Sugar

As the palette of artificial sweeteners has grown and manufacturers have honed the skill with which they blend them to mimic sugar taste, debate has swirled around whether these sensory stand-ins really help people consume fewer calories and avoid weight gain. New research adds another dimension to the uncertainty: It suggests that even when artificial sweeteners fool the taste buds, they still don't fool the ultimate arbiter of our appetites -- our subconscious brains. The latest evidence for this comes from a brain scanning study performed in the Netherlands.

Contradicting unexpected findings released last week by American researchers, an Australian team Wednesday said it found no evidence that aggressive treatment of diabetes in patients with heart disease increased their risk of death. Physicians and patients were shocked by last week's announcement because it seemed to contradict a long-held tenet of diabetes treatment: that reducing blood glucose levels as much as possible improves health.

You can spot Dawn Wynne at the grocery store. She's one of those conscientious label readers busy studying cans, bottles and jars in aisle after aisle. But it's not calories, sodium or preservatives she is looking for. She is on patrol for high fructose corn syrup; it's an unadvertised part of sauces, cereal, candy and especially soda, and she wants none of it. The Redondo Beach resident looks for foods sweetened with "pure cane sugar, honey or fruit juice."

Tightly controlling the blood sugar levels of diabetics, even with the attendant risk of dangerously low levels of blood glucose, does not damage mental abilities, researchers have found. Patients did not suffer in tests of intelligence, memory, coordination, language and other mental abilities, they reported in the May 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "It certainly helps decrease a worry that I get asked about a lot," Dr.

Kellogg Co., the largest U.S. cereal maker, said it would stop marketing foods high in sugar, fat and calories to children under 12, avoiding a potential lawsuit from two consumer groups. Kellogg said in a statement Wednesday that it would make Honey Smacks cereal, Yogos fruit snacks and other products healthier by the end of 2008 or stop promoting them to kids through the use of cartoon characters such as Dig'em the frog.

Makers of sugar-free foods must tell consumers when their products aren't low-calorie or reduced in calories, U.S. regulators said. The Food and Drug Administration is "concerned about a number of products" advertised as sugar-free that don't bear the required disclaimer on calories, according to a letter to manufacturers posted on the agency's website. Consumers might erroneously assume that all products without sugar will help them lose weight, the FDA said.

Dress up your kids like Dracula or Frankenstein, and most likely they'll look more cute than scary. Let them eat too much candy, and they'll turn into real little monsters. That's the word, at least, from many parents who fear their trick-or-treaters' sweets success this Halloween will end in wild "sugar highs" -- with energy going through the roof -- followed by moody "sugar crashes" -- with that energy suddenly dropping through the floor.

Researchers have learned that rats overwhelmingly prefer water sweetened with saccharin to cocaine, a finding that demonstrates the addictive potential of sweets. Offering larger doses of cocaine did not alter the rats' preference for saccharin, according to the report. Scientists said the study, presented this week in San Diego at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, might help explain the rise in human obesity, which has been driven in part by an overconsumption of sugary foods.

First oil, now this: The price of raw sugar in New York futures markets reached a 24-year high Monday, as traders bet that near-record oil prices would mean increasing demand for alternative fuels, including ethanol made from sugar cane. Raw sugar prices have nearly doubled in the last year as Brazil, the biggest exporter of sugar, has converted more of its cane crop to cope with soaring gasoline prices. In Brazil, ethanol is cheaper than gasoline.

No one nagged or hounded. No one said, "Turn that TV/computer/video game off and go outside and play." No one took the chips away, locked down the vending machines, or foisted carrots and broccoli on anyone. With all the myriad theories about why children are getting fatter, researchers in Massachusetts focused on just one piece of the childhood obesity puzzle -- sugar-sweetened drinks.