Meal Snap News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

this is your "a.m. wakeup call." . good morning to you, it is tuesday, november 22nd. i'm carol costello. here are this morning's top stories. republican candidates gathering in the shadow of the white house tonight for the big cnn national security debate. it's the first test for newt gingrich as the front-runner. a new poll shows he leads mitt romney by 4%. giving up a lot of the blame, not much shame is the congressional super committee calls it quits. lawmakers announcing they cannot reach a deal to cut at least $1.2 trillion worth of deficit now even more painful cuts loom. ...

>> reporter: it is part of a $2 million federally funded pilot program to see which antiobesity initiatives are working and to open the eyes of parents. >> this feedback is going to be proactive for parents so they can help us raise healthier children. >> reporter: if you're into counting your own calories there is of course an app for that, it is called meal snap. we decided to test drive here at one of my favorite burger joints in the universe. i've got the calorie information right here. we'll see if the app calculates it correctly. can i have a cheeseburger? so it's actually reasonably imp...

It may be in your dna. >> we needed a study for that? >> a new study found not one but two genes linked to caffeine intake. researchers say they made the discovery of the gene in more than 47,000 people. >> caffeine gets a bad rap. you need it. >> i'm fine with it. >> in small amounts. >> so do calories. >> calories get a bad rap, but we love them. this is a new app. called meal snap. it gives users the calorie count in food items that they photograph. for each photo, you get a ballpark calorie figure for one serving of the item pictured. >> it'ses a those ones that you don't think are reall...

Pretty cool. two quick dose of health news. first, if you're a zombie without your coffee, if you're in love with a cup of joe, we might know why. it's in your dna researchers found two genes linked to caffeine intake that compared genes and caffeine consumption of more than 47,000 people. so drink that cup of joe. and if you're watching calories, there's a new iphone app for that. it's called meal snap. and it gives user the calorie count and food items for each photo. you get a ballpark calorie count for one serving of the item pictured. how accurate, but why not? next on "newsroom," a...