ACOG says while these tests could be important tools down the road, right now they should only be used in a clinical trial setting, where experts can put the information into a proper context.

The College published their opinion "Personalized Genomic Testing for Disease Risk" in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.  The advocacy group says the lack of rigorous scientific evidence that the tests are valuable and improve clinical care was the basis for the opinion.

Experts are concerned that a genetic test could tell a patient they have no markers for colon cancer, which could lead someone to get the false impression that they won't get the disease and possibly forgo colon screening. On the flip side, genetic testing may reveal that a woman has a 1% risk of getting breast cancer, which could get her very freaked out about getting breast cancer, even though her risk may still be minimal compared to other women without the genetic marker.

"All results require careful interpretation since the result will be affected by other factors such as medical or family history. There is also the potential hazard of a misinterpreted or inaccurate test result, " says Dr. Nancy Rose, Chairman of ACOG's Committee on Genetics.

Dr. Melissa Fries, Director of Genetics and Fetal Medicine at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington supports the new directive.

"Genetic testing in general has great power if done for specific indications. We do not know yet the value of tests that may measure minor increases or decrease in the development of disease."

Since the human genome was mapped in 2001 the promise of personalized medicine and genetic testing has been one of medicine's holy grails. Hundreds of genetic variations have been linked to diseases like cancer, but few have been the focus of research that has translated into treatments for patients.  As for when these kinds of test will be "ready for prime time?" Rose says the time frame is currently unknown.

In 2008, ACOG announced their position discouraging people from getting the DNA tested by using home genetic tests you can buy on the internet because they were concerned about "the potential harm of misinterpreted or inaccurate results."

However ACOG does support patients get genetic testing for certain diseases like the BRCA 1 & 2 mutation that increases the risk of breast cancer, Cystic Fibrosis, Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of learning disability and cognitive impairment (occurring predominately in boys), and Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal genetic disorder.

People living in homes damaged after 2001's Trade Center attacks were more likely to report respiratory illness or disease years later, when compared with people whose homes were not damaged, according to a recent analysis of World Trade Center Health Registry data.

"This study highlights the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks by showing that people exposed to dust in their homes continued to have respiratory problems even five to six years after the fact," said study author Dr. Vinicius Antao, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, in a press release.

Breathing problems most often reported by residents post-9/11 included upper respiratory problems such as shortness of breath, wheezing and chronic cough. Less frequently, residents reported asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which can cause progressive deterioration of lung function.

About 41% of residents surveyed say they had either "some" or "intense" exposure to the 9/11 dust cloud, according to the study abstract, which will be presented Wednesday at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting.

"The folks who had higher exposures certainly would be more likely to develop disease," said Dr. Jacqueline Moline, director of the Queens World Trade Center Clinical Center of Excellence. "It's also noteworthy that 59% were not in the dust cloud. So you didn't have to be in the dust cloud for there to be these problems."

Among the 6,463 residents included in the study, more than half reported upper respiratory problems. About 16% had shortness of breath; 11% reported wheezing; and 8% had asthma symptoms that either developed or got worse after exposure to dust.

The WTCHR monitors the health of 71,000 rescue/recovery workers and residents exposed to the World Trade Center disaster.  Data are being collected in waves. The first wave covered the first two to three years after 9/11; the second covers the fifth and sixth years following the attack.

Analysis will continue in waves to find out if respiratory illnesses persist and whether proximity to ground zero affects the severity of illness.

"It will also be important to use the results to improve guidance about returning to residences and other locations after a major terrorist or natural event," said an e-mail from Paul Lioy, an environmental health expert and deputy director at Rutgers University's Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.

Persistent respiratory problems are commonly associated with 9/11 responders, such as police officers and firemen, and less often with residents whose homes were coated in dust.

"The take-home message is really that household exposure to this type of dust... is capable of causing disease," said Moline. "Household exposures can be important to health outcomes, and they are often overlooked."

Dr. Virginia Moyer, who sits on the task force, cited that only one out of every 1,000 men who are screened would actually benefit from the exam. Instead, most will have to deal with side effects from treatment that can range from incontinence and impotence, to stroke and death.

“Your primary care physician shouldn’t routinely offer the exam," said Moyer. "But if a patient brings it up, that doctor has a responsibility to inform them of the potential harms and risk."

New story: Top American Cancer Society doctor weighs in on the announcement

However, the American Urological Association is not changing its stance on the PSA test.  “We at the AUA still recommend the PSA, with its imperfections," said Dr. Chris Amling. "It’s the wrong thing to deny a man if he wants to have this test."

Related: Value of mass prostate cancer screenings questioned

The PSA test measures the amount of prostate-specific antigens in the blood. While the screening detects the presence of prostate cancer, it cannot make the distinction between aggressive, fast moving cancers, and the more common slow growing ones.

“There is no other screening test for prostate cancer. It’s clear that the only way to cure prostate is to detect it early," Amling emphasized.

Related story: Annual prostate cancer test doesn't save lives, study says

According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second deadliest cancer among men, and occurs most often in African-American.  But survival rates also are very high. The American Cancer Society finds that 91% of all men with prostate cancer will live for 15 years beyond diagnosis. According to the National Cancer Institute, 70% of prostate cancer deaths occur after age 75.

Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer of the American Cancer Society supports the recommendation of the task force.  “People need to realize that science hasn’t given us the answer," said Brawley. "In the past, when we don’t have a scientific answer, and we’ve guessed, we’ve hurt a lot of people."

Related story: Who decides about screenings?

The task force made its draft recommendation publicly available in October 2011, and reviewed nearly 3,000 comments before issuing its final recommendation.

Currently there are at least 12 million cancer survivors in the United States. Some may have undergone cancer treatment as children; others may be older and only recently completed their cancer therapy.

While advances in cancer care have successfully kept more cancer patients alive, this new study finds there's room for improvement in their follow-up care. Primary care physicians and even cancer specialists need to be aware of the long-term effects of the drugs patients have taken to beat cancer.

Researchers at Harvard University, the National Institute of Nursing Research and the American Cancer Society surveyed nearly 1,100 primary care physicians and 1,100 oncologists or cancer specialists. They asked these doctors to identify the long-term side effects of four of the most widely used chemotherapy drugs used to treat breast and colorectal cancer, two of the most common cancers.

Overall, only 6% of primary care physicians and 65% of oncologists were aware of all the long-term side effects that the four drugs could cause.

When asked about the drug Doxorubicin, 55% of primary care physicians knew patients are at risk for cardiac dysfunction, compared to 95% of oncologists.

In the case of Cyclophosphamide, only 14% of primary care physicians knew women are likely to suffer premature menopause, compared to 71% of cancer specialists.

Study author Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov says these physicians need to be informed about the long-term side effects of cancer treatment, "so that they may be better prepared to recognize and address these among cancer survivors."

"This is a problem of our success," says ASCO's president, Dr. Michael Link.

Dr. Neal Meropol, chief of the division of hematology and oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, says he's not surprised by these findings.

He says that, in the past, medical training has not been focused on making sure physicians taking care of cancer survivors are adequately prepared to deal with long-term side effects.

In addition to chemotherapy drugs and radiation treatments affecting organs and tissues, Meropol also spoke about psychosocial problems patients can face, like fear of cancer recurrence. Problems with relationships also occur because patients are no longer functioning in crisis mode and reentry into a normal pattern is sometimes very difficult.

Experts agree that in the past, the emphasis has been to keep cancer patients alive, and that entire field of cancer survivorship is a pretty new one. But with the success of cancer care, more attention must be given to this area.

Meropol points out that it's now recommended by professional societies for doctors to provide a survivorship care and treatment plan when patients complete their cancer therapy. Such a plan will inform the patient of issues they may face and they can share this information with their physician.

However this doesn't help patients who had their cancer treated a long time ago. Link, who is a pediatric oncologist, says that data among people who survived childhood cancers may be even more alarming.

That's because pediatric patients are usually treated at an age when they are too young to remember exactly what type of cancer they had or how they were treated.

"Many don't even know how to spell it," says Link. By the time they see a regular doctor as adults, the likelihood that they know how they were treated and would give their physician accurate information is pretty low.

"This is a problem we've encountered for some time [in pediatric oncology] because we've had survivors for quite some time."

Not recognizing how a cancer survivor can develop treatment-related health problems is a concern. Link calls it a doctor-education problem and a patient-education problem, which he believes could be helped by better use of electronic medical records.

The CDC announced Friday that it is considering recommending Hepatitis C testing for everyone born between 1945 and 1965. Currently the CDC recommends this testing only for those who are at-risk - people who participated in intravenous drug use or had a blood transfusion before 1992, when screening was implemented.

But such events probably happened decades ago for this population, who may not recall the exposures that place them at risk, says Dr. John Ward, director of the division of viral hepatitis at the CDC.  And those that do remember may not be offering up such information to their primary care physicians.

“I’m not sure everybody is going to acknowledge to their doctors that they used drugs in their 20s," says Dr. Michael Ryan, co-chair of the American Gastroenterological Association's I.D. Hep C awareness campaign.

The timing of the CDC's announcement coincides with Hepatitis Awareness Month. Saturday, May 19, will mark the first national Hepatitis Testing Day. It's all part of the organization's national education campaign, "Know More Hepatitis."

Hepatitis literally means "inflammation of the liver," according to the CDC's website.  It's caused by viral infections, the most common being Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.  Vaccines are available for Hepatitis A and B, but a Hepatitis C vaccine remains elusive, although research is underway.

Hepatitis is usually spread through blood. Transmission through sexual content can happen but the risk is low, Ward says.

In 2007, approximately 17,000 new Hepatitis C virus infections were diagnosed in the United States. The CDC estimates that 3.2 million Americans have chronic Hepatitis C and more than 75% don't know it because they aren't experiencing any symptoms.  Baby boomers represent the majority of cases - more than 75%, and are five times more likely to be infected than other adults.

The American Gastroenterological Association conducted a survey of 1,000 baby boomers this year. Seventy-four percent had never been tested or were unsure if they had been tested. Eighty percent did not consider themselves at any risk for having the disease.

"The survey was actually a little bit frightening," Ryan said. Many thought hepatitis C affected the kidneys, or that the younger generation was more at-risk.

Approximately 20% of people with Hepatitis C will never develop symptoms and will conquer the disease without treatment. The rest can be treated with antiviral medications intended to clear the virus from the body, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver cancer and the most common reason patients need liver transplants in the U.S., according to the CDC. Approximately 15,000 people die every year from related diseases.

CDC research suggests implementing this one-time test could help identify an additional 800,000 people living with the disease, and prevent 120,000 deaths.

"It's causing more deaths than AIDS, the costs are expected to quadruple and cure rates are at 80 to 90%," Ryan says. "[This recommendation] just kind of makes sense."

Before the CDC makes their final recommendation later, they are soliciting input from others experts and the public, which will be factored in to their decision.

“Mr. Wilson... you have prostate cancer.” Those words made up the most devastating phrase I had ever heard.

I have faced numerous challenges in my life and my journey hasn’t been an easy one. I walk that journey step-by-step and prayer-by-prayer. But prostate cancer was a new challenge.

I remember hearing I had prostate cancer like it was yesterday. I was convinced my life was over.  I worked hard at overcoming other life challenges and had the will to return to the top of my game in the music business. I put together a good show; had a catalog of great new songs to record and perform.

Everything was just going great until I went to the doctor for a general physical in the summer of 2008.

My wife, Mahin, made an appointment for me to have my annual physical. I have never liked going to the doctor or getting any type of exam. In addition to the physical, Mahin suggested I have a prostate exam.

I definitely did not want to have that - for various reasons - but Mahin was very convincing.

After a few days, I heard back from the doctor. He encouraged me to make an appointment for the following month for additional monitoring. He explained that African-American men were more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than any other race, and he wanted to keep an eye on things.

I returned in a month. Based on follow-up tests, my doctor suggested that I see a specialist for a biopsy. I immediately got nervous and was concerned about what this could possibly mean.

Our visit with the specialist started with, “I have some good news and some bad news.” My wife asked for the bad news and the doctor said “Mr. Wilson, you have prostate cancer.” My initial reaction was to get up and leave the room. My wife calmly asked me to sit down and have the doctor give us the good news. The good news was that it had been detected early and could be effectively treated.

Thank God for my wife and her patience and understanding. My initial thought was that my life and career were over. Nothing was further from the truth.

The doctor gave us some informational materials and our research began. We discussed options with my health care team and by working with them closely, I am now cancer free.

However, my journey was not over.

During our research I learned that African-American men are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with this disease than other races or ethnicities. It was at that time that I decided it was time for me to start informing as well as performing.

I began to talk about my prostrate cancer diagnosis in my concerts and interviews. Some men asked, “Why are you telling your personal business?” I replied, “It’s my responsibility to make my community aware of this disease and to try to overcome the fear about discussing it.”

During my own prostate cancer battle, I learned that my father was also conducting his own battle. Unfortunately, he did not tell us that he had prostate cancer. It wasn’t until I called to let him know about my diagnosis that he told me. That was a very difficult conversation for me and also confirmed my commitment to tell my story in order to make my community aware of this disease and encourage them to discuss it.

Teaming up with Janssen Biotech, Inc. on the Making Awareness a Priority (M.A.P.) initiative is giving me the opportunity to talk to my community about the toll prostate cancer can take and about taking control of your health care decisions. It’s a much larger platform that will help me reach as many men as possible.

We kicked off the program in Atlanta in April and additional M.A.P. events are planned in New York on May 19 and Chicago on July 28 – details and registration information can be found at www.myprostatecancerroadmap.com. Each event is open to the public and is an opportunity to start a dialogue about prostate cancer, its impact on African-American men and their families, and increasing awareness to start a conversation with their health care teams about this serious and deadly disease.

People say I am a prostate cancer survivor and that is true. But I am doing more than surviving. I am thriving. My career is at an all-time high. I’ve had two No. 1 albums, four Grammy nominations and I am touring and performing at some of the biggest music festivals in the country. I’ve performed for our troops in Kuwait and Iraq four times in the last three years and recently performed at a sold-out concert in London.

More important than anything, my priority is taking care of myself and taking charge of my health care decisions. I hope that African-American men and their families will register for one of the upcoming events, take a moment to learn more about prostate cancer and help spread the word. Awareness is the key. There are great resources and support for those who need it.

I am grateful to my wife for insisting that I have yearly checkups and that I include a discussion about my prostate with my doctor. I still don’t like going to the doctor, but now that I am aware of the importance of going and discussing my health care, I am doing what I can to help myself, with the continued support of my family.

The test is simple – babies who are lying on the floor are pulled up into a sitting position. If the baby's head is not moving forward as you pull the baby up, it's a sign of weak head and neck control.

Researchers already know that head lag could be an early sign that a child's nervous system is not developing correctly. They've seen this in children with cerebral palsy and preterm infants, for example. But so far it had not been documented in children with autism.

Researchers at Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute looked at a small sample of babies who were already at high risk for autism because they had a sibling with autism. If a couple already has one child with an autism spectrum disorder there's a nearly 1 in 5 chance that the second child will have autism too. According to the latest CDC estimates, 1 in 88 children in the United States has an autism diagnosis. It's 5 times more common in boys than girls.

A group of 40 babies were tested at 6 months. Ten children were later diagnosed with ASD at the age of 3. Nine of those 10 babies had head lag when they were 6 months old.

More than half of the children (54%) who were later diagnosed with language or social developmental delays but not autism also had head lag at 6 months, says Rebecca Landa, one of the study authors and the director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger.

In a second study that compared 20 high risk babies to 21 low-risk babies, 75% in the high risk category showed signs of head lag at six months compared to only 33% in the low-risk group.

Landa acknowledges that this research, presented Thursday at a meeting of the International Society for Autism Research in Toronto, is very preliminary and needs to be confirmed in larger studies.

She also cautions that weak head and neck control doesn't automatically mean your baby will develop autism. But, Landa says, if you already have a child with autism and your baby is showing this kind of problem, you should take the child to see a specialist.

"If you don't have a family history of autism, and your child had head lag at 6 months - it might be something else, or might be nothing, but it's important to check it out," she says.

The goal is to identify a child with autism as early as possible so therapy can start early.

"We don't want to wait until children are 1 or 2 when they are more likely to show symptoms of autism."

Alycia Halladay, director of research for environmental sciences at the advocacy group Autism Speaks, says this is a very important study and deserves replication. She says it's too early to consider head lag a diagnostic marker, it's one of many red flags that parents may notice very early in development and something a doctor can easily check out.

Halladay, who was not involved in the research, says "this provides something that parents can bring to their doctors beyond just a concern."

Landa says she doesn't want to scare every parent into thinking their child may have autism because their little one has poor postural control, especially because in some children the problem goes away.

However, this is a simple test that doesn't cost anything, doesn't hurt a child, and - if a child were referred to therapy - doesn't hurt a child but can enrich their development, with or without a subsequent autism diagnosis.

Landa says parents can easily be trained to help their baby improve head and neck control. She suggests Googling "tummy time," which can lead parents to a lot of good information on fun and supportive tummy time exercises to help build their baby's neck muscles.

She also suggests sitting babies up, holding babies at the hips and slowly rocking them from side to side - just enough so that the baby leans to the center, which she says activates the core muscles so the baby stays balanced. Babies love it, especially if you sing a song while doing this.

Whether you run marathons, bike to work or walk around your neighborhood a few times a week – if you really want to optimize your workout, it’s time to check in on your diet.

It’s all about moderation and balancing your food groups: protein and carbs, fruits and veggies, experts say.

So how do they all work together?

Before a workout, it’s all about the carbs, said Carol Kelly, a dietitian at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. “Carbohydrate is the fuel for our bodies, fuel for our brains.  If you think of your metabolism as a fire, carbohydrate is the fuel that helps the fire burn hot.”

You want a meal that includes quality carbohydrates, lean protein, heart-healthy fats and fluids.  Without a sufficient carb supply, you could be breaking down muscle when you exercise.

If you’re working out in the afternoon or after work, you want to make sure to eat a balanced lunch with some carbs. Here are a few options:

• A turkey sandwich with a piece of fruit
• Whole grain pasta with low-fat tomato sauce
• A salad with grilled chicken

Now, if you’re working out first thing in the morning for an hour or less, breakfast can wait until after your workout. That’s because the body usually stores enough glycogen (the body’s long-term energy storage molecules)  from the previous night’s dinner to fuel the workout.

After exercise, refueling (a.k.a. breakfast) needs to happen within 30 to 40 minutes. That meal should look like a combination of carbohydrates and protein, but not too much protein: 10 to 20 grams, or a palm-sized piece of chicken, is enough.

You can try some of these combinations:

• Greek yogurt and an apple
• Hummus and whole grain crackers
• Grilled chicken and a baked potato

“With exercise, our bodies are constantly breaking down and need to be repaired and protein helps do that,” Kelly said.

But there are still “free radicals” floating around in our bodies after we work out, one of the few negative effects of exercise.  These are molecules which are produced when the body breaks down cells and can cause cell damage.  The best solution to rid our bodies of free radicals is to eat lots of fruit and vegetables which help mop up damage that occurs during exercise. A salad, a piece of fruit, mushrooms, onions, even salsa — all are good plant options to fit in throughout the day, according to Kelly.

If you do work out more than 60 minutes each day, you’re going to have to up your carb and protein intake. And definitely don’t delay breakfast if you’re working out  that long first thing in the morning. You’re going to need some fuel to keep you going, whether it’s some yogurt and toast or cereal with milk.

You can also sip on a sports drink while you work out. Some sports beverages get a bad rap for the sugar some of them contain, but for intense workouts that last longer than an hour, they do the trick.  Stick to drinks that have a 6-to-8% solution of carbohydrates and electrolytes to help you hit your workout goal.

For those of us who aren’t competing in a triathlon just yet, plain old H2O has everything you need to stay hydrated during your workout –and during the day.

The important thing is to get moving first and then work your diet around your exercise routine.

With the recent vote against gay marriage in North Carolina and President Obama’s support of marriage equality, same-sex relationships are making headlines.

But my colleagues and I have less political concerns: We’re focused on helping our gay, lesbian, and bisexual clients navigate their way through many of same relationship hurdles that heterosexual clients face.

Couples of all orientations find themselves struggling with the same issues, from mismatched libidos to sex ruts to infidelity. “The underlying dynamics are identical,” says Emily Nagoski, sex educator and author of "A Scientific Guide to Successful Relationships."

“They may play out differently because of the differences in gender or because of external social pressures, but the rules are the same – and there's some clear indications that gay couples are actually better at following those rules than straight couples!”

Nagoski pointed me to a 12-year study of same-sex couples by eminent marriage therapist Dr. John Gottman, which concluded that all couple types - straight or gay - have many of the same issues and the same paths to staying happy together.

But Gottman’s research also indicated that gay/lesbian couples are more upbeat in the face of conflict and, compared to straight couples, use more affection and humor when they bring up a disagreement.

"When it comes to emotions, we think these couples may operate with very different principles than straight couples,” says Gottman. “Straight couples may have a lot to learn from gay and lesbian relationships."

Studies suggest, for instance, that gay male couples tend to have sex more often than any other type of couples, while lesbian couples tend to have the least amount of sex. Since women often value emotional intimacy over sexual intimacy, low sex drive may not be a concern.

Likewise, two men who have strong libidos may be able to accommodate their sexual desires within an open relationship.

“A number of my gay clients prefer to be sexually open but emotionally monogamous,” says sex and relationship therapist Joe Kort. “They can have lovers on the side and not have it be a threat to the relationship.”

It’s a type of male coupledom that sex columnist Dan Savage has famously termed “monogamish” - but it’s not necessarily unique to gay relationships.

“Overall, men are good at compartmentalizing sexual and emotional feelings,” explains Kort. “It’s a guy thing, not a gay thing.”

At the same time, gay and lesbian couples can have unique concerns that just don’t exist in straight relationships. For example, “each partner may be in a different stage of coming out,” says Kort.

“If one partner is more ‘out’, he or she may push for things that the other partner might not feel comfortable with yet, like meeting one another's families or being physically affectionate in public.”

Gender can also play a big role in the way couples relate to each other, in and out of the bedroom, and same-sex couples are no exception.

In general, says Kort, women tend to focus on emotional intimacy, while men can be more emotionally distant. Lesbian and gay couples may benefit from counseling when both partners strongly have these characteristics. In other words, a female couple may be so closely bonded that they want to work on nurturing their individual selves, while counseling can help a male couple learn how to better open up to each other.

If you’re considering counseling, it pays to do your research.

“Your therapist doesn’t have to be gay or lesbian, but he or she should be absolutely be gay and lesbian-informed, not just gay and lesbian-friendly,” explains Kort.

That includes having deep insight into the often-subtle differences between same-sex and heterosexual couples, from concerns about discrimination and being ‘out’, to childhood influences, to sexual issues.

A new study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service is taking one of those excuses off the table.

Previous studies have shown that eating junk food is cheaper than eating healthy food. But Andrea Carlson, lead author for the USDA study, said the way those researchers measured cost-effectiveness skewed the results.

Carlson and her team analyzed 4,439 foods in three different ways – price per calories (as previous studies had done), price per edible gram and price per average portion. Retail prices were based on Nielsen Homescan data. The average portion was determined from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The researchers found that when they used the price per calories analysis, fruits and vegetables appeared more expensive. “But this changes when you use other two,” Carlson said in a press call Wednesday.

For instance, take a chocolate glazed donut. Each donut is probably about 240 calories, and you could probably eat two or three of them with no problem (and just a teensy bit of guilt). Then take a banana with about 105 calories.

If these two cost the same, the banana is more expensive per each calorie eaten. But you’ll probably only eat one and feel a lot fuller afterward, Carlson said. That makes it cheaper per edible gram and per the average portion.

“Many have raised concerns that those of modest means … can’t afford a healthy diet,” said Kevin Concannon, the USDA under secretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. “The good news I take away from the study is that is not necessarily the case.”

Concannon said the study shows that carrots, onions, pinto beans and mashed potatoes are all less expensive per portion than ice cream, sweet rolls, pork chops and ground beef. In fact, protein foods and food high in saturated fat, added sugars and sodium were all more expensive than fruits, vegetables, dairy and grains based on these methods.

“This is great news for all getting by with a limited food budget,” he said. “You don’t have to compromise good nutrition.”

The bottom line, Carlson said, is that there is a range of prices for any type of food you buy. You can find expensive produce and inexpensive produce, as well as expensive and inexpensive junk food.

And while cost is a common excuse offered for not eating nutritionally, it’s not the only barrier. Food deserts make it difficult for some in the U.S. to access fresh produce, and others just don’t want to make the effort.

“Taste always is the first thing people consider when choosing food,” Carlson said.

The USDA offers tips for consumers on how to eat healthy on a budget. For meal plans and more, visit ChooseMyPlate.gov