YoNaturals School Vending Machines

The transition of the teenage years takes a toll on many parents and teens alike. Sometimes the relationships between parents and teens are so strained that it becomes difficult to talk about even the simplest of subjects. However, it is important for parents to broach the subject of healthy eating, whether their teens like it or not. In high school, teenagers begin spending an increasing amount of time away from home and out of their parents’ sight. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, teens will go to a local fast food restaurant to meet up with their friends and bond over foods that are loaded down with fat, sugar, and calories. As you might have guessed, this can be bad news for their growing bodies.

In fact, a teenager’s need for iron and calcium actually increases as they enter the 13 to 19 age bracket. Especially when their bodies are going through puberty, teens require more of these two important nutrients to simply keep up with their bodies’ demands. This is especially true for teenage girls, many of whom are at an increased risk for iron and calcium deficiencies. However, parents should emphasize the need for iron-rich and calcium-rich foods to both their sons and daughters, as both play vital roles in the body’s daily functions. In fact, nutritional deficiencies during the teenage years have been linked to problems that occur later in life.

With the guidance of their parents, teens are capable of maintaining healthy diets on their own. In fact, it is important for parents to allow their teens to make some of their own dietary decisions. For most parents, their child’s teenage years are the last few that will be spent under the same roof, and it will be important for teens to be able to make choices for themselves once they are moved out of their childhood home. Perhaps one of the most basic ideas to emphasize is the importance of variety. It is easiest to meet diverse nutrient needs when choosing foods from all of the different food groups. Also, make sure that your child knows that while taking a daily multivitamin can be a useful supplement to a well-balanced diet, it should never be used as the sole source of a nutrient. Educating your teen on healthy eating habits now will continue to benefit them throughout their adult years.

Finally, encourage them to eat healthy snacks, even when you’re not around, by emphasizing the healthful qualities of YoNaturals vending machine snacks. A few simple acts now and you’ll be setting them on the path to maintaining good health and nutrition for their entire lifetime.

Even though many parents realize that childhood obesity is a serious medical condition and a risk to a child’s health and longevity, they fail to recognize the problem when it presents itself in their own offspring. In a recent poll of 2600 Americans (approximately 2/3 of which were parents), researchers discovered a “stark mismatch” between a child’s weight problem and a parent’s ability to recognize it.

In the poll, parents were asked to report the height and weight of their oldest child so that researchers could calculate their child’s body mass index (BMI). In order to meet the threshold of being considered obese, the child had to have a BMI that fell in the 95 to 100 percentile range for their age and gender. Children were classified as overweight if they fell into the 85 to 94 percentile range. On these grounds, the scientists discovered that a full quarter of the children aged 6 to 17 could be classified as overweight or obese as defined by the parameters of the study.

When questioned, many parents did were not able to recognize the fact that their own child had a weight problem, although the parents of teenagers were more likely to do so than the parents of adolescents and preteens. Despite this finding, 84% of parents also indicated that they want their child’s physician to address the issue of obesity during their regular checkups. This would indicate that most parents are at least somewhat open to receiving more advice and guidance on helping their child eat better and become more physically fit.

As with most things in life, the first step to resolving a problem is recognizing that you have one. Although educational organizations are undertaking measures to cut back on the availability of sugary drinks and fat-filled junk foods in the public school systems, it is also critical for a parent to be aware of their child’s weight issues and be able to address them at home too.

In order to do this, parents will have to become better acquainted with what is considered an appropriate (read: healthy) weight for their child’s height and gender.
After recognizing the problem, the next step is to take action to correct it. Both the CDC and the USDA can be useful resources when seeking more information about childhood obesity in the United States, but also ask questions of your child’s physician. Few people will be more in tune to your child’s special health requirements than you and your child’s doctor. Finally, start encouraging better eating habits for your entire family by choosing healthier snacks to fill their tummies. By simply opting for snacks from YoNaturals vending machines, you will demonstrate that you not only recognize the problem, but you also recognize the solution.

Author: Laura Rayburn

When you are pregnant, you have a natural need to adjust your diet to meet your body’s new nutritional needs. Even if you have previously maintained a healthy and well-balanced diet, there are usually some adjustments that need to be made in order to make sure that your body is getting all of the extra calories that it will need to maintain your energy levels and to make sure that your growing child is getting all of the vitamins and minerals that it will need to grow strong.

Junk food cravings are just one of the many things that a woman has to deal with when she is pregnant. Although your taste buds may be demanding more sugary sweet processed foods, it is better for you and your child to refrain from indulging them too often. Junk food provides very little nutrition and mostly empty calories. And even though your caloric needs will increase while you are with child, you probably won’t need to increase your daily caloric intake by more than 300 or so extra calories per day.
However, junk food isn’t the only thing that expectant mothers should be avoiding. Raw seafood, including oysters and uncooked sushi, along with unpasteurized dairy, soft cheeses, and undercooked meats are all on the list of foods that are off-limits to mothers to be. And not without good reason, all of these foods are potential vectors for the transmission of bacteria from your plate to your body, and an infection could pose a threat to you and to the health of your child. Also, due to the potential for mercury poisoning, expectant mothers should limit their intake of cooked fish as well to no more than about two servings per week.

Furthermore, as a mother to be, it is important to sit down with your health care provider and go over any questions that you may have concerning your diet. With your physician’s help, you can make sure that your body and your child are getting all of the minerals and vitamins that they will need to get through the entire gestation period. This is a particularly important step for vegans, vegetarians, and other women who are already limited in the foods that they can consume.

Beyond simply knowing what to eat, it is good to know when to eat as well. Even though your body may be in turmoil from all of the nausea, heartburn, and other digestive issues that usually accompany pregnancy, make sure to stick to the diet that your doctor prescribes. Although you may not be hungry, you can be certain that your child needs the sustenance.

Finally, it’s important to remember your dietary needs even when you leave your house or apartment. Just because you are not standing in the comfort of your own kitchen does not mean that your unborn child’s nutritional needs have changed. Make sure that you are still eating a healthy diet when you are away from your home by choosing your snacks from YoNaturals vending machines. By simply making this one choice you can ensure that your body and your baby are getting the nutrition that they need for the duration of your pregnancy.

Life is hectic. There are always things popping up where nothing should be, small disasters that have to be dealt with, or larger, more emotional traumas that seem to knock the wind out of us while the rest of the world continues on its way, blissfully unaware of our struggles. With this many variables in everyone’s lives, it should come as little surprise that humans tend to get overwhelmed by the little things and stop taking time for themselves. Little do most people know, they can be taking care of themselves every time they have a meal, if they make sure to include fresh fruits and vegetables on their plates. Eating healthfully is a great way to ensure that your day goes as smoothly as possible because a healthy meal will keep your mind and your attention sharp so you will be able to accomplish more and feel better than if you had eaten fatty chips or sugary chocolate instead.

Yes of course it is tricky to keep yourself eating healthfully when life gets so hectic that you have those days where all you want to do is crawl under the covers and stay in bed all day. However, humans aren’t meant to work that way – we have a certain need to stay busy and, if we’re lucky, to distract ourselves from those incidents that are stressing us out until we are more clear-minded and better able to deal with them. Making sure our bodies are well-fueled is a great way to do just that. Yes it is tricky to be good when you’re running from a stressful conversation with your significant other, furtively spoken on your cell phone, to a meeting that you may be underprepared for. All you have time to do is to run for the vending machine. If you are luck your workplace may stock YoNaturals vending machines, giving you a choice or organic fruit juices and organic snacks. However, most of us have to contend with potato chips and candy bars as our only vending machine options, so our diets are sabotaged because we didn’t think ahead enough to pack some apples as snacks.

Just make sure you pack yourself fruits and vegetables to take with you to work, or to give your kids for school, and you can rest assured that your body will thank you for it each time you take a juicy bite of apple or crunch on a sweet carrot stick.

Jessica Vachal

The challenges facing kids these days are vast and they are harder struggles than many current-day adults had to face as children. One of the biggest culprits of child teasing and childhood anguish is weight gain. This is a problem that is grown significantly over the past few decades, and has reached a proportion in the United States that is positively heart breaking. It is an incredibly frustrating turn on events too, as is it so comparatively easy to reverse the negative effects that lifestyles can have on transforming potentially healthy and happy children into overweight and health-problem-addled children. The fact is, however, that the adults on whom this responsibility falls seem to have little desire to want to take on the challenge. And perhaps that is not fair – perhaps the challenge just seems so daunting that it is hard to know where to begin with such a task. The key is to start small.

Realize that making it a point to eat fruits and vegetables is a huge step in the right direction, and is something that ought to be focused on with the greatest of intentions. You do not have to force children into eating tiny amounts of calories per day or to join gyms and work out for hours. Children have a tendency to burn off enough calories in their everyday excitable lives if they are given the proper motivations. Allow your children to run around with the other children and limit the time they can spend indoors watching television or playing video games. Also encourage fruits and vegetables to be eaten at every meal.

Some parents even get the added benefit of having YoNaturals vending machines available at their children’s schools. These machines, with their options of organic fruit juices and organic snacks, are an ideal replacement for those vending machines that offer only potato chips and chocolate candies. The options included herein are the sort of healthy foods that children need to learn to be consuming. The key however, of course, is that said children need to learn these healthy eating habits, and that responsibility – again – falls on parents. Yet, if you love your children as much as all parents do, then wanting to give your children the tools to lead the healthiest and happiest lives possible should be the easiest thing in the world. So start small – serve fresh fruits for dessert instead of ice cream and encourage an extra serving of peas and carrots with dinner.

Although the main focus seems to be on healthy eating for children, we cannot ignore the adults. One reason we need to include the adults is because the eating habits of the adults affect the children. It’s essential for the adults to set an example for the children by eating foods that are healthy and well-balanced. Children learn by example, so if you want your children to learn healthy eating habits you must set the example. The body needs proper nutrition in order for the immune system to remain strong to fight off diseases and illnesses.

One of the problems that seem prevalent is the lack of understanding concerning the importance of healthy eating. Just eating three meals a day may not necessarily provide the nutrition you need in order to maintain a healthy immune system. It’s essential for the body to have the right about of vitamins and minerals, preferably in natural for from foods we eat. Although we can certainly supplement some of the vitamins and minerals we lack, dietary supplements should not be the major source of vitamins and minerals. In fact, some vitamins work better when they are consumed in natural form.

In addition to vitamins and minerals, you also need to eat healthy in order to avoid unhealthy substances such as cholesterol and saturated fats. The less of these substances that enter the body the more likely you are to maintain a healthy body and weight. One key to remaining healthy is keeping your cholesterol level low thus reducing your chance of a heart attack or stroke. Keeping your weight under control means the heart doesn’t have to work at hard to pump blood through the veins. All of these go into the making of a healthy body and if healthy eating habits begin in childhood, there is less likelihood you will have health problems as an adult.

Sometimes no matter how much we try to provide healthy snacks for our children, once they begin school it seems to end because of the unhealthy snacks that seem to flow through the schools. If schools would choose vendors such as School Healthy Vending that provide organic and nutritious snacks, the children would continue to have healthy snacks throughout their day. The effort to begin teaching healthy eating early in life is essential if our children are going to grow from a healthy child to a healthy adult. Building a healthy immune system with healthy eating is the first place to start, but it shouldn’t eat there. The immune system builds healthy cells to fight infection, but we need to also eat healthy to keep the organs of our bodies in proper working order to prevent diseases and illnesses that may cause us to succumb to poor health.

Author: Jessica Vachal

Leading a healthy lifestyle can undoubtedly be a daunting task at times. There are those nights when you are so tired from a full day of work that the last thing you want to think about is preparing meal that will be healthy and filling, when all you want to do is what’s easier. Whether that involves eating crackers from the box or stopping by a fast food restaurant on your way home from the office, neither choice is the best option for you if you are trying to maintain a healthy weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Of course, the occasional splurge is not so bad – everyone has to indulge sometimes. Yet, if you are indulging due to stress and anxiety, then you are not going to enjoy that occasional fatty treat, and besides that fact, the “Treat” may become more of a standard procedure if you are not careful!

The point is, the easy way out is often the one most humans will pick – it gets the job done, and we have many other things in our increasingly hectic lives to worry about. However, if we are going to be dedicated to our healthy lifestyle goals, then we have to make sure that we take the proper precautions to consume the healthiest foods and do our best to combat the cravings for the unhealthy foods that we see advertised all over the place.

Packing snacks is a very healthy way to start your healthful eating goals – if you have carrot sticks and apple slices on hand, you are going to be much less likely to indulge in your craving for French fries, or hit up the vending machine to get a candy bar on your way out of the office for the evening. Granted, should your work space offer a YoNaturals vending machine, you will have nothing to worry about! The organic fruit juices and organic snacks offered within these vending machines are the sort of healthy foods we should be eating everyday. However, for others the only vending machine options are potato chips and sodas, and these snacks are going to do nothing but derail a healthy diet.

So do yourself a favor and pack some snacks, make sure your breakfast, lunch and dinner all boast at least some fruits or vegetables if not a combination of both. You don’t have to sit down to a meal of only vegetables and a dessert of only fruits, but you will be surprised at how much you start to enjoy these healthy eating habits, once you get into them!

Author: Laura Rayburn

Despite the bad press that carbohydrates get, they do in fact play a starring role on the dietary stage. The key to incorporating them into a healthful diet is to seek out the “good” carbs while avoiding the “bad” ones. And the choice here is sometimes just as obvious as choosing between a piece of white bread and a piece of whole wheat. That is, with a little information in hand, it’s not a hard feat to accomplish.

Most likely, if you are a health-conscious person, then you are already making good decisions regarding carbohydrates, since they are found abundantly as simple sugars and starches in most people’s pantries. In fact, Atkin’s dieter or not, if you have any fruits, vegetables, grains, rice, or cereals in your home, then you are also housing the carbohydrates found within these products.

That said, there is a reason that many people have had success by eliminating carbohydrates from their diets. All carbs are not the same. Foods that are made up of mostly simple sugars and highly refined grains are easily broken down and cause the eater’s blood sugar to spike rapidly, which can lead to long term health problems. On the other hand, the human body takes a much longer time to break down complex carbohydrates, which means that they will cause your blood sugar level to rise much more slowly.

However, eliminating simple sugars from your diet is not as simple as it sounds. For example, many of the fruits in your grocer’s produce section have them, and fruits provide many health benefits that outweigh the fact that they do contain simple sugars. And besides the fruit, it is just not a good idea to eliminate any nutrient from your diet for an extended period of time. Many people don’t think about this, but banishing carbohydrates from your pantry means saying sayonara to things like brown rice, veggies, and dairy as well, all of which play vital roles in many healthy and balanced diets.

Now, being carb-aware is only half the battle. The other half is being able to apply your knowledge to your every day dietary decisions. Even the most well-intentioned person can be foiled by a simple hunger pang when they are away from their home. And it is very, very easy to make the wrong decision when you are faced with a vending machine that is full of them, especially when the nutrition information is hardly ever visible from outside their glass cases. The best thing to do in a situation like this is to make your selections from YoNaturals vending machines. These health food vending machines are sure to provide you a snack that will work with your diet, and not against it, whether you are on a anti-carb crusade or not.

This article was written for Mark Trotter by Louanne Cox on behalf of YoNaturals franchises in San Diego, California.

It’s practically impossible to keep up with the latest news regarding our health and which steps to take and which steps to avoid, as yesterdays steps to take inevitably turn into today’s steps to avoid. Some nutritional and health concepts become flat out trendy, at least until the next study results are released or the next fad diet comes out. Those of you who haven’t had a carb in months know what I’m talking about. “Antioxidant” has certainly become a buzzword, as has “homocysteine”. But do you really know how to decipher what each means when say, they’re overused or abused for marketing purposes? Here’s a brief breakdown so you don’t fall prey to wallet-damaging scare tactics.

Antioxidants are nutrients that protect the body from oxidative damage, which is a leading factor in diseases associated with aging. Free radicals are the result of oxidative damage and they lead to various disease and deterioration. Antioxidants disarm free radicals, thus minimizing their damage while boosting the immune system. Taking antioxidant supplements can prolong your life; however it’s best to take them together rather than supplementing one at a time. For example, beta-carotene on its own can increase cancer risk in smokers but with other antioxidants actually has an anti-cancer effect.

Homocysteine is a protein produced by the amino acid methionine and found in the body. Our body converts it into either glutathione or SAMe, both of which are beneficial to the body. However, if we don’t get enough B vitamins to facilitate the conversion, the level of homocysteine gets too high and can lead to numerous debilitating diseases including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s and can cause damage to your brain and DNA.

Antioxidants increase the intracellular glutathione unless the homocysteine is not able to be converted.

Incorporate antioxidants while encouraging low homocysteine levels by eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, minimizing meat and taking an antioxidant and B-complex supplement.

Doesn’t this sound like the advice your mother gave you? Half of nutritional deficiencies could likely be solved by following these simple instructions: eat your fruits and veggies! YoNaturals wishes you a lifetime of healthy eating.

Exercise is very commonly seen as a precursor to sex appeal, and in a very large sense this is a true thought process, as the ideas of beauty that we see on television and in movies all revolve around thin, toned bodies. We all want to go to the gym hoping that we will end up looking like a Baywatch babe or a Herculean man. Most of us won’t end up looking like that, but not just because we are eating full meals on top of our exercise, and we like to splurge every once in a while on ice cream sundaes. Most of us won’t end up looking like that because we will quit working out before we have the chance to sculpt our bodies into those dream-like formations. We at Yo Naturals would like to encourage you to stick to your workout regimen.

The fact is most of those actors and actresses work out for hours every day, in a schedule that no one with a real job, and responsibilities, and a life could possibly keep up with. Those men and women are paid to look as good as they do, and most of us feel that they are well worth the money we pay for a ticket to the movies, but we must also understand that we cannot compare ourselves to those extreme levels of “beauty.” We are all beautiful in doing the things that make us each unique, but one of those things ought to be keeping our bodies in the best shape that we can, so that we can continue to live our healthy and productive lives for as long as possible.

That is the key when it comes to exercise; you have to have some reason to keep doing it - for most people that reason is to try to attain a perfect body. This is not a horrible goal; so long as you keep in mind that you are striving to become the most perfect you that you can be, not some outside definition of perfection. Though if this hope keeps you working out your heart and your muscles every day, then that is a worthwhile goal. Consistency is the key when it comes to exercise, and that is the hardest thing for people to accomplish – setting a goal and sticking with it every day.

So see what you can do about getting yourself to the gym or outside to take a walk in the park, at least five times a week, if not every day. You can rest assured that you will come to enjoy yourself, and you will start to look better too, not only to yourself, but to all those who see you.

Written by Jessica Vachal for Yo Naturals vending machine business.