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As we all gather ’round the Super Bowl snack spread this Sunday, how worried should we be about the health consequences of the party foul known as double dipping?

We tackled that question as part of our “Is It True?” video series here at the Health Blog — you can see the video below.

The simple act of putting photos of green beans and carrots in cafeteria-tray compartments sparked increased consumption among elementary-school students, according to a small study that suggests one more potential avenue for getting kids to eat their veggies.

Prostate-Cancer Drug Studies: The results from two trials of experimental drugs for advanced prostate cancer add to recent progress against the disease, the WSJ reports. Medivation’s MDV3100 extended survival by nearly five months in a 1,199-patient study, while Bayer and Algeta’s Alpharadin, which homes in on cancer that has already spread to the bone, boosted survival by almost three months in a 922-patient study, the paper reports.

Certain cystic-fibrosis patients will now have an FDA-approved treatment that targets an underlying cause of their disease.

But that drug — Kalydeco, from Vertex Pharmaceuticals — won’t come cheap.

As Dow Jones Newswires reports, the annual cost will be $294,000. Vertex has set up a patient-assistance program to help patients pay for the treatment.

Quality-of-life questions are becoming increasingly important in medical care, especially when it comes to helping patients make decisions about treatments, today’s Informed Patient column reports.

Since the 1970s, researchers have been using quality-of-life measurement tools for a wide variety of medical conditions, primarily in population studies and clinical trials. Outside the U.S. they are often used by national medical systems to help determine payment policies for more costly drugs or treatments.

What’s standing in the way of the wider spread of health IT?

Plenty of things, according to a new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center. The report says boosting use of electronic medical records and other health IT “enjoys bipartisan support.” It’s also being pushed by billions of dollars in government incentives.

Roche’s Genomics Bet: Roche’s $6 billion hostile bid for DNA-sequencing company Illumina represents a bet that the technology will filter down from academic and government research centers to doctors’ offices and hospitals, the WSJ reports. Roche believes sales of genetic mapping machines will almost double to $2.1 billion by 2015, but some analysts say widespread use is by no means certain.

Hostile Bid For Illumina: Swiss drug maker Roche is making a $44.50 per-share hostile bid for Illumina, valuing the gene-sequencing company at $5.7 billion, the WSJ reports. Illumina has already rejected an offer of $40 per share, Roche says. The latest bid represents a premium of about 18% to Illumina’s $37.69 closing price Tuesday. Illumina said today it would review Roche’s proposal.

Very early results from research into embryonic stem cell treatments suggest that the therapy was safe in use against macular degeneration, a major cause of blindness. The findings, though preliminary, are the first published results involving embryonic stem cells in human patients.