This is probably going to start a trend: hospitals in Wales have banned vending machines that sell soda and candy.

They are going to phase out the vending machines over the next six months. But one hospital, University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, will still have junk food vending machines in 2010. Not sure why they get special treatment, but if you're visiting someone in a Wales hospital and have a craving for Cadbury chocolate, you'll have to go there.

The junk food machines are going to be replaced with machines that have healthier food options, such as fruit juice. Though I hope they're looking at the sugar content of some of those so-called "healthy" fruit juices.

We have heard in the past that drinking fruit juice is just as bad as drinking soda, since even though it contains vitamins and minerals, it still has a high number of calories from sugar. Some even speculated that drinking too many calories is a major cause of childhood obesity. A new study suggests that this speculation is incorrect and that drinking juice does not necessarily contribute to excessive weight gain.

The study, conducted by Dr. Theresa A. Nicklas from the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, looked at 3-5 year old children and found that, on average, they only consumed 4.7-oz of juice per day, which is well within the 4 to 6-oz. recommended by the US dietary guidelines. It also found that not even 10% of these kids drank as much milk (low-fat or skim, preferably) as they should. Regardless, even when the study participants drank more calories each day, "beverage consumption was not associated with [being] overweight."

Nicklas says that more studies are needed, but it is becoming clearer every day that there is no simple solution, no one food that can be eliminated, to the obesity problems that so many around the world are facing. Hopefully, everyone will stop trying to point fingers and, instead, actually try to help people overcome obesity in a real way.

If you love drinking fruit juices, but think you might need to cut back because of recent reports out of UCSF linking juice to childhood obesity, well ignore that and pay attention to this recent study published in the American Journal of Medicine that shows that frequently drinking fruit and vegetable juices may significantly cut the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

US researchers found that the risk of Alzheimer's disease was "76% lower for those who drank juice more than three times a week, compared with those who drank it less than once a week."

Fruit and vegetable juices are rich in polyphenols, chemicals that disrupt the process that accumulates clumps of beta-amyloid protein in the brain, which are associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease.

So while you might get a little chubby from all that sugar, at least you'll remember who you are.

So you cut down on sodas because everyone is telling everyone that America's obesity problem stems from drinking too much soda. In its place, you're drinking fruit juice, because it's juice, and we all know that juice from fruit is good for you, right?

Well, maybe not, according to Dr. Robert H. Lustig, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Clinic.

Lustig says that people misunderstand juice - they believe juice is good for health and that it's natural. However, Lustig believes that these perceptions are not only incorrect, but, like soda, are contributing to childhood obesity. "Drinking juice - even if it says "100% natural" - is no better than drinking soda" and in fact, he believes that juice is actually worse than soda because there are more calories per ounce in juice, about 170 calories in a 12 oz. serving, than in soda, about 150 calories for the same serving size.

Hm. I guess that means we're back to water.

Who didn't love popsicles when they were a kid? I know that I did. They were sweet, refreshing and turned your tongue bright colors - a crucial popsicle feature for kids. After a while, I acquired a set of plastic popsicle molds and moved away from the neon, ice-cream truck offerings. I would freeze sodas, fruit juices and, occasionally, stuff them full of semi-soft ice cream (so I could eat if off a stick). With summer coming up, I think it's a good time to relive those childhood memories and start making some popsicles at home. Popsicle-making is also a great activity to do with your kids, since they can pick out their own flavors. For the neon tongue look, take a tip from Elise and add a few drops of food coloring to the frozen popsicles. This mold will make 10 pops at a time and comes with 50 sticks, though it's not hard to find more at craft stores when you run out.

Want some recipes? Try:

• Make your own pudding pops
• Make popsicles with fruit juices
• Strawberry margarita popsicles (nonalcoholic)
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Popsicles

The concept of "drinkable fruit" is one that I do not quite understand. I understand fruit juice, but Tropicana's new Fruitwise Drinkable Fruit beverages are just confusing. Tropicana makes good-quality products, so I don't doubt that these drinks taste good, but the marketing concept is weird.

The drinkable fruit line is neither a juice nor a smoothie, but somewhere in between. The products claim to deliver two full servings of fruit in their 8-ounce, 170-calorie containers, but the fruit inside isn't necessarily the flavor printed on the packaging. Take the Strawberry Kiwi flavor, for example. It lists it ingredients as "filtered water, apple puree concentrate, strawberry puree concentrate, white grape juice concentrate, apple juice concentrate, raspberry puree concentrate, kiwi juice concentrate and natural flavors." The ingredients are all natural and to increase the thickness it is not surprising that everything was from "concentrate" - but there are more flavors in the bottle than promised, and the kiwi flavor seems as though it was thrown in as an afterthought.

A serving of fruit juice is ordinarily 6-ounces and you could drink 12-ounces of fruit juice for the same number of calories contained n one of these drinks - so why bother with them? Have plain juice if you are looking to get more fruit into your diet or make a smoothie on your own instead of reaching for one of these.