Stop chugging sugary soda and munching sweet treats. Cut back on red meats, butter and other sources of saturated fat.

Stop chugging sugary soda and munching sweet treats. Cut back on red meats, butter and other sources of saturated fat. Lay off the salt shaker. Eat plenty of fruits and veggies. And don't worry about having an egg and an extra cup of coffee with your breakfast.

81. And (remember) when Allah took the Covenant of the Prophets, saying: "Take whatever I gave you from the Book and Hikmah (understanding of the Laws of Allah, etc.), and afterwards there will come to you a Messenger (Muhammad ) confirming what is with you; you must, then, believe in him and help him." Allah said: "Do you agree (to it) and will you take up My Covenant (which I conclude with you)?" They said: "We agree." He said: "Then bear witness; and I am with you among the witnesses (for this)."

82. Then whoever turns away after this, they are the Fasiqun (rebellious: those who turn away from Allah's Obedience).

83. Do they seek other than the religion of Allah (the true Islamic Monotheism worshipping none but Allah Alone), while to Him submitted all creatures in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly. And to Him shall they all be returned.

84. Say (O Muhammad ): "We believe in Allah and in what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down to Ibrahim (Abraham), Isma'il (Ishmael), Ishaque (Isaac), Ya'qub (Jacob) and Al-Asbat [the twelve sons of Ya'qub (Jacob)] and what was given to Musa (Moses), 'Iesa (Jesus) and the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between one another among them and to Him (Allah) we have submitted (in Islam)."

85. And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.

86. How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after their belief and after they bore witness that the Messenger (Muhammad ) is true and after clear proofs had come unto them? And Allah guides not the people who are Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers).

87. They are those whose recompense is that on them (rests) the Curse of Allah, of the angels, and of all mankind.

88. They will abide therein (Hell). Neither will their torment be lightened, nor will it be delayed or postponed (for a while).

89. Except for those who repent after that and do righteous deeds. Verily, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

90. Verily, those who disbelieved after their Belief and then went on increasing in their disbelief (i.e. disbelief in the Qur'an and in Prophet Muhammad ) - never will their repentance be accepted [because they repent only by their tongues and not from their hearts]. And they are those who are astray.

91. Verily, those who disbelieved, and died while they were disbelievers, the (whole) earth full of gold will not be accepted from anyone of them even if they offered it as a ransom. For them is a painful torment and they will have no helpers.3. Aal-'Imran

These are the conclusions of the advisory panel that helps shape America's official dietary guidelines, and they appear to be about the same as they were back in 2010, the last time the guidelines were updated, dietitians say.

"What's good about the report is that much of it is reinforcing what we saw in 2010," said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's report this year concludes that Americans are still eating far too much sugar, salt and saturated fat, increasing their risk of chronic and deadly illnesses.

Americans also aren't getting adequate levels of important nutrients such as vitamin D, calcium, potassium, fiber and iron, the committee found.

This consistent message could help Americans who want to eat right but are confused by constantly changing recommendations, Diekman said.

"What the committee has recommended is what the current science supports, which is our intake of added sugars and saturated fats is still too high. If we expect to reduce our risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes andobesity, we need to make a shift to more plant foods," she said. "Maybe if we go a second time around on 'this is what the science shows,' the consumer will hear the science-based message and consider change."

The worst foods for the American diet are burgers, sandwiches, tacos, pizza, desserts and sweet snacks, and sugar-sweetened beverages, the committee found.

Foods like burgers, tacos and pizza -- what the report calls "mixed dishes" -- are the main source of salt and saturated fat in the U.S. diet. They contribute 44 percent of Americans' sodium intake and 38 percent of saturated fat intake, according to the report.

Sugary soft drinks also are a major source of salt, and also supply 47 percent of Americans' added sugars. Snack cakes and sweets contribute 31 percent of added sugars and 18 percent of saturated fats.

But there are a couple of foods that aren't worth the worry they've been given in the past, the report says:

• The committee recommends lifting the Dietary Guidelines' previous restriction on cholesterol intake of 300 milligrams per day, or about an egg and a half. There's no clear link between the cholesterol people eat and blood cholesterol levels -- instead, saturated fats are to blame for high cholesterol, the report concludes.
• Drinking three to five cups of coffee a day is not linked to any long-term health risks, and, in fact, has been associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. "Therefore, moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern, along with other healthful behaviors," the report found.

People's diets include less added sugar than a decade ago, the committee found, but Americans are still taking in far too many "empty calories."

The threat that added sugar poses to Americans' health is such that the committee floats the idea of taxing foods that contain extra-high levels of sugar and salt. Such taxes "may encourage consumers to reduce consumption and revenues generated could support health promotion efforts," the report states. "Alternatively, price incentives on vegetables and fruits could be used to promote consumption and public health benefits."

People would be best off if they follow a "lifestyle" diet in the vein of theMediterranean diet, the "DASH" (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, or the eating patterns previously recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the committee found.

While the diets vary slightly, they all recommend eating lots of fruits and vegetables, plenty of whole grains, and a good amount of low-fat dairy; limiting red and processed meat intake; eating more poultry and seafood; eating nuts, olives and other sources of healthy fats; and avoiding foods made with lots of sugar or refined flour.

The report provides the basis for the updated 2015 Dietary Guidelines that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will release later this year. Those guidelines will provide the rubber-meets-the-road advice that consumers need.

"We won't know if they make any changes to recommended portions until the guidelines come out," Diekman said.

Is sugar making us sick? A team of scientists at the University of California in San Francisco believes so, and they're doing something about it. They launched an initiative to bring information on food and drink and added sugar to the public by reviewing more than 8,000 scientific papers that show a strong link between the consumption of added sugar and chronic diseases.

The common belief until now was that sugar just makes us fat, but it's become clear through research that it's making us sick. For example, there's the rise in fatty-liver disease, the emergence of Type 2 diabetes as an epidemic in children and the dramatic increase in metabolic disorders.

Laura Schmidt, a UCSF professor at the School of Medicine and the lead investigator on the project, SugarScience, said the idea is to make the findings comprehensible and clear to everyone. The results will be available to all on a website (SugarScience.org) and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Added sugars, Schmidt said, are sugars that don't occur naturally in foods. They are found in 74 percent of all packaged foods, have 61 names and often are difficult to decipher on food labels. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires food companies to list ingredients on packaging, the suggested daily values of natural and added sugars can't be found.

The FDA is considering a proposal to require food manufacturers to list information on sugars in the same way they do for fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates and protein. But because so much added sugar is dumped into so many products, one average American breakfast of cereal would likely exceed a reasonable daily limit.

"SugarScience shows that a calorie is not a calorie but rather that the source of a calorie determines how it's metabolized," said pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig, a member of the SugarScience team and the author of "Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease." Lustig said that more than half of the U.S. population is sick with metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and liver disease that are directly related to the excessive consumption of added sugars in the Western diet

Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the category of heart attack/stroke as the leading cause of death in the United States. Every day, 2,200 Americans die of cardiovascular disease. That's about 800,000 a year, or one in three deaths.

The latest statistics from the American Diabetes Association show that 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3 percent, have diabetes. Of that number, 21 million have been diagnosed and 8.1 million have not, and the numbers continue to grow, according to the association.

It doesn't stop there. The American Liver Foundation says at least 30 million Americans, or 1 in 10, has one of 100 kinds of liver disease.

Clinicians widely believe that obesity is the cause of metabolic disease. Although it is a marker for these diseases, Lustig said, it's not the cause. "Too much sugar causes chronic metabolic disease in both fat and thin people," he said, "and instead of focusing on obesity as the problem, we should be focusing on our processed-food supply."

The average American consumes 19.5 teaspoons (78 grams) of sugar a day, substantially more than the amount recommended by the American Heart Association. The association sets these limits: 6 teaspoons (24 grams) for women, 9 teaspoons (36 grams) for men, and 3-6 teaspoons (12-24 grams) for children, depending on age. Just one 12-ounce soda contains 8 to 9 teaspoons (32-36 grams) of sugar.

Liquid sugar in sodas, energy drinks and sports drinks is the leading source of added sugar in the American diet. That represents 36 percent of all added sugars consumed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. And because liquid does not include fiber, the body processes it quickly. That causes more sugar to be sent to the pancreas and liver than either can process properly, and the resulting buildup of sugar leads to heart disease, diabetes and liver disease.

Consuming too much sugar causes the level of glucose sugar in the bloodstream to increase. That, in turn, causes the pancreas to release high levels of insulin that cause the body to store extra calories as fat.

Too much insulin also affects the hormone leptin, a natural appetite suppressant that signals the brain to stop eating when full. But the imbalance of insulin levels caused by the intake of too much sugar causes lipid resistance, and the brain no longer gets that signal.

Another member of the SugarScience team, Dean Schillinger, is a professor of medicine at UCSF and a practicing primary care doctor at San Francisco General Hospital. He believes the overconsumption of added sugars is a social problem, not a problem of individual choice and freedom.

"People are becoming literate about the toxic effects of sugar," Schillinger said, "and have more understanding of the idea that high doses are bad for one's health." He sees evidence that those in a higher socioeconomic bracket are taking steps to limit intake of sugar when compared with poorer, less literate people.

Healthy food is expensive and less readily accessible in poorer neighborhoods, and because corn is so abundant and cheap, it is added to many food products. "Dumping high fructose corn syrup into cheap foods, sodas, sports drinks and energy drinks is toxic to the body, causing epidemic metabolic diseases and a serious health crisis," Schillinger said.

To underscore the scope of the problem, he pointed out that during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, 1,500 American soldiers lost a limb in combat. In that same period, 1.5 million people in the U.S. lost limbs to amputations from Type 2 diabetes, a preventable disease. "We have yet to mobilize for a public health war," he said, "but the time has come to do so."

Such a war would have to take on the root causes of the problem. As a nation, Schillinger added, we would need to look at our food policies, food pricing, availability of healthy foods, and the marketing being carried out by food and beverage industries to hook the public on unhealthy choices loaded with added sugar.

Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, is not a SugarScience researcher, but he agreed that the amount of sugar consumed by the American public is too high. SugarScience, he said, is being helpful by bringing the information about added sugar to public attention.

"It's just about impossible," Hu said, "to know from food labels what kinds and amounts of sugars are in a product." That's why he thinks the FDA should require food companies to list those amounts on all food labels so people know what they're eating, in what amounts they're eating it, and what amounts are safe.

Food labels are important, Schillinger said, and they need to be revised, but the most important change needed is to make the healthier choice the easier choice

Survival rates are improving for many people with cancers of the breast, prostate, lung, liverand colon or rectum, especially for those diagnosed at younger ages, a new study reports.

Cancer is still a leading cause of death in the United States, but advances in radiation,chemotherapy and targeted treatments have improved survival, the researchers said.

"Although survival rates for most cancers have improved over the past few decades, the improvements were less remarkable among elderly patients," said lead researcher Dr. Wei Zheng, co-leader of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville.

The study also found differences in survival based on race. Overall, blacks had poorer survival than whites. Black women with ovarian cancerexperienced a decrease in survival over the past two decades for unknown reasons, he said.

"Black Americans experienced poorer survival than whites for all cancers during the study period," Zheng said.

The report was published Feb. 19 online in JAMA Oncology.

Zheng and his colleagues analyzed data on just over 1 million patients diagnosed with cancer of the breast, colon or rectum, prostate, lung, liver, pancreas or ovary from 1990 to 2009. Those included in the study were part of the U.S. National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program.

The researchers found that the odds of survival increased significantly for many patients aged 50 to 64. For example, patients from this age group diagnosed with colon and rectum cancer from 2005-2009 had a 43 percent lower risk of death, compared with similar patients diagnosed from 1990-1994.

Also among the 50-to-64 age group, the reduction in risk of death was 52 percent for breast cancer, 39 percent for liver cancer and 68 percent forprostate cancer in 2005-2009, compared to 1990-1994.

For patients aged 75 to 85, however, the risk of death was reduced only 12 percent for those with breast, colon or rectum cancer. For liver cancer, the reduction was 24 percent in older patients, and for those older men with prostate cancer, the risk of death was reduced 35 percent, the researchers found.

Researchers found similar, though smaller, improvements in survival for lung and pancreatic cancers.

Because of greater improvements in prostate cancer survival among blacks than whites, the racial difference in prostate cancer survival has decreased, Zheng noted. "For ovarian cancer, however, the survival rate declined in blacks but slightly increased in whites, leading to a wider racial gap in the survival of this deadly cancer," he said.

"It is important to identify reasons for the slower improvement in cancer survival in elderly Americans and reduced survival rate of ovarian cancer in black women to guide future improvement in cancer care for all," Zheng said.

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, attributed most of what the study found to "improvements in treatment and the tendency to treat younger people more aggressively than older people."

Giving more aggressive treatment to younger people is often the right thing to do, Brawley said. A concern with older patients is that they may have other chronic conditions that make aggressive chemotherapy or radiation risky, he said. "You can actually get older people into a great deal of trouble by treating them aggressively," he added.

Sometimes, though, it is appropriate to treat older patients aggressively, Brawley said. Older patients should discuss their treatment with their doctors to be sure they're getting the best care based on their cancer and overall health, he added.

"Every patient and every patient's family should have a good conversation with their doctor about their treatment and the appropriateness of the treatment for their age," Brawley said.