Pepsi to offer new lowcalorie Gatorade
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:20:32 GMT
By VINNEE TONG, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - Pepsi is offering a new low-calorie version of Gatorade in an effort to keep customers who have strayed from the sports drink in search of lower calorie drinks.
PepsiCo Inc., which announced plans for the low-cal G2 version of Gatorade on Friday, and its bigger rival The Coca-Cola Co. are aggressively competing for sales of non-carbonated beverages as health-conscious consumers shy away from carbonated soft drinks.
PepsiCo, the nation's second biggest soft drink company, said in July that its sales of carbonated soft drinks fell 4 percent in the second quarter while non-carbonated drinks grew 3 percent.
Last year, non-carbonated beverages accounted for 69 percent of PepsiCo Beverages North America's $9.57 billion in 2006 revenue, more than double that from soft drinks that made up 31 percent of the unit's total. Gatorade has been a key growth driver but sales have slowed recently.
"G2 should help limit the downside risk to a Gatorade slowdown," Morgan Stanley analyst Bill Pecoriello told investors in a research report.
Gatorade sales slowed in the second quarter after a 2 percent to 3 percent price hike in March and in comparison to sales that had grown 29 percent a year earlier.
G2, PepsiCo said, will have 25 calories per eight-ounce serving and is the first new Gatorade product since the original drink was introduced in 1967. The original lemon-lime Gatorade has 50 calories per eight-ounce serving.
Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo said it will distribute G2 starting in December to convenience stores, gas stations and retail outlets. The new Gatorade will come in three flavors: fruit punch, grape and orange.
PepsiCo also announced on Friday that it would introduce a bottled water with caffeine and vitamins called Propel Invigorating Water; reformulate its SoBe Life Water with sucrose, antioxidants, vitamins and fewer calories; and use a new sweetener blend with fewer calories for its Aquafina Alive water.
In June, Coca-Cola bought VitaminWater maker Glaceau for $4.1 billion, a price tag that signaled the company's seriousness in pursuing growth of non-carbonated beverages. Since then, the company has also given its Glaceau management team control of its Powerade sports drink brand, which competes directly with the more popular Gatorade.
PepsiCo also owns the Frito-Lay snacks, Quaker foods and Tropicana orange juice businesses.
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AP Business Writer Lauren Shepherd in New York contributed to this report.
Exercisers stuck in unwalkable settings
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 20:16:17 GMT
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA - Nearly one in four people in the Atlanta area are exercise enthusiasts stuck in neighborhoods without sidewalks or other walking amenities, according to a study that illustrates a problem for many Americans. Researchers said the findings point to the need for more exercise-friendly places to live.
"The bottom line is the built environment really does matter to health," said Lawrence Frank, a University of British Columbia researcher who led the study.
Walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods have sidewalks leading to nearby shops, restaurants or other destinations. They are built in a way that makes it easier to walk and get to buses and trains. Many are older neighborhoods, located in more urban areas.
Frank is among a group of scientists who have shown that people who live in walkable neighborhoods tend to weigh less than people who live in more isolated and car-dependent areas.
"He's the first one to make a connection between land use and obesity," said Christopher Leinberger, director of the University of Michigan's real estate program.
Frank's current study examined whether a community's walkability affected obesity rates. The research showed that exercisers had a similarly low obesity rate whether they lived in walkable neighborhoods or not. It was 12 percent for those in walkable areas versus 15 percent in non-walkable neighborhoods, a difference that was not statistically significant.
Among those who prefer to drive, however, about 21.5 percent were obese, and it also didn't matter whether they lived in walkable or non-walkable neighborhoods.
The distances driven were also noted. Exercisers in walkable neighborhoods drove 26 miles a day, while those in non-walkable neighborhoods drove about 37 miles.
Among non-exercisers, those in walkable neighborhoods drove 26 miles, and compared to 43 miles in areas that were mostly car-friendly.
"Walking and driving really change a lot in different neighborhood types, regardless of people's preferences," Frank said.
The study is based on detailed surveys done in the 13-county Atlanta region in 2001-02. The results, which are being published this fall in a peer-reviewed journal, Social Science & Medicine, are based on responses from 1,432 people. Twenty-three percent of them were exercisers living in places more conducive to driving than walking.
The researchers also noted that sometimes people don't end up living where they want. Some move to less pedestrian-friendly areas because of concerns about crime or schools, Frank said.
Leinberger notes that some people can't afford housing in walkable neighborhoods, where homes can cost up to three times as much as similar housing in non-walkable areas.
David Goldberg, a 44-year-old Decatur, Ga., resident who participated in the survey, has lived in both environments. Goldberg said he was randomly selected for the study, but he also works for Smart Growth America, a nonprofit coalition that combats urban sprawl.
In the 1990s, when he was a newspaper reporter, he and his wife bought a house in Henry County, a far-flung Atlanta suburb. It was an affordable, pretty area that was a good base for work trips to southern Georgia. But there were no sidewalks in the subdivision, and the only real walking destination was a convenience store across an increasingly busy highway. The family had to drive everywhere and he put on 15 pounds, he said.
By the time of the survey, he and his family had moved to Decatur, an older suburb closer to Atlanta. They settled in a walkable area near a pleasantly busy town center.
"The elementary school, high school and middle school are all walkable from our house. My 18-year-old son still doesn't have a driver's license because he just hasn't needed it," said Goldberg.
Feds reject NYs bid to insure more kids
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:54:04 GMT
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration demonstrated Friday it will strictly adhere to new guidelines that limit the scope of a popular children's health insurance program. It rejected an application from New York to let more middle-income families participate.
The administration issued its guidelines just three weeks ago. Democratic lawmakers and governors from both parties have said the rules are misguided and will result in more uninsured children. The administration says the rules will refocus the program on the low-income people it was intended to serve.
When a state expands eligibility to higher-income children, the guidelines require the state to show that it has enrolled at least 95 percent of eligible poor children in public health programs. Poor children in this instance are families with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level — $34,340 for a family of three.
New York sought to expand eligibility in the State Children's Health Insurance Program to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $68,680 for a family of three — the highest level in the nation.
New York did not show that it met the new 95 percent threshold.
"New York has not demonstrated that its program operates in an effective and efficient manner with respect to the core population of targeted low-income children," said Kerry Weems, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Under the program, the federal government and the states subsidize the cost of health coverage.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., called the Bush administration's decision "unconscionable."
"It is clear the administration is spoiling for a fight and it's unfortunate he has chosen children's health care," said Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer said the state is prepared to pursue legal action to challenge the guidelines.
"Today's federal decision is a cruel blow to New York's uninsured children, and to uninsured families across the country," Spitzer said.
Weems noted that the new guidelines require New York to make sure that middle-income children have been uninsured for at least a year before allowing them into SCHIP. Such a requirement is designed to keep families from dropping private health insurance so that they could get cheaper or better coverage through public programs.
New York's application called for a six-month waiting period. State officials have said they could not justify making children wait a year for health coverage.
"I cannot find that New York meets the requirement for reasonable procedures to prevent substitution of coverage," Weems said in his letter to New York officials.
Democratic lawmakers will attempt to overturn the new guidelines in coming months as Congress considers renewing the children's program for an additional five years. Under current spending levels, SCHIP would cost about $25 billion over the next five years.
The House passed legislation in early August that would raise spending on SCHIP to about $75 billion over five years. The Senate passed a bill raising spending to about $60 billion. A conference committee will try to work out the differences in the two bills, but so far, such a committee has not been formed. The program expires on Sept. 30, unless Congress approves an extension.
The administration has proposed spending of about $30 billion, and the president has promised to veto the House or Senate versions if either reaches his desk.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., said Thursday that he was confident Democrats could overturn the guidelines.
"It's so universally unpopular, we'll find a way," Stark said.
But, most House Republicans support the president's vision of how the SCHIP program should work. Some of them would have to side with Democrats if Bush decided to veto legislation overturning the guidelines.
"Some states have expanded the program to adults who are hardly needy, much less poor, and now the Democratic majority sees a chance to use the SCHIP reauthorization to finally accomplish what the Clinton administration failed to do, put government bureaucrats in charge of everyone's health care," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said in a press release Thursday.
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On the Net:
State Children's Health Insurance Program: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/schip.asp
American girls suicide rates spike
Fri, 07 Sep 2007 03:38:19 GMT
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA - The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked dramatically in a disturbing shift that federal health officials say they can't fully explain.
For all young people between ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004 — the biggest single-year bump in 15 years — in what one official called "a dramatic and huge increase."
The report, based on the latest numbers available, was released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and suggests a troubling reversal in recent trends. Suicide rates had fallen by 28.5 percent since 1990 among young people.
The biggest increase was in the suicide rate for 10- to 14-year-old girls. There were 94 suicides in that age group in 2004, compared to 56 in 2003, a 67 percent increase. The rate is still low — fewer than one per 100,000 population.
Suicide rates among older teen girls, those aged 15-19 shot up 32 percent; rates for males in that age group rose 9 percent.
"In surveillance speak, this is a dramatic and huge increase," Dr. Ileana Arias said of the overall picture. She is director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
More research is needed to determine whether this is a trend or just a blip, said one child psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Cummins of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "We all need to keep our eye on this over time to see if this is a continuing trend."
Overall, there were 4,599 suicides among young people in 2004, making it the third-leading cause of death, surpassed only by car crashes and homicide, Arias said. Males committed suicide far more often than females, accounting for about three-quarters of suicides in this age group.
The study also documented a change in suicide method. In 1990, guns accounted for more than half of all suicides among young females. By 2004, though, death by hanging and suffocation became the most common suicide method. It accounted for about 71 percent of all suicides in girls aged 10-14; about half of those aged 15-19; and 34 percent between 20-24.
"While we can't say is a trend yet, we are confident that's an unusually high number in 2004," said Dr. Keri Lubell, a CDC behavioral scientist who was one of the study authors.
Scientists speculated that hanging may have become the most accessible method.
"It is possible that hanging and suffocation is more easily available than other methods, especially for these other groups," Arias said.
The CDC is advising health officials to consider focusing suicide prevention programs on girls ages 10-19 and boys between 15-19 to reverse the trends. It also said the suicide methods suggest that prevention focused solely on restricting access to pills, weapons or other lethal means may be of limited success.
As for why rates are up, Richard Lieberman, who coordinates the suicide prevention program for Los Angeles public schools, said one cause could be a rise in depression during tumultuous adolescent years.
"There's a lot of pressure in and around middle school kids. They're kind of all transition kids. They're turbulent times to begin with," he said. "The hotline's been ringing off the hook with middle school kids experimenting with a wide variety of self-injurious behavior, exploring different ways to hurt themselves."
Arias said the declining use of antidepressants in those age groups might play a role. But it's "not the only factor" that health officials will be studying.
Four years ago, federal regulators warned that antidepressants seemed to raise the risk of suicidal behavior among young people, so black box warnings were put on the drugs' packaging.
When partial teen suicide data was published earlier this year, experts noted at the time that the drop in sales of the drugs corresponded with a rise in the suicide rate. Now there is concern that some children who need the medication aren't getting it.
"Suicide is a multidimensional and complex problem," Arias said. "As much as we'd like to attribute suicide to a single source so we can fix it, unfortunately we can't do that."
More education is needed, some specialists said, so that teachers, parents and others can quickly spot troubled teens.
"It underscores the need for more evaluation methods for school personnel and pediatricians to be able to better identify at-risk youth," said Dr. Alec Miller, director of the adolescent depression and suicide program at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. "They are out there, and everyone needs to be better trained in identification."
He said people who commit suicide tend to have a psychiatric condition, even if it has not been formally diagnosed.
Arias said warning signs include mental illness, alcohol and drug use, family dysfunction and relationship problems.
"For some, talking about suicide is awkward," she said. "Our goal is to stop suicides, and to do that we need everyone's willingness to talk about it.
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On the Net:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/suicide
