Intake

The proportion of American adolescents who exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet and are free of risk factors for future heart disease is "alarmingly low," says a major new survey of teen health. The comprehensive five-year assessment of teens' health status warns that the "disconcertingly high" rate of poor health habits among the nation's youth "may contribute to unacceptably high rates of adult-onset cardiovascular disease" as this cohort matures into adulthood. The new survey , published Monday in the American Heart Assn.'s journal Circulation, culled data on teens from a yearly gauge of the nation's health called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES)

Federal officials are replacing the food pyramid with a full plate - and while experts say that the new approach is an imperfect solution, it's a vast improvement on the much-maligned My Pyramid. At a news conference Thursday morning, First Lady Michelle Obama, together with Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, unveiled the new icon, called My Plate. The plate features four labeled sections: two larger, equally sized sections representing vegetables and grains, and two smaller sections for fruit and protein.

Just as you were ready to tuck into a nice three-egg omelet again, comforted by the reassuring news that eggs are not so bad for you, here comes a study warning that for those over 40, the number of egg yolks consumed per week accelerates the thickening of arteries almost as severely as does cigarette smoking. Server, can you make that an egg-white omelet instead, please? The study, published Tuesday in the journal Atherosclerosis , measured the carotid wall thickness -- a key indicator of heart disease risk -- of 1,231 patients referred to a vascular prevention clinic, and asked each to detail a wide range of their health habits, from smoking and exercise to their consumption of egg yolks.

In 1842, the English writer Sydney Smith wrote, "Gout is the only enemy that I do not wish to have at my feet." Anyone who has suffered a painful attack of gouty arthritis would probably agree. Gout is the result of an imbalance between the production and excretion of urate, the metabolic end product of dietary purines that are found in abundance in animal proteins. If blood levels of urate rise high enough, the chemical can settle as crystallized deposits in joints.

Patients who have suffered from kidney stones are urged to drink lots of water to reduce the chances of future attacks. Now there is an electronic home test to help monitor hydration levels. The user places a drop of urine on the Hydrate 1 monitor, which measures the dilution of the urine. The monitor then displays the degree of risk of stone formation based on the concentration of salts and minerals in the urine, says Linda Groh, spokeswoman for the Mentor Corp., which makes the device.

If every "miracle" weight-loss product really did the job, people everywhere would be cinching up their belts, gyms would become eerily quiet and TV stations would soon run out of B-roll footage of big bellies at the mall. Clearly, some weight-loss products fall short of their claims. But how can you spot the scams? The Federal Trade Commission has some basic guidelines: Don't trust any product that claims to work for everyone or anything that supposedly helps you lose more than 2 pounds in a week.

Full-fat, low-fat or skim? Used to be, there weren't many choices to make over what to pour on your cereal. But the number of alternatives to cow's milk -- soy, goat's, hemp milk, more -- has steadily grown. Each has its fans: those who swear by goat's milk's creamy texture or who love almond milk's subtle, nutty flavor. But when it comes to nutrition, there's no clear winner. Cow's milk is a good source of protein but can be high in saturated fats. Hemp milk offers little protein but is rich in certain essential fatty acids.

The 2013 Shelby GT350 takes a standard Mustang GT and adds more than $40,000 in performance upgrades - bringing the whole package to about $74,000. That's a lot for a Mustang. But any doubts about spending Corvette money on the juiced-up Ford are erased after only moments in the GT350. This is a talented car. Key upgrades in the Shelby package include Wilwood brakes, a Ford Racing suspension, a short-throw shifter, Shelby 19-inch rims wrapped in ultra-sticky Goodyear tires and Borla exhaust, along with new front and rear bumpers and a new hood with a functional scoop.

Heavy drinkers who consume three or more servings of alcohol per day are at increased risk of a type of stroke called an intracerebral hemorrhage - and they're more likely to have that stroke at an earlier age than patients who don't drink, scientists reported Monday. Writing in the journal Neurology , researchers from the University of Lille Nord de France reported that on average, heavy drinkers were afflicted with intracerebral hemorrhage - which is caused by bleeding in the brain and has a more dire prognosis than more-common ischemic strokes, which are caused by clots in blood vessels - 14 years earlier than people who were not heavy drinkers.  People who drank a lot also were more likely to have a stroke deep in the brain, wrote neurologist Dr. Charlotte Cordonnier and colleagues.

People who cut down on added sugars in their diets lost an average of about 1.7 pounds - a result researchers called small but significant. The result was in a paper published online Tuesday in the British Medical Journal that analyzed 71 studies of sugar intake and weight. The World Health Organization recommended in 2003 that sugar intake be limited to 10% of calories; the agency commissioned this study as part of its intention to update its recommendation. The studies also showed that increasing consumption of added sugars led to gaining about 1 1/2 pounds, the researchers from the University of Otago and Riddet Institute in New Zealand wrote.