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This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm BobDoughty.

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And I'm Faith Lapidus. On ourprogram this week: writing new dietary guidelines for Americans.

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And, preparing for the next influenza pandemic.

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Americans are expected in January to get new advice from thegovernment about what to eat and what to avoid. The Department ofHealth and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture publisha report every five years. It contains nutritional information andguidelines for the public on diet and physical activity.

The report is based on the work of the Dietary GuidelinesAdvisory Committee. This group has just come out with its advice forthe two thousand five version of the guidelines.

The committee says its findings support the development ofdietary guidelines that express messages such as: "Control calorieintake to manage body weight." "Be physically active every day.""Increase daily intake of fruits and vegetables, whole grains andnon-fat and low-fat milk and milk products." And, "Choose fatswisely for good health."

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The list also includes: "Choose carbohydrates wisely for goodhealth." The committee noted that this represents a major change.For the first time, the list does not say anything directly aboutsugar. Carbohydrates include the different sugars that people andnature use to sweeten foods. For more than twenty years, the dietaryguidelines have directly advised Americans to limit their amount ofsugar.

The government will accept comments on the report throughSeptember twenty-seventh.

The advisory committee provides explanations and scientificarguments for each message in its full report. Sugars are discussedin the part about carbohydrates.

Most people do not read the full report. The dietary guidelines,however, often appear in schools, health centers and other places.They are also used to develop educational guides.

A commentary in the New York Times criticized the change. Itnoted that some of the experts on the committee have ties to thefood industry. The newspaper said it is difficult to imagine thatthe change was not the result of influence by the sugar industry.

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The Sugar Association said in a statement that it was pleasedwith the work of the committee. The industry group says the newmessages recognize the importance of energy balance. This is theidea that people should not get more calories than they need to meettheir energy requirements. The Sugar Association says the newguidance provides a "more helpful message" by not singling outindividual nutrients.

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But the committee does say there are reasons for people to limittheir intake of sugars and syrups added to food. It says a reducedintake of added sugars may help control weight gain and make sureother food needs are met.

Health officials say two-thirds of Americans are overweight orobese. The committee says that while more research is needed, anumber of studies suggest a link between sugar-sweetened drinks andweight gain.

One of those studies appeared in the Journal of the AmericanMedical Association shortly before the committee released itsreport.

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The study dealt with the effects of sugar-sweetened colas andother soft drinks. Researchers from the Harvard School of PublicHealth, Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospitaldid the study.

They studied information provided by more than ninety thousandwomen. This information was collected between nineteen ninety-oneand nineteen ninety-nine. The women answered questions two timeseach year about their food intake.

The researchers say those who drank high levels ofsugar-sweetened drinks were more likely to gain weight and developdiabetes. Some of the women had increased their level of sugarydrinks to one or more per day during the eight-year period. Theresearchers say these women gained an average of almost eightkilograms. Other women had decreased their level to one or no sugarydrinks per day. On average, these women gained less than threekilograms.

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The doctors note that weight gain is a major cause of type twodiabetes. This form of the disease usually appears in adults.

The study compared women who drank more than one sugar-sweetenedsoft drink a day with those who drank less than one a month. Thewomen who drank more were reported to have over an eighty percenthigher risk of diabetes than the other women.

There were also findings about women who drank sugar-sweetenedfruit drinks. The study says women who drank these every day weretwo times as likely to develop diabetes as those who drank less thanone a month.

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Doctor Meir [mare] Stampfer at the Harvard School of PublicHealth says sugary soft drinks cause a sharp increase in bloodsugar. He says this causes the body to produce more insulin, andthat causes the sugar levels to go down. He describes the process asa recipe for diabetes, a disease where insulin production weakens.

The researchers say diet drinks and unsweetened fruit juice didnot appear to cause an increased risk of diabetes.

Doctor Stampfer says it is easier to gain weight from calories indrinks than in foods. He says drinks sweetened with sugar orhigh-fructose corn syrup are high in calories, but do not satisfyhunger. When people do not feel full, they often take in morecalories than their bodies need. The researchers says soft drinksare the leading way that Americans get added sugar.

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The American Beverage Association criticized the study. Thistrade group recently changed its name from the National Soft DrinkAssociation. It says to blame any one food or drink for increasingthe risk of diabetes is "scientifically indefensible."

It says most published medical literature does not list sugarintake as a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. A spokesman for thegroup says a careful reading of the study shows that an unhealthylifestyle increased the risk for the women. The study found that thewomen who drank the most soft drinks were generally less physicallyactive and more likely to smoke. They also generally ate less wellthan those who drank the fewest sugary drinks. For example, they ateless protein and grain.

The association says the study provides no evidence to supportthe idea that sugar-sweetened drinks are a cause of type twodiabetes. On the issue of weight gain, it says there is no provenlink between increased sugar intake and obesity.

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This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm FaithLapidus.

Public health officials in the United States say they want to beready in the event of another influenza pandemic. Pandemics aretimes when diseases spread throughout the world. Three influenzapandemics took place in the twentieth century. The most recent wasin nineteen sixty eight. Last month the Department of Health andHuman Services proposed a plan. It is called the "Pandemic InfluenzaResponse and Preparedness Plan."

Possible measures include actions like closing schools,restricting travel and keeping infected people away from others. Theplan also proposes major federal research to create different kindsof flu viruses in order to study them. Experts say such effortscould reduce the time needed to produce new vaccines.

One fear is that bird flu could develop the ability to spreadbetween people and start a pandemic. Researchers with support fromthe National Institutes of Health aim to develop a vaccine againstavian influenza. Tests are to begin this winter.

The most deadly flu pandemic known struck in nineteen eighteen.As many as fifty million people may have died from the so-calledSpanish flu.

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Officials announced the pandemic readiness plan on Augusttwenty-sixth. That same day, the vaccine maker Chiron announced thatsome of it flu vaccine did not pass final inspection for purity.Chiron is one of the two major producers of flu vaccine in theUnited States. The company said it would halt shipments until moretests were done.

The company is based in California. It produces vaccine at afactory in the British city of Liverpool. Chiron was to release asmany as forty-eight million doses of vaccine in September. Now, thecompany says it expects that will not happen until October.

Health officials say they still expect to be able to meet theneeds of the public this flu season. Doctor Julie Gerberding isdirector of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shenoted there have been vaccine delays in the past. The other majorsupplier, Aventis Pasteur, aims to increase its supply to help makesure there is enough flu vaccine this winter.

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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and NancySteinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. To send us e-mail, writeto special@voanews.com. This is Faith Lapidus.

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And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more newsabout science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.