“Eating just two small bits of chocolate a week can cut the risk of heart failure by up to a third,” according to an article in the Daily Express . The news story is based on a study of whether chocolate affects the risk of heart failure in elderly and middle-aged women

“Curry could save your life,” reports the Daily Star. It said that “chilli-laden dishes such as vindaloo or phall might appear to cause the brave eater to tense up, but they make blood vessels relax”.This “lowers blood pressure, reducing the risk of deadly heart attacks”.

“Children who have junk food diets are at greater risk of allergies as well as obesity,” reported The Daily Telegraph.

A diet of meat and potatoes “reduces the risk of lung cancer by half”, according to The Independent. The newspaper says that people with above average levels of vitamin B6 in their blood had a lower risk of developing lung cancer.

“A simple test that would revolutionise the diagnosis of autism is being developed by British scientists,” the Daily Mail reported. The test would need just a few drops of urine, and is based on the idea that people with autism have different bacteria in their guts from those without autism. This research compared the chemical profiles of urine samples from a small group of autistic children to those from their non-autistic brothers and sisters, and another group of unrelated non-autistic children

Early results from a study of more than 500 infants with egg or milk allergy indicate that they are highly likely to test positive for allergic antibodies that are specific to peanuts. This unexpected finding suggests that these infants are at risk for developing peanut allergy later in life and should be evaluated by a health care professional before introducing peanuts into their diet.

“Providing vitamin supplements to poorly nourished women during pregnancy may reduce the risk of them giving birth to underweight babies,” The Independent reported. The news story is based on research in 405 pregnant women from a low-income area in East London, some of whom were deficient in key micronutrients, such as iron, folate and thiamin.

“Dieting without exercise ‘will NOT help you lose weight’,” reported the Daily Mail. It said scientists believe that this may be because of “a natural compensatory mechanism that reduces a person’s physical activity in response to a reduction in calories”. This research was carried out in 18 female monkeys fed a high-fat diet for several years

“Women who take a daily multivitamin pill to ward off illness may actually be increasing their risk of breast cancer,” reported the Daily Mail.

“What women eat while they are in the early stages of pregnancy influences the sex and health of their unborn baby”, The Daily Telegraph reported. It said that eating breakfast and a high fat diet around the time of conception made it more likely the offspring would be a boy