You shouldn’t buy food from the office vending machine - here’s why

Office vending machines offer workers a guilty mid-morning or mid-afternoon pleasure – but a new study has shown off just how guilty those pleasures really are.

Even supposedly ‘healthy’ options – such as muesli bars – tend to be shockingly high in calories, and overall, 95% of snacks on offer are unhealthy, say University of Sydney researchers.

Researchers looked at the contents of vending machines on 61 student campuses – and found that there were 29,000 unhealthy snacks on offer, and just 1,570 healthy ones.

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On average, the snacks on sale in the vending machines had 400 calories – whereas a healthy snack clocks in closer to the 100 mark.

Researcher Amanda Grech said, ‘Unhealthy vending machines contribute to excess energy or kilojoule intake over time, and this is a big factor in contributing to weight gain.

‘As an example, a typical snack from these vending machines is around 1,800 kilojoules, which is around three times the number of kilojoules we recommend for a snack.

‘Seventy-one per cent of snack vending machines had advertisements for chips on them, and 56 per cent of drink vending machines advertised soft drinks, putting these options front of mind for students.’