Todays Newsbites

Exercise that stresses your bones (weight-bearing exercise, such as walking or tennis) can help preserve bone mass as you age. But, how?

One in three US adults has prediabetes. Delaying or preventing progression to type 2 diabetes through dietary and lifestyle changes could help keep money in your pocket (and protect your health), finds a study published in Population Health Management.

Theres no need to shun the sugars in whole fruits. In a study of 4,908 Australians, those with dietary patterns characterized by higher intakes of fruit were 12% less likely to be obese than those with lower fruit intakes. But, people who had a diet higher in sugary soft drinks and chocolate were about 9% more likely to be obese.

Dislike healthy foods like legumes (beans)? Maybe you just haven't eaten them enough. "A primary factor that determines whether people like a food or not is their previous exposure to the food - in other words, if it's a regular part of their diet," says Megan McCrory, PhD, a clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University and senior author of a new study on the topic in the journal Foods.

Eating five servings a day of fruits and vegetables is good, but 10 may be even better for your heart, according to a recent analysis of 95 observational studies.

Getting more physically fit may help reduce risk of dying prematurely. Researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, followed 10,854 men and women (average age, 54) who had completed two doctor-ordered exercise stress tests at least 12 months apart.

You may be unduly swayed to buy packaged snacks when they carry claims about added vitamins, suggests a new study. A total of 5,076 randomly-selected US adults assessed snack food packages online. When a snack had a claim that it was a good source of a vitamin, the people were significantly less likely to check the Nutrition Facts label and were more likely to choose the snack than when the same product lacked the claim.

To decrease risk of hypertension, we're commonly advised to limit sodium (salt). Increasing dietary intake of potassium is just as important.

Eating healthy and saving money may be easier if you don your apron. In a cross-sectional survey of 437 Seattle households, cooking at home more often was associated with a higher-quality dietary pattern, based on criteria in the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Sugar-free sweet drinks might seem like a win-win, but scientists are still figuring out how the body responds to them. Recently, 21 healthy-weight young adults were fed a standardized lunch along with either 12 ounces of a sugar-sweetened beverage or one with the artificial sweetener sucralose, made to look and taste the same.