Todays Newsbites

Home cooking may not only stir warm and cozy memories of familiar foods coming from the kitchen - it could also be healthier for you than the modern trend of takeout, fast food and restaurant meals.

You may think the term "natural" on a food label connotes all kinds of positive attributes. To the US Food and Drug Administration, however, "natural" officially means almost nothing.

Americans are eating healthier - resulting in an estimated 1.1 million fewer premature deaths since 1999 - but still have a long way to go.

How you snack partly depends on when and where youre noshing. Savory snack consumption peaks at midday, according to the NPD Group market-research firm. The desire to reach for something sweet, on the other hand, grows after dinner and peaks at 8 p.m.; more than a third of sweet snacks are consumed after dinner.

Consuming "food porn" might encourage consumption of actual, high-calorie food. In a review of recent scientific findings, Oxford University researchers concluded that regular exposure to "virtual food" in advertisements, TV cooking programs and social media contributes to cravings for the non-virtual kind.

The good news is you might live longer than you expect. The bad news is that such inaccurate estimates could cause you to skip lifestyle changes that can make your remaining years healthier and more independent.

Products sold as "dietary supplements" lead to about 23,000 emergency-room visits and more than 2,100 hospital admissions every year, a new government report estimates.

That old joke about being on the "See-Food Diet" ("I see food… and I eat it") is no laughing matter, according to new research at Cornell University. Brian Wansink, PhD, and colleagues studied 210 kitchens and the women who use them.

Following concerns about antibiotics in meat and poultry, the next target in efforts to avoid drugs at the meat counter may be "beta-agonists." The drugs are used to add muscle weight to animals in the weeks before slaughter.

Adherents of the so-called "Paleo diet," which emphasizes meat and attempts to replicate what humans ate in the Paleolithic period, may want to set down their steaks long enough to say thanks for starchy carbs.