Consumer News: FDA approves first mRNA flu vaccine for adults 50 and older

Caffeine may leave drinkers feeling more alert while alcohol continues to impair judgment and coordination

• Caffeine can make people feel less intoxicated without lowering the amount of alcohol in their bloodstream.

• That false sense of sobriety may lead someone to drink more or underestimate how impaired they really are.

• Mixing alcohol and energy drinks has been linked to risks including alcohol poisoning, injuries, dangerous heart effects, and severe dehydration.

As college students head back to campus, the New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers is warning about a combination that can show up at parties, tailgates and other social gatherings: alcohol and energy drinks.

The concern comes down to the different ways the two substances affect the body. Alcohol is a depressant that can cause drowsiness and impair coordination and judgment. Caffeine, meanwhile, is a stimulant that can make someone feel more awake.

That doesn't mean caffeine cancels out alcohol's effects. Instead, it can make those effects harder to recognize. Someone may feel more alert or less drunk even though their alcohol-related impairment hasn't gone away.

As students prepare for a new school year, it's important to understand that energy drinks don't make alcohol safer, Diane Calello, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, said in a news release.

While caffeine may make someone feel more awake, it can hide the warning signs of intoxication and create a false sense of sobriety. Students may think they're less impaired than they really are.

What this means for consumers

The biggest concern is that someone who feels more alert may continue drinking because they don't realize how impaired they are.

According to Rutgers, that can increase the risk of alcohol poisoning, injuries, and impaired driving. The poison center also warns about irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, sleep disruption, and severe dehydration.

Consumers shouldn't rely on caffeine to sober up. If someone who has been drinking becomes difficult to wake, has trouble breathing, experiences a seizure, or develops other serious symptoms, Rutgers advises calling 911. The person should be kept on their side and monitored while help is on the way.

The poison center's advice is straightforward: don't mix alcohol with energy drinks, and don't assume feeling awake means you're less impaired.

The smart way to save money when cooking at home

• 31% of Americans are cooking at home more to save money, but eating in only saves if you shop and plan wisely.

• Maximize savings by meal planning, using versatile ingredients, comparing unit prices, and freezing leftovers.

• Avoid budget killers like food waste, impulse buys, overbuying in bulk, and assuming homemade is always cheaper.

Sticker shock at the grocery store is changing the way Americans eat.

A new survey of 2,000 U.S. adults found that nearly one-third (31%) say they're cooking at home more often than they were a year ago, largely to stretch their food budgets.

The trend comes as grocery prices remain significantly higher than they were just a few years ago, forcing many families to rethink how they shop, cook, and reduce food waste.

But simply eating at home doesn't automatically lower your grocery bill.

The biggest savings come from planning meals around ingredients you'll use multiple times, minimizing waste, and avoiding common shopping mistakes that can erase any potential savings.

Five ways to save more when cooking at home

• Build meals around versatile ingredients. Potatoes, eggs, rice, pasta, and beans are inexpensive pantry staples that can be used in breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. The more meals you get from the same ingredients, the lower your overall food costs.

• Plan your meals before shopping. Creating a simple weekly meal plan helps prevent impulse purchases and ensures ingredients get used before they spoil. One rotisserie chicken, for example, can become tacos, soup, and sandwiches over several days.

• Compare unit prices. Don't assume the largest package is always the best deal. Check the shelf tag's price per ounce or pound to find the true bargain.

• Freeze leftovers before they go bad. Bread, cooked meats, rice, shredded cheese, and many vegetables freeze well. Freezing food before it's forgotten is one of the easiest ways to reduce waste.

• Shop your pantry first. Before heading to the store, see what ingredients you already have. Building meals around food that's already in your kitchen can reduce duplicate purchases and keep perfectly good food out of the trash.

When cooking at home doesn't save you money

Cooking at home is usually less expensive than dining out, but it can easily become more costly if you're not careful. Here are some ways that the cost of cooking at home can add up.

• Buying ingredients for a single recipe. Specialty spices, sauces, and produce that you'll only use once can make one homemade meal surprisingly expensive. Instead, try to choose recipes that share ingredients across multiple meals.

• Throwing away food. Food waste is one of the biggest budget killers. Fresh produce, dairy products, and leftovers are frequently discarded because they weren't used in time.

• Buying more than you need. Warehouse clubs and bulk purchases only save money if you actually consume the food before it expires. Otherwise, those savings disappear.

• Paying for convenience. Pre-cut vegetables, marinated meats, meal kits, and individually packaged snacks often cost significantly more than preparing the same foods yourself.

• Shopping without a plan. Wandering the grocery store without a list often leads to impulse buys, duplicate purchases, and ingredients that never get used.

• Assuming homemade is always cheaper. Grocery store prepared meals, warehouse club rotisserie chickens, and family meal deals can sometimes cost less than buying every ingredient from scratch especially for one- or two-person households. Compare the total cost before assuming homemade is the better bargain.

Chrysler, Mack, and Escape Trailers are part of this week's recall roundup

New research suggests the best GLP-1 treatment could depend on a persons individual metabolic health needs

• A new analysis found that different GLP-1 medications and doses can have different effects on weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol.

• Higher-dose treatments generally showed broader improvements across multiple measures of cardiometabolic health.

• The findings could eventually help doctors choose GLP-1 treatments based on a patients individual health goals not just weight loss.

GLP-1 medications have become closely associated with weight loss, but their effects can extend beyond the number on the scale. New research suggests that different GLP-1 drugs and doses may offer different advantages when it comes to other measures of heart and metabolic health.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Yale School of Medicine, and UT Southwestern Medical Center analyzed data from 19 randomized controlled trials involving 13,117 adults with overweight or obesity. They compared oral and injectable GLP-1 receptor agonists to see how they performed across several measures of cardiometabolic health.

The researchers say the findings could eventually support a more personalized approach to choosing these medications. Rather than there being one GLP-1 treatment that is considered best for everyone, the choice could depend partly on which health outcomes are most important for an individual patient.

We hope that clinicians are encouraged by this study to take a more comprehensive and individual approach to treatment selection, senior author Yong Chen, PhD, said in a news release.

For patients, the key message is that there may not be a single best GLP-1 therapy for everyone, and it all could really depend on what their individual goals and needs are.

How researchers compared the medications

For the analysis, researchers searched PubMed, Embase, and CENTRAL for randomized controlled trials published between January 2014 and November 2025. The studies evaluated three GLP-1 receptor agonists semaglutide, liraglutide, and orforglipron in adults with overweight or obesity, both with and without type 2 diabetes.

The researchers created a measure called the Cardiometabolic Efficacy Index, or CEI, to compare the treatments. The index ranges from 0 to 1, with higher scores representing a stronger overall performance across seven measures: body-weight reduction, waist circumference, HbA1c, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol.

The analysis used a network meta-analysis, allowing researchers to compare treatments using evidence from multiple trials. The researchers also looked separately at the individual measures included in the CEI.

Different drugs showed different strengths

Semaglutide at 7.2 milligrams had the highest overall CEI, at 0.86. It was followed by orforglipron at 36 milligrams, with a CEI of 0.68, and semaglutide at 2.4 milligrams, with a score of 0.66. All three produced placebo-adjusted weight reductions of at least 10% on average.

But the overall rankings don't tell the whole story. Orforglipron showed stronger effects on blood sugar control, HDL cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure, while semaglutide showed larger effects on body weight, waist circumference, and LDL cholesterol.

The study also found that oral GLP-1 treatments could perform competitively with injectable options. Among adults without type 2 diabetes, orforglipron 36 milligrams had a CEI of 0.67, compared with 0.63 for oral semaglutide at 25 milligrams.

For consumers, the findings don't mean one medication should automatically be chosen over another. The researchers note that the CEI measures relative performance across several risk factors and does not establish differences in actual cardiovascular outcomes.

As obesity treatment becomes increasingly personalized, clinicians are often choosing among several highly effective therapies rather than deciding whether to treat at all, co-author Yuan Lu said in the release.

Considering blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose control together could be key to aligning with each patients overall, individualized cardiometabolic profile.