Todays Newsbites

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.

Eating foods high in omega-3 fats may aid oral health. Scientists reviewed 11 human studies (observational and trials) on omega-3 fat intake and periodontal (gum) disease.

Nearly one in eight US adults may have "masked" hypertension, says new research in American Journal of Epidemiology. Thats high blood pressure not found during checkups. It raises risk of stroke and premature death.

Too much sitting and too little exercise may speed biological aging by as much as 8 years, suggests an American Journal of Epidemiology study. A group of 1,481 women (average age, 79) from a nationally-representative sample wore motion sensors for one week.

You may not give much thought to adding a splash of cream and a spoonful of sugar to your coffee or tea, but these add-ins can add up in calories. A study published in Public Health aimed to figure out just how much.

If you expect healthy foods to cost more, you're not alone (although this isn't always true).

Setting specific limits on sugar intake can alarm groups that profit from sugar use. A recent study in Annals of Internal Medicine reviewed the evidence for limits on sugar intake advised by nine public health groups. The conclusion was that sugar intake guidelines are based on low-quality evidence.

Hearing loss increases with age, affecting 40 to 66% of adults over age 65 and 80% of adults over age 85. Scientists are exploring whether iron deficiency contributes to the problem. Using clinical data from electronic medical records of 305,339 young to elderly adults, scientists examined the relationship between hearing loss and iron deficiency anemia.

In its 2017 update to the Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, the American Diabetes Association included a new recommendation to assess the amount of fat and protein in meals, in addition to carbohydrate counting, to determine insulin dosing for people with type 1 diabetes on flexible insulin schedules.

About 1 in 6 Americans suffer a foodborne illness each year, often in their own homes, so safe food handling practices cant be overemphasized. Recently, scientists watched 100 episodes of cooking shows from 24 celebrity chefs preparing meat dishes and tracked the chefs food safety behaviors.