterol accounted for 82.6 percent of the total demand for savory snacks. Consumers have learned that avoiding cholesterol and saturated fats is important as both can lead to cardiovascular disease, a major cause of death worldwide. 

So, what does this information have to do with your New York City breakroom or lunch room vending services? A lot. Savory snacks aren’t going anywhere especially as today’s employees and students consume heavier, more nutritious snacks as mini meals. 

Snacks in New York City

The effects of eating healthier are more far-reaching than most of us realize. In the short term, employees and students who make healthier choices can have more energy and are able to focus and concentrate more effectively because their bodies have received the right kind of fuel. Increased overall productivity and potentially better long-term health are some of the long-term results that healthier snack and beverage choices today can impact tomorrow. 

One way to help your New York City employees or students make healthier choices is to meet them where they are with healthy, savory snacks and refreshing, cold beverages. But, unfortunately, it isn’t enough to just place any healthy items in your breakroom vending machine. Make sure that everyone knows that their preferences have been considered by creating a customized snack and beverage menu. If there are enticing, healthy choices at work or school, grabbing something not-so-healthy off-site will require more time and work to accomplish the same task.

Healthy Vending, New York’s largest provider of all-natural and organic snacks and beverages, can help you customize a vending machine menu that meets all of your organization’s sweet or savory, healthy needs. To schedule a savory snack product sampling, please call Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671. 

New York City, Make Healthy Protein Choices

healthy options in New York CityWhat makes a snack healthy? Does it matter if it’s made in a New York City individual’s kitchen or purchased from a vending machine? Is it the type of ingredients or maybe the nutrients in the ingredients? The answer is that it varies. For some snacks, it’s the vitamins or minerals, and for others, it’s the protein that makes it a healthy snack. Where it comes from has no bearing on whether or not it’s healthy.

This sounds straight forward until the results of two surveys completed by Nielsen, a global measurement and data analytics company, are considered. Nielsen asked participants to place a variety of protein sources such as beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, dairy, eggs, peanut butter, and cottage cheese in one of three categories: high protein (more than 20 grams per serving), mid-level protein (10-20 grams per serving) or low protein (less than 10 grams per serving).

The results were surprising. According to Nielsen, “overall protein knowledge among U.S. consumers is fairly low. Of the 10 products included in our surveys, only three items reached a majority of consumers correctly identifying protein content levels.”

While participants listed traditional sources of protein (meat, eggs, and dairy) as their go-to source for protein, those same individuals did not rank meat as a source high in protein. Instead, 78 percent of the participants choose peanut butter as a high protein choice when, in reality, peanut butter contains a low amount of protein.

Let’s take a step back and take a (simple) look at protein, and how it helps keep the body healthy. Protein is found in every cell in the body, and, on average, there are 37.2 trillion cells in a human body. Each molecule of protein consists of 20+ amino acids or building blocks. While the body can produce many of those amino acids, nine of them must come from food because the body can not produce them.

Because of the large amount of cells, making healthy decisions about protein sources impacts every part of the body. Choosing healthy protein options for snacks during the work or school day is a great way to help meet daily protein requirements. The following are a few things to consider when making a decision.

  • what is the source of the protein – plant or animal?
  • how much protein does the nutrition label say is in the snack you’re considering?
  • what are the other ingredients (fats, fiber, sodium, etc.) in the snack you’re considering?

Healthy options in New York CityThe answers to the previous questions will be as unique as the individuals answering them. What’s important is that New York City employees and students read the nutritional labels to help choose products that offer protein from preferred sources and provide the right combination of nutrients that they each need. To help them accomplish that, businesses and schools can offer healthy snack and beverage vending machines in their New York City lunchroom or break room.

There’s now one fewer obstacle that employees and students need to overcome, and Healthy Vending can help your organization overcome the challenge of determining which healthy snacks and beverages to offer. We offer a variety of healthy, all-natural, and organic products in Eco-friendly, state-of-the art vending machines. Call us at 917.572.3671 for more information about making the switch.

Healthy Vending Choices Take Over New York City Break Rooms

Healthy vending option in New York CityHave you ever considered what might happen if you were to offer healthy vending machine options in your New York City break room? The results might be surprising as both employees and employers would benefit.

“Healthy” no longer means super expensive and weird tasting. Rather, competitively priced, all-natural, organic, and tasty snacks and beverages help turn your break room into an inviting space that encourages collaboration and creativity. Gone are previous obstacles such as needing to find a corner store that employees had to overcome to grab a bite to eat or something to drink. Now, all it takes is a trip to your New York City break room.

Snack and beverage vending machines in the break room are also important resources that help employees avoid the negative effects of hunger and dehydration. Hunger increases impulsiveness and the likelihood of experiencing lightheadedness, and decreases one’s ability to make long-term decisions and concentrate. As dehydration increases, the negative impact on cognitive and physical functions, such as short-term memory, arithmetic efficiency, and visuomotor tracking; motor speed and attention increases. None of those effects lead to positive outcomes, but without them, employee productivity Healthy vending options in New York Cityand morale increases.

To provide your employees’ with an extra perk and boost your break room’s appeal, offer subsidized pricing or free vending. They are two great ways to help take care of your employees’ financial and physical health. (They’re also an enticing perk for potential new employees.)  

Subsidized Vending: New York City employees pays a portion of the cost. The prices of vending machine snacks and beverages are lowered, and your company receives a bill at the end of each month for the difference.

Free Vend: All products are available to your employees for free. Each month, your company pays for the full amount.

And don’t forget to encourage your local New York City school to switch to healthy snack and beverage vending machines in their school lunchroom. Students also experience the negative effects of hunger and dehydration which negatively impacts their ability to learn.

Whether you are interested in healthy vending machines for your New York City break room or lunchroom, Healthy Vending can help. We offer a wide variety of organic and all-natural snacks and beverages that are healthy for everyone. For more information, please call us at 917.572.3671.

Consumers Are Snacking More Than Ever in New York City, Especially Salty Snacks

People are busier than ever in New York City. And they are eating more frequently in shorter amounts of time. So it’s no surprise that snacking has become part of just about everyone’s lifestyle.

Healthy Snacks Vending Machines New York City

In an effort to understand this consumer trend, Mintel, the research firm, surveyed consumers on their snacking habits and found that salty snacks have become the new comfort food.

Three in five (62 percent) of consumers are eating salty snacks as a stress reliever, compared to 16 percent a year ago. What’s more, 30 percent eat salty snacks when they are bored, with half (51 percent) agreeing that salty snacking is a good way to relieve boredom compared to 25 percent who said this a year ago.

“Consumption of salty snacks is largely driven by emotion, including stress and boredom,” says Amanda Topper, senior food analyst at Mintel. “Consumers are looking for ways to manage their well being, and the impact of food on emotional and mental health is becoming more important.”

This is especially true for parents, the majority of whom say salty snacks relieve stress. “Not only do parents’ hectic lifestyles force them to snack while on the go, but the majority who buy salty snacks agree that snacking throughout the day is a healthy alternative to regular meals,” Topper says. “Brands that highlight health and wellness benefits can appeal to parents that are often buying snacks that can be consumed by themselves and their children.”

Parents are increasingly likely to snack on salty options while on the go (41 percent say they do this), at work (36 percent) and throughout the day (34 percent). Parents are more likely than non-parents to see snacking as a stress reliever (73 percent versus 55 percent).

Fifty-eight percent of parents say it’s healthier to snack throughout the day than eat regular meals (compared to 21 percent of non-parents).

As much as they like salty snacks, consumers aren’t any less interested in eating what’s good for them. Mintel found that three quarters (74 percent) of consumers are interested in healthier salty snacking options.

Three in five consumers (61 percent) say salty snacks have too many artificial ingredients, while four in five (79 percent) find it important to be able to recognize the ingredients in salty snacks.What’s more, 58 percent of salty snack purchasers agree that it is important to buy salty snacks that contain only a few ingredients.

But when it comes to snacks, nothing is more important than taste.

Three in five consumers agree that taste is more important than how healthy a salty snack is. A new flavor (38 percent) is the most influential purchasing factor for salty snackers, along with spicy flavor (30 percent) and limited-edition/seasonal flavor (22 percent).

Which is not to say that taste and health are polarizing Americans. Four in five (82 percent) agree that salty snacks can be both healthy and tasty.

“While consumers are concerned about ingredients and express interest in seeing healthier options on shelves, they still want to indulge, and flavor is a highly motivating factor. Brands that focus on products with bold, new flavors that incorporate simple ingredients will offer the best of both worlds to consumers,” says Topper.

For more information about healthy snack options for your New York City breakroom, contact your New York City vending partner  Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671 to discuss your customized break room solution.

The Healthy Snack Trend Continues in New York City

Think snacks have matured, with little in the way of innovation? Then you obviously haven’t been paying attention to the annual Natural Products Expo West show. Every year, new products are revealed…and trends identified. Following this year’s show – running from March 10-12 – Claire Nuttall, a specialist in breakthrough innovation in the food and drink, weighed in on the most unique introductions and ongoing trends.

Half-Popped Corn

Healthy Snacks in New York CityIs your favorite part of popcorn those crunchy bits typically found at the bottom of the bag? If so, you’re in luck. According to Nuttall, snack brands such as Mr.Popular and Half Pops, are introducing this half-popped variety. The thought behind this innovation is to combine the crunch of a tasty savory bite with the puffed corn texture. Also, there are several flavor combinations already available.

Null Hull Popcorn

There are many people who love the taste of popcorn, but can’t stand the hulls. Well, Null Hull popcorn promises to be “practically hulless.” Using black jewel corn, which is a smaller grain than typical popping corn and is black in appearance, creates a great white color when popped with no crispy outer hull. These will also available in several flavors available, such as regular, sea salt and cheddar.

Trail Mixes and Jerky Combo Packs

The combination of trail mix and jerky has been available for quite some time, but now producers are updating the product to offer an even better consumer experience. The problem with combining these products in the past has been the moisture migration between the jerky and trail mix pieces. Some manufacturers have started offering dual packs – with jerky in one pack and trail mix in the other – allowing the consumer to open and mix when ready to eat. Other suppliers are simply separating the jerky into a packet within the trail mix package. Regardless of the approach, both options are giving consumers a better tasting product.

Hemp

The overall hemp trend continues. There’s hemp rope, clothing, oil, lotion, shampoo…and now snacks. This was something that started gaining traction last year, but the momentum has only continued to grow. Today there are many new hemp snacks, with bars featuring hemp within or packets of flavored hemp offered as a standalone snack. Given the health benefits and growing popularity, this category is only predicted to get bigger in the years to come.

Wraps

More and more people are avoiding bread, and turning to new, carb-free wrap options. The varieties are seemingly endless, with wraps made of kale, basil, pure coconut, and turmeric. There are also Healthy Vending Machines New York Cityseveral brands now in this category, including Paleo, Blue Mountain Organics, Vito Coco and Nuco. The popularity of these wrap options is a further testament to the rapidly growing interest in healthier snacking options. The first into these categories showed promise in healthier snack options, but the many companies now entering the market show it’s a demand that can’t be ignored.

Interested in exploring some of these new options for your snack service? Contact Healthy Vending NY at 917.572.3671 and we’ll be happy to show you what’s available in New York City.

Research Points To Connection Between Chocolate And Improved Cognition

When most people think about following a healthy diet, chocolate usually isn’t top of mind. But research in the last several years points to an association between chocolate consumption and improved cognitive performance. The good news is that having a healthy work environment doesn’t require eliminating chocolate.

Researchers from the University of Maine and South Australia have found that chocolate is good for the memory and other cognitive skills. This is one of several studies finding an association between chocolate and good cognition.

According to the study published last month in the journal Appetite, people who ate chocolate at least once a week were “positively associated with cognitive performance, across a range of cognitive domains.”

healthy snack vending machines in New York City

More frequent chocolate consumption has long been associated with better performance on a number of tests of mental acuity, including visual-spatial memory and organization, working memory, scanning and tracking, and abstract reasoning.

As a person ages, their blood vessels become less flexible and less able expand to maintain smooth circulation. Cocoa flavanols – phytonutrients found in nature – are proven to help support healthy circulation by helping blood vessels stay flexible and expand as needed, even as a person ages.

Some studies suggest regular intake of cocoa flavanols has a beneficial effect on cognitive function, and possibly protects against normal age-related cognitive decline.

“The present findings support recent clinical trials suggesting that regular intake of cocoa flavanols may have a beneficial effect on cognitive function, and possibly protect against normal age-related cognitive decline,” the researchers concluded.

The study, which included about 1,000 people, could not specifically determine why chocolate does a brain good, but it suggested cocoa flavanols somehow are at play, as are methylxanthines, plant-produced compounds known to enhance a variety of bodily functions.

Other studies have found similar associations between chocolate and cognitive ability.

Scientists in 2012 found chocolate or cocoa powder containing higher amounts of cocoa flavanols can positively influence brain performance in healthy middle-aged individuals in a natural way. This was revealed in an independent study by Professors Andrew Scholey and Con Stough from the Center for Human Psychopharmacology at Swinburne University in Australia.

healthy vending machines in New York City

According to a paper published in the August New England Journal of Medicine, geniuses are more likely to eat lots of chocolate. Researcher Franz Messerli reported a correlation between a nation’s per capita chocolate consumption and the rate at which its citizens win Nobel Prizes. He reported a close, linear relationship between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million persons in a total of 23 countries.

All of these findings indicate that a healthy diet does not have to exclude chocolate. Nutritionists have long believed that a healthy diet is a balanced diet.

For more information about healthy snack and beverage options for your New York City breakroom, contact your vending partner, Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671 to discuss your customized break room solution.

How Fitness Leader Reebok Supports Employees’ Healthy Choices

Companies of all sizes today are moving towards offering healthier healthy beverage vending machines in New York Citychoices for their employees throughout New York City.
Some companies have gone to extensive lengths to provide employee wellness programs. Such measures include having nutritious foods and beverages in their break rooms, offering onsite exercise facilities, subsidizing health club memberships, and more.
Reebok, being a fitness company, decided it needed to go a step further in supporting a healthy work environment. The company went as far as sponsoring a national survey to understand how well informed consumers are about the food and beverage they consume.
The survey documented the lengths people will go to get their sugar fix, particularly when it comes to soda.

The survey found that many Americans don’t know what they’re consuming – especially when it comes to soda. In one of the more staggering stats, Reebok found that up to 40% cannot name even three ingredients in soda, including water.
Nearly 30% of the respondents said they would rather give up their pinky toe than soda, while 30% also said they would prefer to lose their jobs than kick the soda habit. They’re also willing to publicly embarrass themselves in the name of the can, with three out of five admitting to having belched or farted in public immediately after drinking soda.

healthy snack vending machines in New York City
The survey encouraged Reebok to remove soda at its global headquarters in Canton, Mass. this spring as part of a wider, drastic cut to products served at the Home of Fitness that contain added sugar.
“The goal for us here at Reebok is simple – to be the very best fitness brand in the world and to inspire everyone who touches our brand – consumers, fans, and employees – to reach their potential. And our mission starts right here, with our own people,” says Matt O’Toole, president of Reebok. “After seeing these survey results and hearing directly from many of our employees here, we felt removing sugary products from our HQ was simply the right thing to do.”
As a fitness company, O’Toole said Reebok knows how important it is to be active, but what people put in their bodies is equally important.
Reebok enlisted the help of its CrossFit One instructor, Austin Malleolo, to remove all of the old vending machines from its campus.

In addition to the removing sodas and sugary beverages, large candy bars, fried foods, white breads and pastas have been removed from the campus and replaced with whole foods such as nuts, fruits and vegetables.

At the beginning of 2015, Reebok issued a bold challenge to the world to “Be More Human” with a campaign that continued the global fitness brand’s mission to change how people perceive and experience fitness.
More than 85% of the company’s 1,000 employees now participate in some form of physical activity on a daily basis at the brand’s campus, which offers countless top-of-the range fitness facilities.
For more information about healthy snack and beverage options for your breakroom, contact your New York City vending partner, Healthy Vending at   to discuss your customized break room solution

Millennials And Boomers: Who Loves Snacks More in New York City?

Have you noticed more Millennials in the break room lately? If so, be sure there are plenty of snacks available because Millennials love their snacks. A workplace with a lot of Millennials needs a snack-filled break room.

If you happen to notice a lot of Baby Boomers in the break room, be extra sure there are plenty of snacks. Because when it comes to snacking — which is all the rage in the food industry today — Boomers eat ready-to-eat snack food 20 percent more often than Millennials, according to a daily tracking of U.S. consumers snacking habits by NPD group, a research company.

healthy snack vending machines in New York City

Boomers and Millennials are the two largest population groups.

Millennials overtook Boomers in number in 2015, but both generational groups are large. And both groups love their snacks. Baby Boomers have 1,200 ready-to-eat snacking occasions per year on average, representing a total of 90.4 billion snacking occasions per year, according to NPD. Millennials have about 1,000 snacking occasions per year, representing a total 83.1 billion snacking occasions.

Those are some pretty serious numbers.

The reasons why each of these generational groups snack are as different as their ages. Millennials reach for what is often a grab-and-go snack because they’re hungry. Boomers snack because they don’t want to prepare a big meal, and they eat alone more often than other age groups. Both groups choose their snacks based on taste and craving.

Fruit, chocolate candy/candy bars, and potato chips rank as the top three snack picks for Millennials and Boomers alike.

After the top three choices, the two groups take different paths, with Boomers reaching for nuts and yogurt while Millennials prefer tortilla chips and cookies.

Although Boomers hold the top score over Millennials in the frequency of ready-to-eat snack food consumption, they don’t come close when it comes to the amount of snacks they eat. Youngsters, ages 2 to 17, consume an average of 1,500 snacks per year, outpacing all other age groups.

Healthier snack foods rank highest with kids, particularly with 2- to 5-year olds, ages where parents primarily control what they’re eating. Sweet and savory snacks start to creep up in rank with older kids.

healthy snack vending machines in New York City

“Millennials gave us food trucks, food raves – what they want is a sense of community and they got that around food… They wake up every morning with the idea ‘you only live once’ (YOLO), so they are driving food trends and we need to be watching carefully what Millennials are eating, because that’s what is creating the trends,” said Phil Lempert, a food marketing and retail expert.

While it’s important to address the needs of all consumers, the Millennials bear special attention since their numbers are growing in New York City and throughout the country.

Jack Koerten, senior analyst at Euromonitor International, another researcher, says Millennials are approaching 44 million consumers in the U.S. and already have a lot of spending power.

“Snacking is an integral part of their week – they’re snacking and they’re snacking often,” Koerten said. Millennnials are even snacking during traditional meal times, unlike other age groups; 16.2% snack at dinner time while 16.6% snack at lunch.

While the differences between the two generations are interesting, snack availability is clearly important when catering to both Boomers and the Millennials in New York City and throughout the country.

For more information about healthy snack and beverage options for your breakroom, contact your New York City vending partner, Healthy Vending at 917.572.3671  to discuss your customized break room solution.

Obesity And Diabetes On The Rise Again; Employers Must Take Action in New York City

Business owners in New York City need to review the quality of healthy food vending machines in New York Citytheir employees’ wellness every year. This is important because employees are a business’s most important resource. The need is becoming especially important in light of some new statistics about obesity and its related problems.
Government and industry have invested untold billions in fighting obesity since the “Nation At Risk” report by the American Heart Association and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation warned about rising obesity more than a decade ago. After much education and health initiatives, obesity rates managed to level off in 2011. But that progress has been short-lived.
The obesity rate among U.S. adults in 2015 climbed to a new high of 28.0 %, up 2.5 percentage points since 2008. This represents an increase of about 6.1 million U.S. adults who are obese.
These results are based on more than 175,000 interviews conducted each year from 2013 to 2015 and more than 350,000 interviews conducted each year from 2008 to 2012 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
In addition to the 28.0% who are obese, another 35.6% of adults are classified as overweight, with 34.6% normal weight and 1.8% underweight.
As with obesity, diabetes generally has trended upward since 2008. The rates of both conditions declined slightly in 2011, only to see annual upticks in the years since.
Obesity and diabetes have increased for all races since 2008, though unevenly. Both rates have increased much more among whites than among blacks, Asians and Hispanics. Blacks have the highest obesity rate by far, followed by Hispanics.
Obese adults are about 4.7 times more likely to be diabetic compared with those who are normal weight, a probability that doesn’t vary significantly for individual racial or ethnic groups.
Research has demonstrated that obesity and its associated chronic conditions cost the U.S. economy $153 billion per year in unplanned absenteeism due to poor health.
Obesity affects all elements of well-being, not just physical wellness. It is associated, for example, with lower financial and social well-being. While obesity can diminish overall well-being, the relationship can also work in reverse; high well-being can reduce the chances of being obese. Those who have high well-being in five areas – purpose, social, financial, community and physical – are less likely to be or become obese.

healthy snack vending machines in New York City
Workplaces can develop interventions targeting the behaviors linked to obesity. While exercise and healthy eating are important factors, others include smoking, depression, food insecurity, not having a safe place to exercise, not having a personal doctor and poor dental habits.
Having an accountability partner who encourages healthy choices and learning new and interesting things daily also deters obesity.
It is also important to recognize those occupations that are most at risk for obesity, including transportation, manufacturing/production and installation/repair workers.
By addressing obesity on all relevant fronts, it is possible to reverse the upward trend and, in turn, decrease diabetes rates as well.
For more information about healthy snack and beverage options, contact your New York City refreshment services provider, Healthy Vending at  (917) 572.3671 to discuss your customized break room solution.