These are the worst drinks for your health, according to nutritionists - Fox News

Before you load up your grocery cart or place an order at the coffee shop, restaurant or bar, beware of additives and sugar that may be lurking in your favorite drinks. 

Fox News Digital reached out to nutritionists on this topic.

A number of them weighed in on beverages to avoid if you're looking to put your health first.

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Keep reading for important nutritional and health-focused insights regarding many popular drinks today. 

Sugary soda, cocktails and sweet coffee drinks are just three beverages that experts say may be detrimental to your overall health. (iStock)

Energy drinks and pre-workout drinks

Kylie Ivanir, a New York-based registered dietitian who runs her own private practice called Within Nutrition, said pre-workout drinks and energy drinks can lead to "increased blood pressure, stress and compromised sleep" since they contain excess caffeine and stimulants. 

"Other side effects of excess stimulants found in pre-workout and energy drinks are headaches and nausea," she told Fox News Digital.

"Pre-workout and energy drinks also contain artificial sweeteners and flavors, which disrupt gut health and brain health," Kylie Ivanir, a New York-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital. (iStock)

"Pre-workout and energy drinks also contain artificial sweeteners and flavors, which disrupt gut health and brain health. The supplement industry is also notoriously unregulated, which leads to contamination with toxins or banned substances that are detrimental to our health," she said. 

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Instead of pre-workout or energy drinks, Ivanir recommends opting for coffee or matcha tea.

Sweet alcoholic cocktails

Cocktails are among the worst drinks for your health.  (iStock)

Ivanir said the combination of alcohol and fructose syrup, which are sometimes found in cocktails, are not good for your liver — the organ where those liquids are processed.

"This compromises the liver’s ability to filter out toxins and hampers its conversion of fructose to glucose," Ivanir explained. 

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"As a consequence, we can’t detox as well, and we also end up storing that excess fructose as fat. This can then cause a rise in triglycerides, a harmful blood lipid — and is one of the causes of a fatty liver."

Traditional soda

Health experts say people ages two and older should limit their intake of added sugars to less than 10 percent of total daily calories consumed. (iStock)

Soda is bad for your health due to added sugar, experts say.

"I recommend instead opting for seltzer or sparkling water and adding a squeeze of lime, lemon or orange juice for flavor," said Amy Gorin, an inclusive plant-based registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Master the Media in Stamford, Connecticut. 

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Gorin said — according the United States Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 — that people ages two and older should limit their intake of added sugars to less than 10% of total daily calories consumed.

Gorin recommends substituting sugary sodas with seltzer water or sparkling water — and adding fruit for a little flavor. (iStock)

"For someone following a 2,000-calorie daily diet, for example, this means no more than 200 calories from added sugar—or about 12 teaspoons," she added. 

"A 12-ounce can of cola contains about 10 teaspoons worth of added sugar."

Iced tea

Iced tea could contain just as much added sugar as soda does. (iStock)

Jinan Banna, a registered dietitian and professor of nutrition at the University of Hawaii, said not only does iced tea contain added sugar but bottled or commercially-prepared teas may have the same amount of sugar as soda.

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"A high consumption of sweetened drinks such as iced tea has been shown to be associated with development of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes," she says, referencing a 2010 meta-analysis on sugar-sweetened beverages and type 2 diabetes.

Drinks sweetened with agave nectar

Agave syrup is made from agave plant sap, which has increased in popularity as a substitute for traditional sweeteners (like table sugar and honey), according to a chemical analysis and nutritional profile on agave syrup published in the National Library of Medicine.

But beware of agave-sweetened drinks as "agave is pretty much high fructose corn syrup with a glorified label," Ivanir said.

"Agave nectar can contain between 55% to 90% fructose — that’s higher than the amount of fructose in high fructose corn syrup," she added. 

Agave syrup is made from agave plant sap, which has increased in popularity as a substitute for traditional sweeteners. Some people use agave syrup in alcoholic cocktails as well. (iStock)

As Ivanir pointed out, most agave nectar sold in supermarkets contain about 80% to 90% of fructose. 

"The problem with taking in a lot of fructose is that your body must convert it to glucose in the liver, but if you have too much, it gets stored as fat. Specifically, belly fat," she said.

"Excess fructose is also pretty bad for your gut. Your gut bacteria don’t like large doses of fructose. For those with a sensitive gut, this can cause bloating, diarrhea and discomfort. It leads to increased LDL (your bad cholesterol) and decreases insulin sensitivity."

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If you’re thinking, "isn’t fruit high in fructose?" consider this: "Some fruits are, but when fructose is in its natural and fiber-wrapped form, then it’s not harmful. So there is no need to avoid fruit," Ivanir explained.

Juice ‘cocktail’

Juice "cocktails" should also be avoided, as they contain added sugar and adds added calories to your diet, according to health experts. (iStock)

Sometimes, juices blended with additives get slapped with the word "cocktail" on their label, according to experts.

"This is a keyword to watch out for in the grocery store. The word ‘cocktail’ indicates that a juice is mixed with added sugar," Gorin said. 

"Added sugar is unnecessary and adds extra calories to your day. But not surprisingly, per the CDC, sugar-sweetened drinks are a top source of added sugar in the American diet."

"Shop for 100 percent fruit juice instead," she added.

Artificially sweetened drinks

Artificially sweetened drinks can be harmful to your gut health, which affects other areas of the human body, according to Kylie Ivanir. (iStock)

As Ivanir pointed out, research has shown that artificial sugars like aspartame and sucralose "disturb the microbiome and damage our gut health," she said. 

"This is harmful to our overall health since the gut plays a key role in many of our body’s systems such as our immune health, hormone recycling, serotonin production and nutrient absorption," Ivanir added. 

"Stevia- or monk fruit sweetened drinks are great sugar alternatives that are also gut-friendly." 

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She suggested jazzing up your beverage by adding herbs such as mint and basil or fresh fruit into water.

Frappuccinos

Frappuccinos may taste delicious, but they aren't good for your health, according to nutritionists.  (iStock)

Apparently consuming frappuccinos simply aren’t worth it for your health. 

"Frappuccinos and other sweet coffee drinks contain what I call ‘sweet fats’ — a combination of sugar [from the syrups and flavors] and saturated fats [from the cream]. While this combination of sugar and fat makes the drink taste deliciously creamy, it leads to excess fat storage due to a rise in the hormone insulin (our fat storage hormone)," Ivanir said.

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"These ‘sweet fats’ hijack our brain circuits, making us want more and more." 

They also drive up insulin, leading to insulin resistance and higher lipid levels and ultimately metabolic syndrome, Ivanir added.

Frozen lattes 

Frozen lattes may contain more sugar than soda does, experts say. (iStock)

"In some establishments, this drink may contain more sugar than a can of coke, such as the caramel latte that is found in some businesses," Banna said. 

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"Sweetened coffee drinks have been identified as an item in the diet that makes a notable contribution to intake of added sugar," she added.

She pointed to a report published in the National Library of Medicine titled, "Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among adults."

Perri Ormont Blumberg is a contributing lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.

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Mounjaro May Soon Join Wegovy as a Weight Loss-Approved Drug - Verywell Health

Key Takeaways

• Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in the diabetes medication Mounjaro, appears to be a safe and effective obesity treatment.
• Lilly, the manufacturer of Mounjaro, reported that tirzepatide can help people with type 2 diabetes to lose almost 16% of their body weight.
• Lilly will ask the FDA to approve tirzepatide as a weight loss drug. Doing so would add a new highly effective treatment option for obesity.

Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in the diabetes medication Mounjaro, can help patients lose almost 16% of their body weight, according to trial data shared by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

The weight loss seen in this study was greater than that seen from other medications for obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to Lilly. The company said it will ask the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant an indication for weight management—something the drug is not currently approved for, despite its off-label use.

“It’s great that we have another medication that helps people to lose weight as well as improving glycemic control. If [tirzepatide] is approved for the management of obesity, I think that’s a welcome addition for us as obesity experts to prescribe,” David Lau, MD, PhD, adjunct professor in the departments of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology, and kinesiology at the University of Calgary, told Verywell.

Wegovy (semaglutide) is currently the most effective drug indicated for weight loss in the United States. Approving tirzepatide for weight loss would add another strong obesity treatment option, both for people with and without diabetes, said Dan Bessesen, MD, an endocrinologist and a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado. 

“I think it is terrific for the field and for patients to have a second medication available. Over time, my sense is the medications available for treating obesity are becoming more effective and will become more widely-used,” Bessesen told Verywell in an email.

If tirzepatide is approved for weight loss, it will likely get a new brand name and dosage to differentiate it from Mounjaro, which is the same drug but only labeled for diabetes treatment. Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic provide a similar example; both contain semaglutide, but in different concentrations—so only Wegovy is technically approved for weight management in people without diabetes. When Ozempic is used this way, it’s considered off-label.

Lilly said it will present its full study results at a conference in late June and will apply for FDA approval of a weight loss indication. The company said it expects an FDA decision in late 2023.

Mounjaro Works Well in People With Diabetes

The new study included 938 adults who were overweight or living with obesity as well as type 2 diabetes. People taking 10 milligrams (mg) of Mounjaro saw an average of 12.8% body weight reduction while those taking 15 mg lost up to 15.7% of their weight.

It is well established that people with type 2 diabetes tend to have a harder time losing weight than those without diabetes, said Angela Fitch, MD, FACP, FOMA, president of the Obesity Medicine Association.

“When we look at patients with type two diabetes and obesity, the people with diabetes consistently lose less weight than the people with just obesity alone,” Fitch told Verywell. “What is being shown here is that Mounjaro is better for weight loss, even in people with diabetes.”

In an earlier phase 3 trial this year, Lilly showed that people with obesity or who are overweight without diabetes lost up to 22.5% of their body weight while taking tirzepatide.

How Mounjaro Stacks Up Against Wegovy

Wegovy works by mimicking the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which boosts insulin production. This lowers blood sugar and makes people feel full for longer.

Mounjaro also increases GLP-1 as well as the hormone glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). Acting on both GIP and GLP-1 can boost metabolism and decrease appetite, causing even greater weight loss and management of blood sugar than GLP-1 agonists alone.

“[The data] are certainly very impressive because not only do you see a slightly greater percent body weight loss with tirzepatide, but you also see better glycemic control,” Lau said. “Most of us in the field feel that this is an unexpected finding in the sense that it has a more profound effect.”

Wegovy, which is FDA-approved for weight management, causes an average of 12.4% weight loss in people without diabetes and 6.2% in those with type 2 diabetes.

It’s challenging to know exactly how Wegovy and Mounjaro stack up as there have been no completed trials directly comparing the two drugs.

“The study design is slightly different from clinical trial to clinical trial. So you can’t really compare the efficacy unless you do a head-to-head comparison,” Lau, who is a principal investigator for the STEP 10 semaglutide trials, said.

Lilly only just began a 700-person study, called SURMOUNT-5, to test tirzepatide against semaglutide directly.

Wegovy and Ozempic manufacturer Novo Nordisk is years ahead of Eli Lilly in terms of testing its drug for outcomes beyond weight loss. The company is now testing how semaglutide effects overall cardiovascular health, and the data is expected to be shared this year.

“If it’s shown that Wegovy has a cardiovascular benefit, it would trump [Mounjaro] anytime when it comes to prescription because now you have a drug that has been shown to have safety data and, if anything, cardiovascular benefits,” Lau said.

While Mounjaro appears to be better for weight management, Lau said providers will look to prescribe a drug that has proven health benefits beyond shedding pounds. For patients with heart disease, for instance, it will be helpful to have data showing that Wegovy can support heart health while reducing body weight.

“The data from the SURMOUNT-1 trial is very encouraging. It looks great,” Lau said. “But my recommendation is let’s wait and see. Let’s not jump the gun and say tirzepatide will torpedo semaglutide because it showed better weight loss data.”

A New Drug on the Market Could Improve Obesity Care

Ultimately, having more obesity treatment options in the toolbox will help clinicians to tailor their treatment for each individual patient, Fitch said.

“It’s nice to have multiple options so that we can balance the outcomes with the side effects,” she said.

For months, patients have been scrambling to get their hands on weight loss medications, which have become increasingly popular even among people without obesity. As with Wegovy and Ozempic, Mounjaro is an injectable medication that cannot be mass-produced as easily as an oral medication, so it’s not clear how the new indication would help the drug supply problem, Lau said.

It’s also too soon to know how expensive and accessible Mounjaro will be as a weight loss medication. Some insurance plans may cover obesity medications. But most insurers, including Medicare don’t. Medicare Part D has excluded anti-obesity medications from coverage for two decades, despite general recognition of obesity as a disease.

If tirzepatide is FDA-approved for weight management, it will be up to insurance companies to decide whether they will cover the medication.

“Having another large and successful pharmaceutical company involved in this therapeutic area will be helpful for patients,” Bessesen said. “Over time, it will help people see obesity as the chronic metabolic disease that it is.”

What This Means For You

It will likely be months before the FDA decides whether to indicate tirzepatide for weight loss. In the meantime, ask a trusted provider about what treatment options are available to you for weight management.

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New report says worst heart-healthy diets include keto, Paleo diets - GMA

"What we see when we're looking at the top rated diets is there's tons and tons of seafood. There's legumes, there's really nice carbohydrates, ones that have fiber," Feller noted. "Across the board, we see these patterns of eating that are really rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, as the way to think about bolstering your cardiovascular health."

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Paleo, keto diets may harm heart health, report says - NewsNation Now

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1. Paleo, keto diets may harm heart health, report says  NewsNation Now
2. Want A Healthy Heart? These 4 Diets Are A Must-Try  NDTV Food
3. Popular diets help you lose weight but may not be so good for heart health  Yahoo News
4. New report reveals popular diets rank lower for heart health  ABC15 Arizona in Phoenix
5. Here's How 10 Popular Diets Scored for Heart Health  Cheddar
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Yes, you can eat your way to heart health. Here's how - CNN

CNN  — 

Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, but there are ways to significantly reduce your risk.

Along with regular exercise and not smoking, a healthy diet is a key way to keep heart disease at bay. But which diet best meets the dietary guidelines of the American Heart Association?

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In a new scientific statement, leading experts in nutrition ranked 10 popular diets on their ability to meet the AHA’s evidence-based dietary guidance for heart health, published in 2021.

The winner? The DASH diet, which was 100% aligned with AHA goals for heart-healthy eating. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension; high blood pressure is a major contributor to heart disease and stroke.

The pescatarian diet, which allows dairy, eggs, fish and other seafood but no meat or poultry, was 92% aligned with the AHA guidelines. The lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, which allows dairy and eggs, and variations that include one or the other, were 86% aligned.

The award-winning Mediterranean diet was 89% aligned with the AHA dietary recommendations. The popular diet came in third mostly because it recommends a small glass of red wine each day and doesn’t limit salt, said lead author Christopher Gardner, a research professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in California who directs its Nutrition Studies Research Group.

“The American Heart Association says no one should drink alcohol if they haven’t started,” Gardner said. “And if they do drink, to do so minimally.”

Research has linked the Mediterranean diet to reduced risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, dementia, memory loss, depression and breast cancer as well as weight loss, stronger bones, a healthier heart and longer life.

But all of these diets share so much in common they can really be grouped together as a top “tier” of eating patterns, Gardner said.

Sources of saturated fats.

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'Keto-like' diet may be associated with a higher risk of heart disease, according to new research

“We basically were trying to say a diet doesn’t have to be 100 to be good,” he said. “All of the diets in the top tier are plant-based, and if they are off base a bit aren’t hard to fix. Paleo and keto, however, really can’t be fixed. You’d have to completely overhaul them.”

Very low-carb diets, such as Atkins, and various keto diets, such as the well-formulated ketogenic diet, or WFKD, were in the bottom tier of heart-healthy eating patterns, due to their emphasis on red meat, whole dairy and saturated fats, as well as limited fruit and vegetable intake.

A vegan diet that incorporated more than 10% fat and low-fat diets such as volumetrics were in the second tier — both met 78% of the AHA dietary guidelines, according to the statement.

Very low-fat diets with less than 10% fat, which applies to some vegan lifestyles (72%), and low-carb diets such as South Beach, Zone and the low-glycemic index (64%) were less aligned and made up the third tier of diets.

Aimed at doctors

While people concerned with heart health can and should use the new AHA ranking of the 10 diets, the scientific statement was written for physicians, Gardner said. The goal is to get doctors up to speed, since nutrition is not often prioritized in medical school.

Top diets for heart health are predominately plant-based, the AHA statement says.

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“It’s a cheat sheet for doctors,” Gardner said. “When they do ask about diet — which I don’t think is all that often — and a patient says, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m paleo. I’m vegan. I’m keto or I’m DASH,’ I don’t think they really know what that means.”

That’s absolutely true, said preventive cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health, a hospital in Denver.

“We surveyed 1,000 cardiologists five or six years ago, and it turns out about 90% of us know almost nothing about nutrition,” said Freeman, who was not involved with developing the AHA statement.

Yet patients need their doctors to be discussing nutrition with them during regular checkups, Freeman added.

“If you asked me in my heart of hearts do I think we should have been banging the drum about nutrition for the last 100 years? Yes. So every time we can bang the drum a little more, I’m always in favor,” he said.

Now, with a color-coded chart in hand, doctors will be better informed to discuss the foods on those diets and which to emphasize, limit or avoid, Gardner said. Instead of talking about the benefits of specific heart-healthy nutrients and foods, advice should focus on a overall pattern of eating.

“When it was a single heart-healthy nutrient, you could just inject that nutrient into food and claim it’s healthy food, which it wasn’t,” he said. “Or if there’s a superfood like chia seeds, you could take a really unhealthy food and sprinkle chia seeds on it and say, ‘Ah, I’m now protected.’ No, it needs to be part of an overall healthy pattern of foods.”

To that point, Gardner stressed that each diet in the rankings was evaluated as it was intended to be eaten, not as people might actually do in real life. The new statement provides information on how doctors might counsel patients who are not eating as optimally as possible, either due to cost, lack of time or other stresses.

Crossfitters stretching on floor.

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However, fixing those concerns may take more than individual willpower, Freeman said.

“It’s hard to adhere to a diet in a society which allows ultraprocessed comfort foods like bacon-on-a-stick to be the norm, and asking society to change a major tenant of everyday living is going to be very challenging,” he said.

“But I would also tell you the plant-based food movement is the fastest-growing food movement in the country,” he said. “So there’s hope.”

Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style. Our eight-part guide shows you a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that will boost your health for life.

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US adult cigarette smoking rate hits new all-time low - ABC News

NEW YORK -- U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to another all-time low last year, with 1 in 9 adults saying they were current smokers, according to government survey data released Thursday. Meanwhile, electronic cigarette use rose, to about 1 in 17 adults.

The preliminary findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are based on survey responses from more than 27,000 adults.

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, and it's long been considered the leading cause of preventable death.

In the mid-1960s, 42% of U.S. adults were smokers. The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.

Last year, the percentage of adult smokers dropped to about 11%, down from about 12.5% in 2020 and 2021. The survey findings sometimes are revised after further analysis, and CDC is expected to release final 2021 data soon.

E-cigarette use rose to nearly 6% last year, from about 4.5% the year before, according to survey data.

The rise in e-cigarette use concerns Dr. Jonathan Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health. Nicotine addiction has its own health implications, including risk of high blood pressure and a narrowing of the arteries, according to the American Heart Association.

“I think that smoking will continue to ebb downwards, but whether the prevalence of nicotine addiction will drop, given the rise of electronic products, is not clear,” said Samet, who has been a contributing author to U.S. Surgeon General reports on smoking and health for almost four decades.

Smoking and vaping rates are almost reversed for teens. Only about 2% of high school students were smoking traditional cigarettes last year, but about 14% were using e-cigarettes, according to other CDC data.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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'I felt excruciating pain': Victims recall rabid fox attack in Brighton - 13WHAM-TV

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1. 'I felt excruciating pain': Victims recall rabid fox attack in Brighton  13WHAM-TV
2. Fox infected with rabies bites 6 people in one night, New York officials say  Miami Herald
3. Brighton fox tests positive for rabies after biting 6 people  News 8 WROC
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22 Out of 25 Melatonin Products Were Mislabeled, Study Finds - The New York Times

New research found that the gummies contained different amounts of the commonly used sleep aid than advertised.

A tiny, berry-flavored gummy of melatonin carries a big promise: better sleep. But a new research paper, published in the medical journal JAMA on Tuesday, highlights a critical issue: When it comes to melatonin, as with other supplements, what you see on the label isn’t always what you get.

A team of researchers analyzed 25 melatonin gummy products from different brands and found that 22 contained different amounts of melatonin than what was listed on their labels; one contained only 74 percent of the advertised amount of melatonin, while another had 347 percent of the labeled amount. Yet another product contained no detectable melatonin at all.

Researchers tested gummies from only a single bottle of each product, so it’s possible that the amount of melatonin varied from batch to batch. But the findings point to a staggering discrepancy between the amount of melatonin consumers think they’re ingesting and how much they might actually take, said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the paper.

“You are at the mercy of the dietary supplement industry,” Dr. Cohen said.

The Food and Drug Administration does not evaluate dietary supplements for their safety and effectiveness. “Protecting the health and safety of Americans is the F.D.A.’s highest priority, and we will remain vigilant in warning consumers when public health concerns arise related to dietary supplement products,” a representative for the agency said in a statement.

Previous research has highlighted just how varied the quality of melatonin products can be; a 2017 study in Canada found that one melatonin supplement contained more than 400 percent of the amount listed on the label. Dr. Cohen’s study examined only gummies and focused on products sold in the United States. The number of Americans using melatonin supplements more than quintupled between 1999 and 2018, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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What happens when you consume too much melatonin?

Our brains are wired to naturally produce melatonin after the sun sets. The hormone helps to regulate our circadian rhythms, signaling to our bodies that it’s time to sleep. Melatonin supplements purport to complement, or enhance, that process.

An accurately labeled three-milligram gummy contains roughly a thousand times as much melatonin as the amount our brains naturally produce, said Philip Gehrman, an associate psychiatry professor at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. The excess melatonin found in a large dose is likely to just break down in the body and be excreted, he said; it probably won’t help you fall asleep any faster.

The higher the dose of melatonin, the more likely you are to experience side effects, said Dr. Sabra Abbott, a sleep medicine specialist at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. Large amounts of melatonin aren’t likely to be dangerous for most adults, experts say, but some people report feeling groggy or hung-over the morning after taking the supplement, or having vivid, unnerving dreams.

Melatonin gummies can pose serious risks to children if they consume too many. Calls to the American Association of Poison Control Centers related to pediatric melatonin consumption jumped 530 percent from 2012 to 2021, according to research published last summer.

“They are not candy,” Dr. Brian Chen, a sleep specialist at Cleveland Clinic, said. “They aren’t just to be taken willy-nilly.”

How do you pick a reliable melatonin supplement?

There’s no guarantee that any given bottle of melatonin gummies will actually contain the amount listed on the label. Still, experts recommended a few precautions for those who decide to take melatonin:

Ask the pharmacist.

Instead of ordering melatonin online or wandering through the aisles of a pharmacy and picking a supplement at random, Dr. Gehrman said, ask a pharmacist to suggest a trusted brand.

Make sure it’s certified.

Experts say you should opt for a product that has been certified by a third-party organization like the U.S. Pharmacopeia, which vets different supplements.

Pick a low-dose supplement.

Opt for one milligram of melatonin or less, Dr. Abbott said. A larger dose isn’t likely to be more effective at helping you sleep.

Talk to your doctor.

Even with a supplement as seemingly innocuous as melatonin, you should talk with a physician before trying it, experts say.

It’s also important to think about why you’re taking melatonin in the first place, Dr. Chen said. Many people who turn to melatonin are taking it incorrectly by trying to induce sleep right before bed, looking for a quick fix when an intervention like cognitive behavioral therapy might be more beneficial for treating insomnia.

“It takes work and effort to learn this lost art of sleep,” he said.

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Potentially dangerous doses of melatonin and CBD found in gummies sold for sleep - CNN

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Testing of over two dozen melatonin “gummies” sold as sleep aids found some had potentially dangerous amounts of the hormone that helps regulate sleep, according to a new study.

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“One product contained 347% more melatonin than what was actual listed on the label of the gummies,” said study coauthor Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Somerville, Massachusetts.

A jar of gummies might also contain ingredients you didn’t count on, Cohen said: “One of the products that listed melatonin contained no melatonin at all. It was just cannabidiol, or CBD.”

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, “it is currently illegal to market CBD by adding it to a food or labeling it as a dietary supplement.” Yet several of the tested products containing CBD in the study openly advertised the addition of that compound to their melatonin product, Cohen said.

“Four of the tested products contained levels of CBD that were between 4% and 18% higher than on the label,” Cohen said.

The use of CBD in over-the-counter aids is particularly concerning because parents might purchase gummy products to give to their children to help them sleep, said Dr. Cora Collette Breuner, a professor of pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital at the University of Washington.

“There’s no data that supports the use of CBD in children,” said Breuner, who was not involved in the study. “It’s currently only recommended for a very specific use in children over 1 with intractable seizure disorders.”

Aside from CBD, consuming a gummy that unknowingly contains extremely high levels of melatonin — well over the daily 0.5 to 1 milligram per night that has been shown to induce sleep in kids — is also dangerous, said Breuner, who serves on the integrative medicine committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is currently writing new guidelines on supplements in children.

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Side effects of melatonin use in children can include drowsiness, headaches, agitation, and increased bed-wetting or urination in the evening. There is also the potential for harmful interactions with medications and allergic reactions to the melatonin, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, a department of the National Institutes of Health.

The agency also warns supplements could affect hormonal development, “including puberty, menstrual cycles, and overproduction of the hormone prolactin,” which causes breast and milk development in women.

Carefully chosen from government database

In the study, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA, researchers sent 25 products labeled as melatonin gummies to an outside lab that tested for levels of melatonin and other substances.

However, the research team didn’t pick products “willy-nilly” off the internet, Cohen said. The scientists carefully chose the first 25 gummy melatonin products displayed on the National Institutes of Health database, which the public can check to see labels of dietary supplements sold in the United States.

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“We choose gummies over other products because we thought parents would chose edibles to give to their children,” Cohen said. “”We also wanted to take a closer look at those products after last year’s report that poison centers have had over a quarter million calls about pediatric ingestion, thousands of hospitalizations, ICU visits, even some deaths.”

A 2022 report by the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention found calls to poison control about melatonin ingestion by children rose 530% between 2012 to 2021. The largest spike in calls — 38% — occurred between 2019 and 2020, the report said.

Most of the calls were about children younger than 5 years old who had accidentally eaten gummies caregivers had not properly locked away.

“Gummies are enticing to young children, who see them as candy,” Cohen said. “We wondered if there was something going on with the products that might be contributing to the calls to the poison control centers.”

The new study found 88% of the gummies were inaccurately labeled, and only three contained a quantity of melatonin that was within 10% of what was listed on the label, said Cohen, who has studied invalid labeling of supplements for years.

Gummies sold as sleep aids had much higher levels of melatonin than stated on the label, as well as CBD, according to the study.

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“The regulatory framework for supplements is broken,” he said, “The manufacturers are not complying with the law, and the FDA is not enforcing the law. So what that means is that we have a lot of poor-quality products out there.”

A spokesperson for the FDA told CNN the agency would review the findings of the study, adding that the FDA generally doesn’t comment on specific studies, but “evaluates them as part of the body of evidence to further our understanding about a particular issue.”

“It’s important to underscore that under current law, the FDA does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed, and firms have the primary responsibility to make sure their products are not adulterated or misbranded before they are distributed,” the spokesperson said via email.

Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association for the dietary supplement industry, released a statement saying that manufacturers may add additional melatonin to be sure the product remains at the levels on the label as degradation naturally occurs over time.

“While there may be some variability in overages as companies adhere to the FDA’s requirements regarding shelf life and potency, it does not mean there is a risk in taking these products as intended,” Mister said.

Melatonin is a hormone

People often view melatonin as an herbal supplement or vitamin, experts say. Instead, melatonin is a hormone that is made by the pineal gland, located deep within the brain, and released into the bloodstream to regulate the body’s sleep cycles.

Studies have found that while using melatonin can be helpful in inducing sleep if used correctly — taking a small amount at least two hours before bed — but the actual benefit is small, Breuner said.

In six randomized controlled trials on melatonin treatment in the pediatric population, she said, melatonin decreased the time it took to fall asleep, ranging from 11 minutes to 51 minutes.

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“However, these were very small studies with widely variable results,” Breuner said. “So I say to the parents, ‘You’re really looking at as little as 11 minutes in decreasing the amount of time it takes your child to fall asleep.’”

Anyone considering melatonin should be sure that the bottle has the stamp of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), which manufacturers hire to test and verify products.

“If it has a USP stamp on the label, you can be sure the product is accurately labeled,” Cohen said. “However, that doesn’t mean melatonin products are going to work or they’re a good idea to take.

“That’s not what the USP is about,” he said. “But at least the verification of the label should eliminate the problems we’re seeing here in our study.”

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