Food, beverage companies slash calories in obesity fight

A voluntary effort by the world's largest food and beverage companies to remove billions of calories from the products they sell in the United States to help combat the nation's obesity epidemic has far exceeded its five-year goal, according to an independent evaluation released on Thursday.
In May 2010, 16 of the nation's biggest food and beverage companies, from Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) to Kraft Foods Group KFG.N, pledged to remove 1 trillion calories from the U.S. marketplace by 2012 and 1.5 trillion by 2015, compared with a 2007 baseline. In fact, as of 2012 they sold 6.4 trillion fewer calories, found an analysis by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
"Reports like this, and the fact that they exceeded their commitment by four-fold, really shows that you can make progress in giving American families more healthy options," said Larry Soler, president of the Partnership for a Healthier America, a non-profit chaired by first lady Michelle Obama. The group was formed in 2010 to work with the private sector on anti-obesity strategies.
At the time, critics said the Partnership relied too heavily on the good will of the industry and could not replace the role of tighter regulation on how food is manufactured and marketed.

Such voluntary efforts by industry "are not a magic bullet," said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a non-profit policy group. "Particularly with kids, there is a role for regulation" in reducing demand for unhealthy, high-calorie fare.

It is not clear yet how the companies accomplished the dramatic calorie reduction, said UNC public health researcher Barry Popkin, who led the analysis funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest public health philanthropy. Some of the decline may have come from the recession, as financially-strapped families cut back on junk food.
When the pledge was announced, companies said they would substitute lower-calorie products, re-engineer existing products to cut their calories, and reduce portion size, such as with the popular 100-calorie packs of cookies and other snacks.
Popkin and his team have found that beverage companies are producing more drinks that have both sugar and artificial sweeteners and, therefore, fewer calories than sugar-only drinks. They are also "shifting advertising to lower-calorie beverages," he said, as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo (PEP.N) both did.
The biggest reduction in calories sold was to households with young children. "It seems to be parents who are driving the calorie reductions," Popkin said.
It is also not clear whether the reduction can move the needle for more than two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese. The 6.4 trillion fewer calories works out to 78 fewer calories per person per day, if spread equally across the 2012 U.S. population. By comparison, Americans consume an average of 300 more calories a day now than in 1985 and 600 more than in 1970, according to a 2012 report by Trust for America's Health.
Other companies that made the calorie-reduction pledge are Bumble Bee Foods, Campbell Soup Co (CPB.N), ConAgra Foods (CAG.N), General Mills (GIS.N), Hillshire Brands (HSH.N), Kellogg Co (K.N), Mars, McCormick & Company (MKC.N), Nestlé USA, Post Foods, the Hershey Company (HSY.N), J.M. Smucker (SJM.N) and Unilever (ULVR.L).
They are part of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a chief-executive-led organization formed in 2009 that aims to reduce obesity. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35.7 percent of U.S. adults are obese (having a body mass index above 30, such as 175 pounds on a 5 foot, 4 inch frame). So are 14.9 percent of children, which is down from 15.2 percent in 2003.
The 16 companies sold 60.4 trillion calories in 2007, which was 36 percent of total calories in packaged foods and beverages -- cereals, chips, canned soup, juices, sodas, candy and more -- sold that year. In 2012 they sold 54 trillion calories.
To calculate the calories sold, the UNC researchers combined data on foods and beverages sold (from grocery-store scanners and other sources) with nutritional information for the products.

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First driverless vehicle to be commercially available demoed at CES 2014

Las Vegas: French company Induct showed off the primary driverless vehicle to be commercially offered within the America. The Navia shuttle is not prepared for America street traffic however, however this standing-room-only shuttle will transport up to ten individuals from purpose to purpose on university campuses or in aerodrome parking tons at speeds topping out at twelve.5 mph.

It even charges itself wirelessly. At $250,000 per vehicle, it isn't seemingly to form automotive aficionados' hearts skip a beat. however it advances the concept of the driverless automotive with turtle-like usefulness. The shuttle is already being tested on school campuses in Svizzera, UK and Singapore, in line with Induct founder Pierre Lefevre.
Lefevre same he expects to examine a number of the vehicles on public roads within the America this year, however that would need changes to existing laws.

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Record freeze extends to eastern United States

Record freeze extends to eastern United States, at least nine dead

A deadly blast of arctic air shattered decades-old temperature records because it engulfed the eastern United States on Tues, snarling air, road and rail travel, driving energy costs higher and overwhelming shelters for homeless folks.
At least 9 deaths are according across the country connected with the polar atmospheric state that sweptback over North America throughout the past few days. Authorities have place regarding half the us underneath a wind chill warning or weather consultatory.

Temperatures were expected to be twenty five degrees to thirty five degrees Fahrenheit (14 to nineteen degrees Celsius) below traditional from the geographic region to the Southeast, the National Weather Service aforesaid.
PJM Interconnection, the agency that oversees the electrical grid supply the middle Atlantic and components of the geographic region, aforesaid electricity suppliers were troubled to stay up with billowy demand because the cold forced some power plants to shut.

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China sets targets for curbing air pollution

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has set new targets for its provinces to scale back pollution by five to twenty five %, state media same late on Tues, underscoring the government's concern a few supply of public anger.
China often problems directives to undertake to tackle pollution in major cities, however these have had restricted result.
Former health minister Chen Zhu same pollution within the country causes premature deaths of 350,000 to 500,000 folks yearly, state media rumored on Tues. Chen wrote the article during a December issue of the Lancet medical journal.
Air quality in massive components of northern and southern China reached unhealthy levels on Tues.
Under the new laws, Beijing, its neighboring town of city and northern Hopeh can got to cut the number of PM two.5 particles, that square measure particularly unhealthy for health, by twenty five % annually, state news organization Xinhua same, citing the ministry of environmental protection.
China's business capital, Shanghai, the jap provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and northern Shanxi can got to impose cuts of twenty %. Reductions of fifteen % were set for Guangdong province and Chongqing and ten % for the province Autonomous Region, Xinhua same.

The State Council, or cabinet, is mulling a system to judge every native government's progress and people World Health Organization fail to achieve goals are "named and shamed", same the China Daily newspaper.
Air quality in cities is of accelerating concern to China's stability-obsessed leaders, anxious to douse potential unrest as a additional affluent urban population turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has poisoned abundant of the country's air, water and soil.
Authorities have endowed in numerous comes to fight pollution and sceptred courts to administer the executing in serious cases.
But social control of rules has been uneven at the native level, wherever authorities usually believe taxes paid by polluting industries.

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Entertainment Former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear Killed During Robbery

A popular soap-opera role player and former Miss Republic of Venezuela, 29-year-old Monica Spear sure enough might have afforded to vacation elsewhere.
Yet she and her ex, United Nations agency worked within the travel trade, spent January 1 within the mountains of western Republic of Venezuela with their 5-year-old female offspring then visited the plains of Apure state.

On their come back by automobile to Caracas, Spear and Thomas Henry Berry, a 39-year-old British national, became the newest symbols of the rampant violent crime that's afflicting this oil-rich nation.
Robbers shot associated killed the 2 and wounded their female offspring on an isolated stretch of main road once they tried to foil the assault by protection themselves within their automobile, that had been disabled by tire punctures, police aforementioned weekday.
The slayings late Monday incensed Venezuelans, triggering a wave of involves action on social media. TV temperament Camila Canabal expressed what several were feeling in an exceedingly tweet: "Sadness, anger, choler, impotence, shame and pain, pain, pain, dammit!!!"

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UK pounded by 'Winter Storm Hercules'

Fierce storms continued to batter components of the united kingdom have caused immense harm to homes and landscapes alike. Waves up to eight metres high and 112 km/h winds have slammed into Britain's south-western coast.
The storm was therefore powerful it reduced a centuries-old landmark rock arch in Cornwall's Porthcothan Bay to trash. The Emergency Agency predicts that 220 properties have thus far been flooded on the coast as a result of the swell, consistent with the Daily Mail. Residents in many cities on the coast are exhausted as a precaution. The Ea has issued 3 severe flood warnings for the south-western county of Dorset, yet as over three hundred less serious flood alerts.

"Although high tides square measure currently falling, there remains a risk of coastal flooding, particularly on the south and west coasts," aforementioned eating apple Day, flood risk manager at the Ea.
The Met workplace, Britain's prediction body, aforementioned the storm, dubbed Winter Storm Hercules, is loosely connected to the weather system that caused the US winter storm, that drop giant amounts of snow within the Northeast and delayed thousands of flights.
At least seven individuals have died in a very wave of stormy weather that has battered UK since Dec, together with a person killed once his quality scooter fell into a stream in Oxford, southern England.
A search is additionally afoot for a missing Bournemouth man who's believed to own walked out of his home towards the ocean yesterday.
However, the wild weather hasn't deterred surfers World Health Organization square measure believed to own return from the US, chasing the storm sweeping across the Atlantic within the hope of catching some massive waves.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has insisted that the Ea has adequate funding to confirm frontline services square measure ready to influence such events.
"We're outlay£2.3billion during this four-year amount on flood defences that is over the previous four-year amount," he said. But whereas adult male Cameron aforementioned he was optimistic concerning the method true was being handled, enhancements may be created.
"I suppose we're doing lots additional things higher. i believe flood warnings square measure higher, i believe the flood defences have protected tens of thousands of homes however there'll continually be lessons to be told and i am going to make certain they're learned."
The Met workplace has aforementioned the weather probably|is probably going} to enhance because the week goes on however any high winds square measure likely to offer an extra combat to coastal areas.

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'Pro' Galaxy Note and Tab debut with enhanced specs

Samsung proclaimed new versions of the Galaxy Note phablet and Tab pill at the buyer physics Show (CES) in metropolis on Mon. The "Pro" versions improve on each side of their predecessors, adding higher resolution screens, a brand new interface and additional powerful multitasking.
A new 12-inch model leads the charge, however 10-inch and eight.4-inch versions also are on the manner, all with a resolution of 2560x1600 — which suggests the littlest one are concerning as sharp as Apple's in demand "Retina" iPad mini. They disagree on varied internal specs, however share the marquee options.

In addition to the new hardware, the UI has additionally gotten a lift. The "Magazine" heal golem four.4 eschews the standard pages-of-icons look; instead, the page is split into panes of assorted sizes, into that live apps will be fastened for simple access. It's like Android's widgets crossed with Windows Phone's gridlike layout, and it's rather helpful, that is quite will be aforementioned for several of Samsung's previous tries at accessorizing the OS.
Samsung took another page from Microsoft's book with the new multitasking interface. simply swipe in from the facet of the screen, like on Windows eight, and drag the icon of the app you wish to wherever you wish it. this might be handy for productivity junkies: net conference in one pane, document open in another, Reddit during a third, and a fourth able to go.
The devices win this while not compromising an excessive amount of on thickness, tho' the large battery within the 12-inch model in all probability still adds alittle to rock bottom line. it will be concerning fifty % heavier than Associate in Nursing iPad — however that is still almost about a pound and a 0.5.
No valuation or launch date was mentioned aside from Q1, therefore expect additional data within the next month or 2.

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