“The Milk-Bone All-American Doggy Road Trip Ranking”

Summer is the top season for travel — but increasingly, Americans are choosing to hit the open road rather than braving airport delays. This Memorial Day weekend, 37.2 million Americans will pack their bags, and - according to an AAA study - 88 percent of them will travel by car instead of by jet plane.

In the spirit of the great American road trip, Milk-Bone teamed up with other products in the Big Heart Pet Brands family - including Pup-Peroni, Canine Carry Outs and Milo's Kitchen - to present the Milk-Bone Doggy Road Trip Ranking: your guide to the top destinations to treat the whole family... including Fido.

By cross referencing online review sites with data on dog-friendly restaurants and hotels, the brand has compiled the ultimate list of pup-approved parks and landmarks and assigned each spot a “Milk-Bone Biscuit Score.”

*** THE MILK-BONE ALL-AMERICAN DOGGY ROAD TRIP RANKING ***

>> THE TOP 50 DOG FRIENDLY ROAD TRIP DESTINATIONS & MILK-BONE BISCUIT SCORE (biscuit score in parenthesis)

 #1: The Original Dog Beach (San Diego, California) (50)
 #2: SF Golden Gate Park (San Francisco, California) (49)
 #3: Fort Tryon Park (New York City, New York) (48.5)
 #4: Runyon Canyon (Los Angeles, California) (47)
 #5: Acadia National Park (Mt. Desert Island, Maine) (46)
 #6: Pike Place Market (Seattle, Washington) (45)
 #7: Carmel (Carmel-by-the-Sea, California) (44.5)
 #8: The Biltmore Estate (Asheville, North Carolina) (44)
 #9: Central Park (New York City, New York) (43)
 #10: Buckskin Joe Frontier Town (Cañon City, Colorado) (42.5)
 #11: Houston Arboretum & Nature Center (Houston, Texas) (40)
 #12: The Trail System at the US National Whitewater Center (Charlotte, North Carolina) (39)
 #13: Mammoth Mountain (Mammoth Lakes, California) (38)
 #14: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (Atlanta, Georgia) (37)
 #15: Gettysburg National Military Park (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) (37)
 #16: Yosemite (California) (35)
 #17: Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, Virginia) (34)
 #18: Nashville (Tennessee) (33)
 #19: Key West Aquarium (Key West, Florida) (33)
 #20: The Cascades at Lake Mohegan (Fairfield, Connecticut) 32
 #21: Broad Ripple (Indianapolis, Indiana) (31)
 #22: Mercury Canine Cruise (Chicago, Illinois) (30)
 #23: National Mall (Washington, D.C.) (29)
 #24: Arlington National Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) (28)
 #25: Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio) (27)
 #26: Point Reyes National Seashore (Point Reyes Station, California) (26)
 #27: Olympic National Park (Port Angeles, Washington) (25)
 #28: Shenandoah National Park (Virginia) (24)
 #29: Bow Wow Beach (Stow, Ohio) (23)
 #30: Royal Gorge Bridge (Cañon City, Colorado) (23)
 #31: Fantastic Caverns (Springfield, Missouri) (23)
 #32: Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, Virginia) (23)
 #33: Old Charleston Ghost Tour (Charleston, South Carolina) (22)
 #34: Crazy Horse Memorial (Crazy Horse, South Dakota) (22)
 #35: Joshua Tree (Joshua Tree National Park, California) (22)
 #36: Hot Springs National Park & Riverboat Tour (Hot Springs, Arkansas) (22)
 #37: Mount Hollywood Trail (Los Angeles, California) (21)
 #38: White Sands National Monument (Alamogordo, New Mexico) (21)
 #39: Washington Crossing Historic Park (Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania) (21)
 #40: Dog Beach at Key Biscayne (Key Biscayne, Florida) (20)
 #41: Tombstone (Tombstone, Arizona) (20)
 #42: Southwest City Dog Park (St. Louis, Missouri) (20)
 #43: Good Hart (Good Hart, Michigan) (20)
 #44: Dinosaur National Monument (Maybell, Utah) (20)
 #45: Mammoth Cave National Park (Mammoth Cave, Kentucky) (20)
 #46: Dallas Heritage Village (Dallas - Ft. Worth, Texas) (20)
 #47: Minute Man National Historic Park (Concord, Massachusetts) (20)
 #48: Veterans Park Lagoon (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) (20)
 #49: Paw Playground & Beach De Soto (St Petersburg, Florida) (20)
 #50: Penn Valley Dog Park (WWI Memorial) (Kansas City, Missouri) (20)

Locations could score up to 50 biscuit points; final scores ranged from 20 to 50 biscuits.

**TOP 3 DOGGIE DO'S***

Milk-Bone's in-house team of behavioral experts are also sharing their 'Top 3 Doggie Do's' to keep your pooch happy while you’re on the go --- so stick to these tips and watch their tail wag:

1. TAKE A JOY RIDE
Was your pup’s last ‘road trip’ a trip to the vet? If so, chances are he’s going to get nervous when he hears your keys jingling. Take him on a short ride to the park to make the car a place where fun things happen, too.

2. MAKE CRATE TIME TREAT TIME
Make your dog's crate a safe and happy place. Do a “test crating” and reward Fido with lots of Milk-Bone, Pup-Peroni, Canine Carry Outs and Milo's Kitchen treats; soon he'll be drooling every time he crawls inside.

3. SPOIL THEM SILLY
Last but not least, reward your pup for good behavior. Treats help to build positive associations with the new sights and sounds of a road trip, and reminds them that you love them and that they are having fun!

Obese Teens’ Brains, Mouths Unusually Susceptible to Food Commercials, Dartmouth Study Finds

HANOVER, N.H. – May 21, 2015 – A Dartmouth study finds that TV food commercials disproportionately stimulate the brains of overweight teen-agers, including the regions that control pleasure, taste and -- most surprisingly -- the mouth, suggesting they mentally simulate unhealthy eating habits.

The findings suggest such habits may make it difficult to lose weight later in life, and that dieting efforts should not only target the initial desire to eat tempting food, but the subsequent thinking about actually tasting and eating it – in other words, you should picture yourself munching a salad rather than a cheeseburger.

The study appears in the journal Cerebral Cortex. A PDF is available on request. The study included researchers from Dartmouth College’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

The prevalence of food advertising and adolescent obesity has increased dramatically over the past 30 years, and research has linked the number of television shows viewed during childhood with greater risk for obesity. In particular, considerable evidence suggests that exposure to food marketing promotes eating habits that contribute to obesity.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the Dartmouth researchers examined brain responses to two dozen fast food commercials and non-food commercials in overweight and healthy-weight adolescents ages 12-16. The commercials were embedded within an age-appropriate show, “The Big Bang Theory,” so the participants were unaware of the study’s purpose.

The results show that in all the adolescents, the brain regions involved in attention and focus (occipital lobe, precuneus, superior temporal gyri and right insula) and in processing rewards (nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal cortex) were more strongly active while viewing food commercials than non-food commercials. Also, adolescents with higher body fat showed greater reward-related activity than healthy weight teens in the orbitofrontal cortex and in regions associated with taste perception. The most surprising finding was that the food commercials also activated the overweight adolescents’ brain region that controls their mouths. This region is part of the larger sensory system that is important for observational learning.

“This finding suggests the intriguing possibility that overweight adolescents mentally simulate eating while watching food commercials,” says lead author Kristina Rapuano, a graduate student in Dartmouth’s Brain Imaging Lab. “These brain responses may demonstrate one factor whereby unhealthy eating behaviors become reinforced and turned into habits that potentially hamper a person’s ability lose weight later in life.”

Although previous studies have shown heightened brain reward responses to viewing appetizing food in general, the Dartmouth study is one of the first to extend this relationship to real world food cues — for example, TV commercials for McDonald’s and Burger King — that adolescents encounter regularly. The brain’s reward circuitry involves the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitter chemicals that give pleasure and may lead to addictive behavior.

Children and adolescents see an average of 13 food commercials per day, so it isn’t surprising they show a strong reward response to food commercials. But the new findings that these heightened reward responses are coupled with bodily movements that indicate simulated eating offer a clue into a potential mechanism on how unhealthy eating habits are developed.

“Unhealthy eating is thought to involve both an initial desire to eat a tempting food, such as a piece of cake, and a motor plan to enact the behavior, or eating it,” Rapuano says. “Diet intervention strategies largely focus on minimizing or inhibiting the desire to eat the tempting food, with the logic being that if one does not desire, then one won’t enact. Our findings suggest a second point of intervention may be the somatomotor simulation of eating behavior that follows from the desire to eat. Interventions that target this system, either to minimize the simulation of unhealthy eating or to promote the simulation of healthy eating, may ultimately prove to be more useful than trying to suppress the desire to eat.”

Ten U.S. Cities Now Have 1 Million People or More; California and Texas Each Have Three of These Places

May 21, 2015 — San Jose, Calif., is now among the 10 U.S. cities with a population of 1 million or more, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

California now has three cities with 1 million or more people (Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose), tying Texas (Houston, San Antonio and Dallas) for the lead among states.

When the 2013 estimates were originally released last year, San Jose stood just shy of the 1 million mark. The 2014 population estimates released today show the city passing the 1 million milestone in the updated 2013 estimate. Each year, the Census Bureau revises its time series of previously released estimates going back to the 2010 Census. The updated years in the time series supersede the previously released estimates to reflect additional data used in the population estimates.

New York remained the nation’s most populous city and gained 52,700 people during the year ending July 1, 2014, which is more than any other U.S. city.

Half of the 10 cities with the largest population gains between 2013 and 2014 were in Texas — Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth. Each added more than 18,000 people. The Lone Star State also had six of the top 13 fastest-growing cities by percentage — San Marcos, Georgetown, Frisco, Conroe, McKinney and New Braunfels.

San Marcos, situated between Austin and San Antonio, was the fastest-growing city for the third consecutive year, with its population climbing 7.9 percent between 2013 and 2014 to reach 58,892.

The West was home to eight cities among the top 15 fastest-growing cities with a population of 50,000 or more. Four were in California. Each of the 15 fastest-growing cities between 2013 and 2014 were in the South or West, as were all but two of top 15 numerical gainers. The lone exception, aside from New York, was Columbus, Ohio, which gained 12,421 people over the period to make it the nation’s 13th largest numerical gainer. Ohio’s capital was the nation’s 15th most populous city in 2014, with 835,957 residents.

The only change in the rank order of the 15 most populous cities between 2013 and 2014 was Jacksonville, Fla., and San Francisco, each moving up one spot to 12th and 13th place, respectively, passing Indianapolis, which fell from 12th to 14th.

The statistics released today cover all local governmental units, including incorporated places (like cities and towns), minor civil divisions (such as townships) and consolidated cities (government units for which the functions of an incorporated place and its parent county have merged).

Other highlights:

·         For the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, New Orleans (384,320) returns to the list of the 50 most-populous cities this year, with Arlington, Texas, dropping off the list.

Irvine was one of four California cities among the 15 largest numerical gainers (Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose were the others). It was also the only city in the U.S. to be among both the 15 largest numerical gainers and the 15 fastest growing. The Orange County municipality grew by 11,420 people, or 4.8 percent, over the period to reach a population of 248,531 in 2014.
Four areas crossed the 50,000-population mark for the first time since the 2010 Census; all of them were in the West. In alphabetical order by state, these areas were: Cerritos, Calif. (50,004), Commerce City, Colo. (51,762), Caldwell, Idaho (50,224) and Burien, Wash. (50,188). One area in the Midwest dropped below the 50,000 mark this year: Saginaw, Mich. (49,844).
Among the 50 largest places in the country, three moved more than one position on the total population ranking list since 2013. In addition to Indianapolis, Memphis, Tenn. (656,861 population in 2014) fell three positions, putting it in 23rd place; and Louisville, Ky. (612,780) dropped two positions to 30th.
Of the 19,509 incorporated places in the United States, around 76 percent (14,819) had fewer than 5,000 people in 2014. Only about 3.8 percent (749) had populations of 50,000 or more.
For more information about the geographic areas for which the Census Bureau produces population estimates, see .

Also released today were July 1, 2014, estimates of the number of housing units for the nation, states and counties. These estimates show that Texas gained more housing units than any other state between 2013 and 2014 (adding 141,625), with North Dakota experiencing the fastest rate of growth in the number of units (3.0 percent). Among counties with at least 5,000 housing units, Williams, N.D., added units at the fastest rate over the period, as the number rose 11.6 percent.

The population clock, one of the most visited features of the Census Bureau website census.gov, displays continuously updated projections of the U.S. population, including the rate of births, deaths and net migration for the United States. The projections are based on a monthly time series of population estimates starting with the April 1, 2010, resident population count derived from the 2010 Census.

Download the U.S. Census Bureau’s dwellr app today to discover the top 25 U.S. cities and towns that best fit your lifestyle. Whether you prefer the bright lights of the big city or wide open spaces, dwellr powers your phone with neighborhood-level statistics on topics such as home values, education, and how people get to work so that you can explore where you want to dwell. Once you’ve found your dream neighborhood, take dwellr with you wherever you go.

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Main Page: http://www.census.gov/popest/

2014 Cities and Towns: http://www.census.gov/popest/data/cities/totals/2014/

2014 Housing Units: http://www.census.gov/popest/data/housing/totals/2014/

Nutrition Advancements Ushering in an Era of Personalized Diets for Health

The latest interview series from FutureFood 2050 highlights innovative new research that will shape healthy eating guidelines in the next few decades.
May 20, 2015

CHICAGO – The days of the one-size-fits-all nutrition guidelines are numbered. Instead, scientists are exploring an array of new approaches to healthy eating that aim to prevent or even treat disease based on each person’s unique profile.

Chronic preventable diseases that can be related to diet, such as cardiovascular illness, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers, are the top cause of death worldwide, accounting for 60 percent of all deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These noncommunicable diseases kill 38 million people annually, nearly three-quarters of them in low- and middle-income countries. Nutrition scientists are working to understand the crucial interactions between food and the human body in order to develop more individualized, targeted dietary guidelines and therapeutic options, according to the latest series of interviews from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) FutureFood 2050 publishing initiative. FutureFood 2050 explores how increasingly sophisticated science and technology will help feed the world’s projected 9 billion-plus people in 2050.

Current dietary guidelines are determined by a “consensus [that] has to do with the average person, who is of average weight and who’s healthy, and is either a man or woman of a particular age,” says Jeffrey Blumberg, who directs the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. “All 30-year-old women do not require, in my view, exactly 75 milligrams of vitamin C a day to meet their vitamin C requirements. Some may need less. Some may need more. How do you know who you are unless you start to apply some newer approaches?”

Nutrition science leaders talked to FutureFood 2050 this month about the innovations they see as most promising for improving our diets and helping to fight disease:

·         Jeffrey Blumberg: Tufts University nutrition scientist who says dietary guidance  targeted to your precise genetic makeup is the wave of the future
·         Mark Heiman: Chief scientific officer of MicroBiome Therapeutics, which is developing health-boosting nutritional therapies that increase the variety of gut microorganisms
·         Dr. Dean Ornish: Creator of a renowned program for reversing cardiac disease, who believes dietary changes will continue to be key to a healthy heart
·         Steven Schwartz: Ohio State University food scientist working on functional food products to help prevent cancer and other illnesses
·         Robert Zeigler: Director general of the International Rice Research Institute, which is coordinating the Golden Rice project designed to raise vitamin A levels in developing nations

FutureFood 2050 is a multi-year program highlighting the people and stories leading the efforts in finding solutions to a healthier, safer and better nourished planet to feed 9 billion-plus people by 2050. Through 2015, the program will release 75 interviews with the world’s most impactful leaders in food and science. The interviews with nutrition innovation leaders are the 14th installment of FutureFood’s interview series, following sustainability, women in food science, food waste, food security and nutrition in Africa, aquaculture, futurists on food, innovative agriculture Parts 1 and 2, kitchens of the future, obesity, alternative proteins, food safety, and climate change.

Early next year, FutureFood 2050 will also debut a documentary film exploring how the science of food will contribute solutions to feeding the world. Here’s a behind-the-scenes interview with the film’s director. http://futurefood2050.com/behind-the-scenes-with-scott-hamilton-kennedy/

States Stand To Save Hundreds of Millions in Health Care Costs with National Sodium Reduction Effort

WASHINGTON—A new analysis of potential health care cost savings to be achieved by reducing sodium in the U.S. diet shows annual savings ranging from $36 million for Wyoming to $2.4 billion for California.

Americans currently consume about 3,500 milligrams per day of sodium—or about a teaspoon and a half of salt a day.  The 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee,  echoing the recommendations of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, calls for a reduction to 2,300 mg/day—about one teaspoon of salt.  Excess sodium consumption boosts blood pressure, which is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, accounting for two-thirds of all strokes and half of all cases of heart disease.

The national health care costs for treating these illnesses are enormous, and previous research has estimated national medical savings ranging from $10 billion to $24 billion with a 1,200 mg/day reduction in sodium intake.  Adjusting for inflation and population growth, the Center for Science in the Public Interest calculated state-by-state costs achievable with the recommended sodium reduction, and found that four states stand to save more than $1 billion a year:

$2.4 billion for California
$1.6 billion for Texas
$1.2 billion for Florida
$1.2 billion for New York
Eight other states would potentially save between $500 million and $1 billion a year in reduced health care costs:

$787 million for Illinois
$782 million for Pennsylvania
$709 million for Ohio
$617 million for Georgia
$608 million for North Carolina
$606 million for Michigan
$546 million for New Jersey
$509 million for Virginia

CSPI calculations are rough estimates, because sodium intake presumably varies from state to state, and the vulnerability of a state’s population to develop hypertension varies depending on the state’s ethnic, gender, health and age distributions.  The report’s estimates do not consider those population variables.

“The avoidable health care costs imposed by high-sodium diets in every single state are taking money away from other critical priorities,” said Michael F. Jacobson, CSPI executive director.  “It is long past time for this nation to act on effective public health prevention measures that would save lives and, yes, save money too.”

In 2005, CSPI formally petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to set limits on sodium levels, and a 2010 Institute of Medicine Report again called on the FDA to reduce sodium in the food supply in a gradual manner.  However, the FDA has yet to release mandatory or even voluntary guidelines after more than four years of inaction.

FDA action would also support the public health investments being made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in state-level sodium-reduction efforts, according to CSPI.  CDC has provided funding to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to provide technical assistance for sodium reduction initiatives to a number of states, including Maine, New York, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Montana, and North Carolina, Connecticut, Iowa and Missouri.

“Vermont is committed to reduce sodium consumption throughout the state, for everyone from children in school to seniors in subsidized housing,” said Vermont Department of Health Commissioner Harry Chen, MD.  “Through CDC funding we are providing resources to gradually change Vermonters’ taste preferences so they can enjoy delicious, lower-sodium foods.  We encourage the FDA to do their part in facilitating a gradual reduction of sodium in processed foods.”

The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors has been heavily involved in another CDC-supported effort: the Million Hearts Initiative, aimed at preventing one million heart attacks and strokes in the U.S. by 2017.

“NACDD was one of the very first national partners to sign onto Million Hearts and has since remained at the forefront in conducting Million Hearts workshops and promoting the effort,” said John W. Robitscher, MPH, NACDD chief executive officer.  “Sodium reduction is a perfect target for public health and we are proud to have a long history of supporting efforts across every state and U.S. territory.”