The UK’s Daily Mail (1/26, Whitelocks) reports, “Eating chocolate could stave off bowel cancer, say scientists.” Research on rats “found having daily doses of cocoa reduced the risk of developing the disease.” According to the Daily Mail, “It is believed that the study, published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, is the first to suggest that cocoa could help prevent bowel cancer.”

HealthDay (1/20, Preidt) reports that a study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that “many kidney failure patients experience bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract, a problem that can cause serious health problems and even early death.” The researchers argued “that more needs to be done to prevent and treat upper GI bleeding…in kidney failure patients.”

HealthDay (12/29, Preidt) reports that according to a study published in the Journal of Proteome Research, “regular beer and even some brands of beer labeled ‘low-gluten’ contain high levels of gluten and could cause problems for people with celiac disease.” After developing and conducting tests on 60 commercial beers to detect hordein, a form of gluten, researchers “found that many of the regular brands contained significant levels of hordein,” and two brands of beer “labeled ‘gluten-free’ actually had about as much hordein as regular beer.”