Diet

Was the American Beverage Assn. trying to defend sugary sodas when it said last week that they amounted to just 7% of the typical American's caloric intake? The association may have thought that sounded like very little, but it's actually a lot. For a person eating 2,000 calories a day - the level the federal government assumes in calculating nutritional requirements - consuming 7% fewer soda calories would theoretically lead to a loss of 14 pounds a year, with little if any loss of nutrients.

Anthem Blue Cross wants people to eat better. And to help its members make more healthful food choices, the insurance giant is sending out money-saving coupons. For ice cream. And processed sandwich meat. And mayonnaise. And canned vegetables. And, strangely, deodorant. The coupon campaign is being tested among thousands of Anthem members in California. If it proves popular, the coupons will probably be offered nationwide. "We want you to know that we're much more than just your health plan," the insurer declares in its letter accompanying the coupons.

Experts have some new weight-loss advice that's sure to be welcome news: Sleep can be just as important to a successful diet as healthful eating and exercise. “Chronic sleep restriction is pervasive in modern societies, and there is robust evidence supporting the role of reduced sleep as contributing to the current obesity epidemic,” write a pair of obesity experts in the new edition of the Canadian Medical Assn. Journal . That evidence includes findings that overtired brains prompt people to eat more, and that some hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism don't work properly in people who don't get enough sleep.

At first glance, it seems innocent enough that Diet Pepsi is tweaking its formula to stay sweet a little while longer. The soda's current sweetener -- aspartame -- loses its potency faster than high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener that's used in most regular sodas. To remedy that, PepsiCo is reportedly experimenting with other sweetener mixes. A new-and-improved version could be unveiled next year. The company told the Associated Press that it's "always looking at ways to provide the best consumer experience.

Lauren Conrad is best known for her starring turn on the MTV reality series "The Hills," but she also has multiple bestsellers to her credit. In addition to her TV work, she's the author of "The Fame Game" and the "L.A. Candy" series of novels. She's also a clothing designer who last year published the fashion guide "Lauren Conrad Style. " This October, she offers a companion guide, "Lauren Conrad Beauty" (HarperCollins: 288 pp.: $21.99, ages 14 and up), in which she teaches women of all ages how to be the best versions of themselves with tips on hair and skin care, diet, exercise and makeup.

Many people want to eat in a way that's good for their health and also good for the environment.  One does not necessarily translate to the other. For one thing, the word “sustainable” is easy to bandy about but involves a whole medley of considerations: greenhouse gas emissions, how and where a food was grown, how much water was used to grow it, from what distance it was shipped, how much goes to waste and how leftovers are disposed of, whether people can make a living producing it, and more.

The world is awash in diet and weight-loss advice disseminated on the Internet and TV and in books, magazines and Weight Watchers meetings. So Steve Cooksey's website hardly seems out of the ordinary. The food plan helped Cooksey lose 78 pounds and, he says, control his diabetes without medication. Yet the North Carolina-based blogger was flagged by a regulatory board in that state for answering readers' specific queries in a Dear Abby-style column and offering life coaching for a fee. North Carolina, like many other states, does not allow anyone to dispense nutritional advice - free or for pay - without a license.

What your kids watch on TV can affect how well they sleep, a new study suggests. Published in the journal Pediatrics , the study found that when parents intervened in their kids' media diet -- reducing exposure to violent and age-inappropriate content and replacing it with age-appropriate, educational and empathy-building content such as "Curious George,""Sesame Street" and "Dora the Explorer" -- the children had fewer sleep problems, less...

It's too late to lose that unwanted weight for summer. But if you start now - and aim to shed a modest 2 pounds a week - you could drop as much as 40 pounds in time to ring in 2013. The hardest part, however, might be choosing a new diet. This season's crop of cookbooks includes a whiplash-inducing array of advice. For every book urging you on to eat: More carbs! More protein! More fat! there's another seemingly well-reasoned argument to do the opposite. As if this isn't confusing enough, there's a new bogeyman on the diet scene: gluten.

Diets work. Even some of the most cockamamie diets work if you follow them. But as many serial dieters know, the trick is keeping the weight off after the wedding, or the high school reunion, or the motivating look in the dressing room mirror. I know - I really know - how hard it is to maintain weight loss. I've lost maybe 500 pounds in my lifetime. So I knew enough to be skeptical when I saw Jackie Warner's book "10 Pounds in 10 Days. " Of course, I didn't let that stop me. The diet industry exists because we fail, often again and again, at the hard work of a lifelong healthful diet and activity plan.