General Nutrition

Changes may be coming to the familiar Nutrition Facts panel on food packages. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just completed a public-comment period on a proposed study to test labeling changes with a randomly selected group of 3,600 consumers.

Turning off the TV might help you lose weight-but only a little, reports the first study to measure the effects of a TV reduction intervention in adults. Researchers spent three weeks observing the viewing habits of 36 volunteers, all overweight or obese. Then 20 randomly selected participants had their TVs fitted with a device that shut off the screen after theyd reached a weekly limit of half their previous viewing time. The other 16 served as a control group, watching all the TV they wanted.

Sugar producers may be celebrating and corn growers grumbling as softdrink companies turn to sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to sweeten their beverages-at least temporarily. Pepsi-Cola and Mountain Dew recently introduced Throwback soft drinks sweetened with sugar for a limited time only (the nostalgic promotion was scheduled to end Feb. 22). Some soft-drink fans swear the sugarsweetened sodas taste better, but are they also better for you? Chemically, both sugar and HFCS contain similar amounts of glucose and fructose.

New York City officials are leading the charge in a nationwide effort to reduce the amounts of salt in packaged and restaurant foods. The National Salt Reduction Initiative aims to cut such hidden salt-a major source of dietary sodium-by 25% over the next five years. New York is the first to enact the initiatives targets, with final approval expected this spring.

With Americans vegetable con- sumption dropping over the past decade, drinking your vegetables could help reach dietary goals. Thats the conclusion of a randomized trial funded in part, not surprisingly, by the makers of V8 vegetable juice. Scientists at the University of California-Davis assigned 90 volunteers to follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hyperten- sion (DASH) diet regimen while also consuming 0, 8 or 16 fuid ounces of vegetable juice daily. Despite being told to follow the DASH plan and receiving nutrition education, participants fell short of the goal of four daily servings of vegetables if not counting the juice. Across all groups, non-juice vegetable intake averaged 2.6 servings daily after 6 weeks and 2.3 servings after 12 weeks. But the groups also getting juice were able to close the gap. Researchers also looked at heart-health measures, which generally didnt change; pre- hypertensive participants, however, showed a signifcant decrease in blood pressure with higher vegetable and veg- etable juice intake. While eating whole vegetables remains preferable, research- ers concluded that juice is an effective and acceptable way for healthy adults to close the dietary vegetable gap.

Laboratory tests have revealed strik- ing variability in the active ingredi- ents in Chinese red yeast rice, a supple- ment touted as an alternative to statin drugs for improving cholesterol. Among 12 popular brands, levels of monacolin, which is related to the prescription cho- lesterol medication lovastatin, ranged from 0.31 mg to 11.15 mg per capsule. The type of monacolin (K) thats most similar to lovastatin varied from 0.10 mg to 10.09 mg per pill. Four samples also contained citrinin, which can dam- age the kidneys. Researchers noted that, as a dietary supplement rather than a drug, red yeast rice is largely unregulated and lacks the quality controls of pre- scription medications. Therefore, physi- cians should be cautious in recommend- ing red yeast rice to their patients. Long used in China, red yeast rice has recently soared in sales in the US, up 80% from 2005 to 2008.

A lpha-carotene, the often-overlooked cousin of more familiar beta-caro- tene, may help you live longer-and further explain the health benefts of eating vegetables and fruits. Researchers at the CDC, studying data on more than 15,000 adults from a national nutrition survey, report that people with the highest blood levels of alpha-carotene were 39% less likely to die from all causes over almost 14 years.

I f you want to eat a healthier diet, cut out the fat-right? Wrong, according to experts at the American Dietetic As- sociation (ADA) Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, in a panel on The Great Fat Debate. If you replace dietary fat, even saturated fat such as butter and whole milk, with sugar and other carbohydrates, you could actually be increas- ing your risk of heart disease.

C ould a couple of glasses of tomato juice help you avoid osteoporosis? Thats the suggestion of a small new study at the University of Toronto that found lycopene-an an- tioxidant carotenoid that helps give tomatoes and some fruits their red color-reduces oxidative stress and bone resorption linked to osteoporosis.

I f you remember the great saccharin scare of the late 1970s, it may come as a sweet surprise to learn that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed the artifcial sweetener from its list of hazard- ous substances. The switch clears the last offcial blemish from saccharins reputa- tion, with the FDA having given it an OK in 2000. Following studies linking saccharin with cancer in rats, the EPAs Carcinogen Assessment Group listed the sweetener as a possible human carcinogen in 1980. Now, in response to a petition from an artifcial- sweetener trade group, the agency has reversed that listing, saying theres insuffcient evidence that saccharin causes cancer in humans. Although not as popular in the US in part because of lingering can- cer fears, inexpensive saccharin remains the largest-volume artifcial sweetener in the world, primarily used in Asia.