By DEE-ANN DURBIN

Minute Maid helped make orange juice a year-round morning staple in 1946, when it started shipping cans of frozen juice around the U.S.

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But 80 years later, the brand’s parent company is halting sales of frozen juice concentrates in the U.S. and Canada, saying it wants to focus on the fresh juices that customers now prefer.

“We are discontinuing our frozen products and exiting the frozen can category in response to shifting consumer preferences,” The Coca-Cola Co., which owns Minute Maid, said Wednesday in a statement.

Minute Maid’s frozen juices – including several varieties of orange juice, lemonade and limeade – will be discontinued by April, with inventory available while supplies last, Coca-Cola said.

For generations, Americans who wanted orange juice without the work of squeezing fresh fruit cracked open a can and watched a cylinder of frozen juice go ker-plunk into a pitcher. The concentrated juice was mixed with water to make it ready for drinking.

In 1946, Vacuum Foods Corp. became the first U.S. company to ship frozen orange juice across the country, according to Coca-Cola. It named the product Minute Maid; Vacuum Foods eventually changed its name to Minute Maid as well. Rival Tropicana, which still sells frozen canned juice, was founded in 1947.

Coca-Cola acquired Minute Maid in 1960, and 13 years later, Minute Maid introduced ready-to-drink orange juice, which was sold in the refrigerated case instead of the freezer and let consumers skip the step of mixing it up. Minute Maid added lemonade and fruit punch to its lineup in 1980.

In recent years, orange juice has struggled as other options, like energy drinks and protein smoothies, have flooded the market. Skyrocketing prices due to poor weather conditions in Brazil and Florida haven’t helped; a 12-ounce can of frozen orange juice cost an average of $4.82 in December, up 13% from the prior year, according to U.S. government data.

Consumers also increasingly questioned the added sugar in juices. Minute Maid launched Zero Sugar versions of its fresh juices in 2020. But its frozen juices have languished along with the broader frozen juice category.

U.S. sales of frozen beverages fell nearly 8% in the 52 weeks ending Jan. 24, according to the market research firm NielsenIQ.

By DEVI SHASTRI

The nation’s largest professional organization for plastic surgeons recommended that gender-affirming surgeries be delayed until patients turn 19, changing the group’s stance on the politically charged issue and diverging from several other major medical organizations’ guidance.

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The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said Tuesday that it found “insufficient evidence” that the benefits of chest, genital and facial surgeries on minors experiencing gender dysphoria outweigh the risks. It leaned on two recent and heavily debated publications on the topic, the Cass Review by a senior doctor in England and a 2025 report issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“This position statement doesn’t seek to deny or minimize the reality of any patient’s distress, and it does not question the authenticity of any patient’s experience,” the position statement reads. “Instead, ASPS affirms that truly humane, ethical, and just care, particularly for children and adolescents, must balance compassion with scientific rigor, developmental considerations and concern for long-term welfare.”

The statement is not a clinical guideline, the document notes. The society also did not do an independent evidence assessment or take other steps that would be involved in setting new care guidelines.

Other medical groups stand by their guidance

The shift comes as President Donald Trump’s administration pressures health care providers to limit or stop gender-affirming care for transgender people, particularly children.

“Today marks another victory for biological truth in the Trump administration,” Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement. “The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has set the scientific and medical standard for all provider groups to follow.”

Other major medical associations stood their ground, noting current guidelines already call for caution around surgery for minors.

Gender-affirming surgery is rare among U.S. children, research shows. And fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents receive gender-affirming medications.

The American Academy of Pediatrics “does not include a blanket recommendation for surgery for minors” with gender dysphoria, said its president, Dr. Andrew Racine. “The AAP continues to hold to the principle that patients, their families, and their physicians — not politicians — should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them.”

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which develops standards of care for transgender patients globally, reiterated its support for access to surgical care for minors under “cautious guidelines and criteria.”

The group’s guidelines oppose a “definitive age or ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for every patient.” Decisions should be case-by-case, based on the evaluations of multiple types of health experts and experts in adolescent development.

“WPATH stands firm in its commitment to advancing evidence-informed clinical guidelines to help improve the lives and well-being of transgender people around the world,” the group said in a statement.

Hospitals halt gender-affirming care for kids

Gender-affirming care for transgender youth under standards widely used in the U.S. entails developing a plan with medical experts and family members that includes supportive talk therapy and can — but does not always — involve puberty blockers or hormone treatment. Many U.S. adolescents with gender dysphoria may decide not to proceed with medications or surgeries.

Still, the Trump administration moved in December to cut off gender-affirming care for minors, prompting a third of states to sue. It was the latest in a series of clashes between an administration that says transgender health care can be harmful to children and advocates who say it’s medically necessary.

Under pressure from the administration, hospitals across the country have suspended gender-affirming care for minors, most recently Children’s Minnesota, which plans to pause prescribing puberty-suppressing medications and hormones for patients under age 18 citing federal “threats.”

“This is not the decision we wanted to make,” the health system said in a statement. “This is the decision we had to make to protect our hospital and our providers. We stand firmly behind the fact that gender-affirming care is evidence-based, safe and lifesaving.”

The plastic surgeons group also acknowledged that “variability in regulatory and legal environments” played a role in the decision to issue a statement, saying the lack of evidence on the benefits of gender-affirming care means “surgical decision-making carries heightened ethical, clinical and legal risk.”

Dr. Scot Glasberg, who helped develop the statement, said deliberations over the language started in 2024 and were not politically influenced, despite the issue being highly charged.

“This was an iterative process that took time, with no outside pressure,” said Glasberg, a past president of the surgeons group. “We understand there will be different opinions about it and we respect those opinions.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new kind of pill sharply reduced artery-clogging cholesterol in people who remain at high risk of heart attacks despite taking statins, researchers reported Wednesday.

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It’s still experimental but the pill helps rid the body of cholesterol in a way that today can be done only with injected medicines. If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the pill, named enlicitide, could offer an easier-to-use option for millions of people.

Statins block some of the liver’s production of cholesterol and are the cornerstone of treatment. But even taking the highest doses, many people need additional help lowering their LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol enough to meet medical guidelines.

In a major study, more than 2,900 high-risk patients were randomly assigned to add a daily enlicitide pill or a dummy drug to their standard treatment. The enlicitide users saw their LDL cholesterol drop by as much as 60% over six months, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

There are other pills that patients can add to their statins “but none come close to the degree of LDL cholesterol lowering that we see with enlicitide,” said study lead author Dr. Ann Marie Navar, a cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

That benefit dropped only slightly over a year, and there was no safety difference between those taking the pill or placebo, researchers found. One caveat: The pill must be taken on an empty stomach.

Heart disease is the nation’s leading cause of death and high LDL cholesterol, which causes plaque to build up in arteries, is a top risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. While an LDL level of 100 is considered fine for healthy people, doctors recommend lowering it to at least 70 once people develop high cholesterol or heart disease — and even lower for those at very high risk.

Statin pills like Lipitor and Crestor, or their cheap generic equivalents, are highly effective at lowering LDL. For additional help, some powerful injected drugs work differently, blocking a liver protein named PCSK9 that limits the body’s ability to clear cholesterol from blood. Yet only a small fraction of people who could benefit from PCSK9 inhibitors use them. While prices for the costly shots have dropped recently, patients still may dislike administering shots and Navar said they’re more complex for doctors to prescribe.

Merck funded Wednesday’s study, which provides some of the final data needed to seek FDA approval of enlicitide. The FDA has added the drug to a program promising ultra-fast reviews.

The research offers “compelling evidence” that the new pill lowers cholesterol about as much as those PCSK9 shots, Dr. William Boden of Boston University and the VA New England Healthcare System, who wasn’t involved with the study, wrote in the journal.

Boden cautioned there’s no data yet showing the pill’s cholesterol-reduction translates into fewer heart attacks, strokes and death. That takes much longer than a year to prove. Merck has a study of more than 14,000 patients underway to tell.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.