Todays Newsbites

Half a million lives could be saved over a 10-year period by steadily reducing

Comfort food may translate into high-calorie food when people perceive that times are tough

Say goodbye to pork butt.

If youre already worried about your weight and diet

People with celiac disease look-ing for gluten-free options

The term natural on food labels, already meaningless

Combining calorie counts with traffic-light

Nutrition experts have been warn- ing us to watch added sugars for at least a decade, but Americans are still struggling to follow that advice. Rachel Johnson, PhD, MPH, RD, of the Univer- sity of Vermont, incoming chair of the American Heart Associations nutrition committee, told a recent conference that Americans average 475 daily calories from added sugars. Thats far more than the AHAs recommended maximum of 100 daily calories from added sugars for women and 150 for men-and equivalent to a whopping 30 teaspoons a day. So we have a long way to go, Johnson told attendees at the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. Added sugars and solid fats total about 35% of the calories in the average diet, she added; the recommended maximum is 5%- 15%. To start scaling back on added sugars, Johnson advised simply avoiding sugary soft drinks, the source of about 36% of added sugars in the US diet. But dont worry about naturally occurring sugars, such as in milk or plain versions of cereal or yogurt, she said. Check the label to see if sugar in any form is listed among the ingredients.

Snoring may be more serious than just keeping your partner awake: A new study says that loud snorers are at nearly double the risk of develop- ing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms associated with diabetes and heart disease. University of Pittsburgh scientists studied 812 patients, ages 45-74, in an ongoing community heart- health study. Over three years, 14% developed meta- bolic syndrome. Those reporting loud snoring, diff- culty falling asleep and unsatisfying sleep were at much greater risk of met- abolic syndrome. Among a subset of 294 patients evalutaed for sleep apnea, however, only loud snoring remained signif- cantly associated with metabolic syndrome once the data were adjusted using the apnea- hypopnea index (AHI). Research- ers concluded that healthcare profes- sionals should consider common sleep problems as possible risk factors when assessing patients. It could also be that this is a case of reverse causation, since obesity- part of metabolic syndrome-can cause snoring and other sleep problems

The US food packagers are getting the whole-grains religion. The market-research organization Mintel predicts that 2010 will wind up being the biggest year ever for whole-grain product launches. Through the third quarter, new products with whole- grain label claims already totaled 651. The Mintel report credited the Whole Grains Councils stamp labeling program as a driving force in con- sumer awareness of whole-grain health benefts: Since the introduction of the Whole Grain Stamp in 2005, more than 3,700 new whole-grain food products have been introduced. The percentage of new products carrying a whole-grain label claim has jumped from 2.3% in 2005 to 5.6% in 2010. The trend is even stronger among foods boasting that theyre all- natural, with nearly one in fve also touting whole grains. (See our complete guide to cooking and using whole grains in this issues Special Supplement.)