Health Roundup: IVF, School Cafeterias, and Fiber in Your Coffee

A few miscellaneous health items of interest this weekend:

• In vitro fertilization, or IVF, has a high risk of leading to multiple births, as many of us who have gone through the procedure know. Researchers at Yale School of Medicine and McGill University have developed a new procedure to estimate the “reproductive potential” of individual embryos. They claim this could lead to both higher success rates for IVF and a decrease in multiple births.
• Nearly 40 percent of school cafeterias didn’t get the required two health inspections last year, according to Agriculture Department data obtained by The Associated Press. Ten percent received no inspections, and thirty percent had only one. This means that the majority did get the requisite inspections, and that’s comforting, but still leaves millions of children eating in cafeterias that could pose risks. The AP notes it is not the schools’ fault when they don’t get inspected. Rather, the burden is on state and local health authorities. Still, I imagine you could check with your local school to find the date of its last inspection, and then follow up with your government health board if needed. Common violations are also easy to fix, and include keeping food at the wrong temperatures or having open dumpsters outside the cafeteria.
• Caffeine plays a major part in daily life for many of us. Scientists at the National Research Council in Madrid have confirmed that brewed coffee also contains fiber—a Starbucks grande, for example, “could pack as much as three grams of fiber, about the same as a raw apple and 20 percent or more of the average American’s daily intake.” Vegetable haters shouldn’t start pounding back the lattes, however. Coffee doesn’t contain the same vitamin goodness as vegetables and may or may not be a factor in heart disease.