Tag: diet

  • Grub’s up! Why we should all start eating insects

    Once upon a time, vegetarians were seen as weirdos who had to make do with a cheese omelette when dining out. Today, non-meat eaters get some of the tastiest options. There is no shortage of meat substitutes foods to sink our laughing tackle into, like Quorn, ‘soy mince’ and tofu. But there is a newcomer…

  • Ditch the ‘detox’: don’t let the diet myth cleanse your wallet

    Lady Macbeth kept scrubbing but she couldn’t get the marks out. Shakespeare’s character was so wracked with guilt that imaginary blood stains appeared on her hands and, try as she may, she couldn’t get herself clean. It’s not just fiction: research shows that all of us have a powerful urge to wash, bathe, shower, or…

  • Exercise machine calorie counters: they exaggerate the burn

    January is the month of the jogger. Every evening for the past three weeks, regular-looking folk have been bouncing their bits up and down our streets, running in the pursuit of getting a bit fitter. No doubt prompted by a New Year’s resolution or ill-considered pledge to run this year’s half-marathon, such noble joggers oftentimes…

  • What not to tell a child: “Clear your plate or there’s no dessert!”

    Tonight’s meal will be steak with all the trimmings and I can’t wait. Nothing – bar a heard of wildebeest running through the dining room – will stop me from finishing it. For I know it will be delicious and that the meat was expensive. My mother has taught me well: ‘waste not, want not.’…

  • Love smoothies? “2.5 of your 5 A Day” claim ruled to be false by ASA

    You know that you really shouldn’t believe everything you read. Especially when it’s written on an advertisement. And if it’s a science or health claim on an advert, then you really know to be sceptical. Because, for as long as man has been trying to sell something, he has tried to get one over on…

  • Isn’t it time that fad diets went out of fashion?

    Channel 4’s Supersize vs Superskinny is back on the telly. The long-running health show, which challenges two ‘extreme eaters’ to swap diets for a week, used to be my TV-watching guilty pleasure. Previous series’ were known for the infamous ‘feeding tube’ – a huge Perspex cylinder into which a week’s worth of food is emptied.…

  • Rare, Medium or Well done? The science of a perfect steak

    Vegetarians, look away now. Today’s post is distinctly carnivorous. Read on, you red meat eaters, as we are discussing an issue of upmost culinary importance… You can’t beat a good steak, I say. Quality medium-rare beef fillet; served with fries and salad is true feel-good food. I know I’m not the only one: it is…