Health briefs: Watch out for water quacks

Beware of aqua-quackery -- from ionized, alkaline and oxygenated waters to magnetized, vitalized and structure-

altered waters -- as well as the devices that produce them. Perhaps because we can't live without it, water has attracted countless hucksters over the years, who claim their special waters can raise your energy levels, halt or reverse aging, prevent cancer and so on. For an entertaining debunking of "water-related pseudoscience, fantasy and quackery," go to chem1.com, click on AquaScams and peruse H20 dot con. It's written by Steve Lower, a retired professor of physical chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

STUDY: DIET DRINKERS MAY EAT MORE

If you are overweight and drink diet beverages, don't give in to the temptation to compensate for the saved calories by eating more food, especially sweet snacks. This is a common scenario, suggests a recent study in the American Journal of Public Health, which examined data from nationwide surveys. It found that overweight or obese adults who drank diet beverages did not consume fewer total daily calories than those who drank sugary beverages, because they tended to get more calories from food, notably sweet snacks. In contrast, healthy-weight adults who drank diet beverages consumed fewer total calories on a typical day than did healthy-weight consumers of sugared drinks.

-- University of California, Berkeley, Wellness Letter