Todays Newsbites

Sitting down to a home-cooked meal with the whole family is increasingly a thing of the past, according to a report from the trend-watching Hartman Group.

A new survey finds 84% of US consumers say they sometimes buy organic foods, and 45% buy organic at least once a month. But the survey of 1,016 adults, conducted by Opinion Research Corp. for Consumer Reports, also turned up some consumer confusion over what exactly that USDA organic certification means. Fewer than half, for example, knew that the organic seal on poultry or eggs means that the chickens went outdoors and had a certain minimum amount of living space. (Nearly two-thirds, however, thought organic should signify such requirements.) And 20% reported buying organic fish, even though the USDA has no such standard; nearly all (92%) said the agency should have guidelines for organic fish.

Were not exactly winning the war on foodborne illnesses, but at least last year we battled to a draw. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rates for illness and hospital admissions in 2013 were down marginally from 2012. Deaths were up slightly, based on laboratory-confirmed infections caused by nine pathogens at 10 US sampling sites. Looking at specific pathogens, salmonella cases were down but still accounted for the most infections; only campylobacter, mostly from poultry and raw milk, came close. The sharpest increase, though still a small percentage of total cases, came from vibrio, a bacterium found in raw shellfish such as oysters; warmer coastal waters may be to blame, CDC experts said.

Even as larger restaurant chains are adding calorie labels to their menus, as required by the Affordable Care Act, a review of the evidence cautions that those numbers alone may not change consumer behavior. The review of 31 studies, published in the Journal of Community Health, concluded that the best-designed studies show that calorie labels do not have the desired effect in reducing total calories ordered. Women, dieters and upper-income diners paid the most attention to restaurant calorie numbers, but overall the impact was negligible. It may be the case that calorie labeling alone is not sufficient to modify consumer behavior in the desired direction, researchers wrote. Other presentation formats, including color coding, physical activity equivalents and healthy logos or traffic lights, might prove more successful, they added.

Its true of ice cream and rice cakes, but people tend to generalize such associations of mouthfeel and calories to all foods: Soft and creamy foods that melt in your mouth have more calories than foods that are crunchy and rough-or so we assume, according to a new study. Researchers reported the results of five laboratory studies in the Journal of Consumer Research, comparing, for example, how many calories subjects estimated were in hard versus soft brownies. Foods that were hard, crunchy or had a rough texture were generally rated as lower in calories than choices that were smooth and required less chewing. Surprisingly, participants overestimated calorie counts of all the foods, but guesses for soft and creamy foods were even further inflated.

Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, has been appointed dean of Tufts Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the only graduate school of nutrition in the US. Dr. Mozaffarian has been an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he is co-founder and co-director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology. He is also an associate professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens Hospital.

Participants in a recently announced nationwide study wont get to eat chocolate candy in the name of science, but they will be testing the cocoa flavanols thought to give dark chocolate heart-healthy properties. The four-year study will give participants either a placebo or flavorless capsules containing doses of cocoa flavanols higher than could be easily obtained by eating chocolate. It will be by far the largest trial of the chocolate compounds, which previous findings have…

Plans to become more active once people have greater free time after retirement may be just that, according to a new British study. Among 3,334 men and women followed over about 10 years, those who retired during the study period showed significant declines in physical activity compared to their working years. All were employed at the studys start, but 785 subsequently retired. Researchers measured physical activity in metabolic equivalents (METS); mowing the lawn, for example,…

When the US Food and Drug Administration began requiring trans fat amounts to be listed on Nutrition Facts labels in 2006, it left what some regard as a loophole: Products containing trans fat with less than 0.5 grams per serving could nonetheless be labeled 0 g trans fat. Crunching the numbers on a database of 130,000 branded and private-label food products, however, revealed that concerns about heart-unhealthy trans fat lurking under that 0 grams label…

The largest study of its kind reports that married people are less likely to suffer from a range of cardiovascular problems, from heart disease to stroke to circulatory issues. In an analysis of data on more than 3.5 million Americans, average age 64, whod undergone health screenings by a private company, married people were 5% less likely to have cardiovascular problems than singles. Compared to married participants, widowed people were at 3% greater risk and divorced people at 5% more risk. The correlation between marital status and cardiovascular health was strongest for those under age 50.