The Morning Scoop: Surprisingly Sugary Foods, Dancer Speaks Out After Boston Attacks and More!

Sugar can hide in the most interesting places -- like spaghetti sauce. See other foods where the super-sweet culprit lurks. [POPSUGAR Fitness]

A dance instructor who lost her left foot in the Boston attacks last week not only vows to dance again but to run the marathon as well. We're so inspired! [Boston Herald]

Ready for an LOL? Check out this "dramatic reading" of the now-infamous sorority girl's letter to her chapter. [Funny or Die]

New York City wants to ban cigarette sales to individuals under 21 in a bill first introduced yesterday by the City Council. We're curious to see how this unfolds. [Reuters]

Are you always honest with your doctor? You should be! Here, some explanation as to why we fib to our MDs. [NY Times]

In totally over-the-top news, Zac Posen has created a dress made of 24-karat gold leaf. It's worth $1.5 million. [Refinery 29]

Image Credit: Gourmet/Romulo Yanes

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Sugary Drinks Tied to 25,000 U.S. Deaths a Year

Study estimated beverages' role in worldwide obesity and heart disease, diabetes, some cancers

By Amy Norton

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- More than 180,000 deaths worldwide in 2010 were linked to a high intake of sugar-laden drinks, a new study estimates, including 25,000 deaths in the United States.

Most deaths occurred in middle- to low-income countries, the Harvard researchers noted.

The findings are surprising because "we often think of this as a problem only in high-income countries, like the U.S.," said lead researcher Gitanjali Singh, a research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston.

She said her findings, presented Tuesday at an American Heart Association meeting in New Orleans, point to a need for policies that curb people's sugary drink intake.

One such effort, in New York City, is currently in the spotlight. Last week, a judge struck down Mayor Michael Bloomberg's controversial limit on large sweetened sodas and other sugary beverages, one day before the rule was to go into effect. Bloomberg said he would appeal the decision and defended his plan, which would have limited the size of sugary drinks sold at restaurants, food carts and theaters to 16 ounces.

Singh said that's not the only type of measure officials could take. Others could include taxing sugar-added drinks, or limiting advertising of the beverages to children.

But "anti-soda" moves are a tough sell -- not only because the beverage industry and many consumers resist. It's also hard to pin ill health effects on one component of people's diets, even if it's a nutritionally dubious one.

These latest findings do not prove that sugary drinks kill people. They only show a correlation between high consumption and deaths from heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers.

"This type of study cannot prove cause-and-effect," said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

"Sugary beverage consumption is often paired with other unhealthy food choices or behaviors," said Sandon, who was not involved in the study. "Chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, are the result of many factors, not just excess sugar intake."

That said, everyone should be limiting added sugar -- from drinks and food -- Sandon stressed. "We just do not need added sugar that is empty calories," she said.

The beverage industry also weighed in on the findings.

"This [study], which is neither peer-reviewed nor published, is more about sensationalism than science," the American Beverage Association (ABA) said in a statement issued Tuesday.

"In no way does it show that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages causes chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer -- the real causes of death among the studied subjects," the ABA added. "The researchers make a huge leap when they illogically and wrongly take beverage intake calculations from around the globe and allege that those beverages are the cause of deaths which the authors themselves acknowledge are due to chronic disease."

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Sugary Sodas, Fruit Punches May Raise Kidney Stone Risk: Study

It's important to stay hydrated, but water may be your best choice, experts say

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking large amounts of sugary sodas and fruit drinks might raise your odds for painful kidney stones, a new study finds.

Although drinking extra fluids usually helps prevent stones from forming, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston warn that beverages may come with varying risks or benefits. Coffee, tea and orange juice, for example, are associated with a lower risk of kidney stone formation.

On the other hand, "we found that higher consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks was associated with a higher incidence of kidney stones," study senior author Dr. Gary Curhan, a physician in the Channing Division of Network Medicine, said in a hospital news release.

The study involved more than 194,000 people tracked for more than eight years. The participants were questioned about their medical history, lifestyle and medications. Information on their diet also was collected every four years.

The researchers found that those who drank one or more servings of sugar-sweetened soda daily had a 23 percent higher risk for kidney stones than those who drank less than one serving per week. The study showed that this also was true for those who drank sugary beverages other than soda, such as fruit punch.

Two experts said there are already many health reasons to avoid sugary drinks.

"While there is no conclusive evidence to show that sugary drinks alone cause kidney stones, other associations with the consumption of sugary beverages has been reported," said Dr. Michael Palese, associate professor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. "This includes diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, which have also been linked to the formation of kidney stones."

Nancy Copperman is director of public health initiatives at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, N.Y. She stressed that, "adults need to consume 6 to 8 cups of fluid a day to maintain proper hydration" and help prevent kidney stones. Cutting sugar-sweetened beverages out of those fluids might also help ward off stones, she added.

So what is the healthiest way to stay hydrated? "In general, water is still the best hydrant and certainly, [for] kidney stone prevention, the preferred beverage," Palese said.

According to background information from the researchers, kidney stones will affect 20 percent of American men and 10 percent of American women at some point in their lives.

The study was published online May 15 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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