Todays Newsbites

What nutritionists think is healthy and what the average American considers good for you don't always align, according to a Morning Consult survey for the New York Times. The survey asked 2,000 ordinary Americans and 672 members of the American Society for Nutrition to rate the healthfulness of 52 foods.

Come January, Philadelphia will be the first major US city to tax sodas and other sweetened beverages. The city council rebuffed a multi-million-dollar lobbying effort by the beverage industry in passing the tax, which will add about 50 cents a liter to the cost of sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks and sweetened coffees and teas.

Scientists who succeeded in sequencing the genome of carrots have identified the gene, dubbed DCAR_032551, responsible for carotenoids, which make carrots and other produce orange and provide humans with vitamin A.

Is an avocado healthier than a sugary bowl of raisin bran? Not according to the FDA's labeling rules for "healthy" foods, which the agency recently announced it would review.

Only 1 in 16 Americans manages all five healthy lifestyle factors considered most important to warding off chronic disease, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After a two-year review period, the US Food and Drug Administration formally adopted changes to the Nutrition Facts panels that appear on some 800,000 food products. The updated labels will be required on products by July 26, 2018, except for small producers who will get an extra year to comply.

Here's another reason besides blood pressure to hold the salt: New Australian research says salt causes you to eat more food and consume more calories. Researchers tested four different combinations of macaroni and sauce on 48 volunteers, mixing high- and low-salt choices with high- and low-fat.

If you're dining alone, you're in great company. New consumer research by the Hartman Group says that eating alone is "the new normal," as American increasingly ditch sit-down family meals for continuous snacking and "ad hoc" eating behavior.

Worried about drinking enough water? Our Special Report on hydration in the June newsletter should help. And there's also this update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published just after we went to press: Most Americans are getting roughly enough fluids, though only about a third comes in the healthiest form of plain water.

Even just walking to the bus stop or train station might help commuters control their weight, according to a large British study.