Todays Newsbites

So much for the notion that Americans had hit "peak meat" and are beginning to eat less. After US meat consumption dropped in 2014, led by lower intake of red meat, some industry observers speculated that our taste for meat had topped out.

The longer the time between ordering food and expecting to eat it, the healthier that food tends to be. That's the finding of a trio of Carnegie Mellon University studies published in the Journal of Marketing Research.

A diet proven to protect against high blood pressure could also lower your risk of chronic kidney disease, according to a new observational study.

Does taxing sugary beverages really help cut consumption? A preliminary study of a tax of one cent per ounce enacted in Berkeley, Calif., in March 2015 suggests the answer is yes.

Americans are eating a little healthier than they were back in 1999, but the improvements are largest among upper-income households.

Half of US adults check the Nutrition Facts panel when deciding whether to buy a food product either "always" (16%) or "most of the time" (34%). In the 11th Health and Diet Survey conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, only 22% of respondents said they "rarely" (12%) or "never" (10%) consult nutrition labels.

Craving candy, chips and fast food? Maybe you're just bored. Two studies presented at a meeting of the British Psychological Society support previous research linking boredom to unhealthy eating habits.

Look for another option in low-calorie beverages now that the US Food and Drug Administration has okayed EverSweet. The agency issued a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) "no-objections" letter allowing maker Cargill to introduce the sweetener.

Everything old is new again when it comes to grains. Data from the market-research firm SPINS shows that sales of so-called "ancient grains" grew 16.6% year-over-year in 2016, reaching almost $200 million. The most common products boasting of their "ancient" ingredients were ready-to-eat cereals, bread and other baked goods, and pastas.

The World Health Organization has lifted a 25-year-old caution that coffee might cause cancer. Publishing their findings in The Lancet Oncology, WHO experts reviewed more than a thousand human and animal studies and concluded that coffee should no longer be classified as a possible carcinogen.