The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is hoping that taxing your patience at the vending machine will result in better decision-making when it comes to junk food. According to CNSNews.com, “A taxpayer funded study on dietary intervention strategies is focusing on finding the ‘optimum time delays to apply to unhealthy snacks’ in vending machines. ‘Time Over Money? A Novel System To Influence Snack Machine Choices’ is the title of a study being conducted by Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center that has received $240,007 in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).” The agency says, “This project tests whether a novel snack vending machine system that uses brief time delays to reduce the immediacy of reward from unhealthy snacks will improve the healthfulness of snack choices. … If successful, this project will identify a new environmental intervention that could contribute substantially to obesity and cardio-metabolic disease prevention efforts in schools, worksites, and other settings.” Michelle Obama’s meddling with school children’s lunch menus backfired, and now the government wants to make decisions for you at the vending machine. Haven’t we had enough of Big Brother intervening, unsolicitedly, on our behalf? More…