Researchers find no such link for women, suggesting connection between diet and bowel cancer is clearer for men
Eating a plant-based diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes can reduce the risk of bowel cancer in men by more than a fifth, according to research.
A large study that involved 79,952 US-based men found that those who ate the largest amounts of healthy plant-based foods had a 22% lower risk of bowel cancer compared with those who ate the least.
Continue reading...Gourmet Fadi Kattan wants to give the UK capital an authentic taste of his homeland’s cuisine with a new restaurant venture
Akub, also known as gundelia, is an unruly plant that blossoms across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East after the winter rains. Some believe that the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’s head during the crucifixion was made from this long-lasting, sweet-smelling thistle.
It is foraged everywhere, from the Kurdish highlands and Cyprus to the Sinai peninsula, for its earthy, tender stems and delicate-tasting flower buds, but is most highly prized in Palestinian cuisine. Each spring, people defy the Israeli authorities – who say the plant is in danger of overcollection – to bring as many bags of prickly akub as they can carry back to their kitchens to throw into meat stews or fry with eggs and lemon.
Continue reading...Programme to subsidise exports of grain to poor and hungry countries launched on anniversary of Ukraine’s Holodomor famine
Up to 60 Ukrainian grain ships can be sent by the middle of next year to some of the world’s poorest countries in Africa, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said in a statement released to the Guardian.
In a move that challenges the Russian narrative that the west’s response to its war on Ukraine has aggravated pre-existing food shortages in Africa, Zelenskiy said ships moving out of the Ukrainian port of Odesa can reach humanitarian hotspots such as Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, but only so long as international funding comes forward to subsidise the grain.
Continue reading...#CookForIran uses the country’s rich culinary tradition to highlight the fight for human rights, says organiser Layla Yarjani
When Layla Yarjani thinks of Iran, she thinks of ice-creams by the Caspian Sea and eating beef tongue sandwiches with her dad in a Tehran cafe. She remembers the warmth and community spirit: the bustle of noisy dinner parties with neighbours, everyone reaching across one another for spoonfuls of Persian stew; and afternoons playing football with the boys on her street.
She also remembers the strict rules beyond her happy bubble: the ban on her mother leaving the country without a man’s permission; being ordered to chant “death to America” at school and the day she was scolded by teachers for wearing a Disney princess backpack, because the character’s hair was not covered by a headscarf.
Continue reading...‘I would very definitely lay off the poppy seed tea for the moment,’ academic says
Australians are being warned not to drink poppy seed tea, promoted on popular social media platforms, after a spate of poisoning cases across Australia linked to the home-brewed sedative.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand has issued a national recall of poppy seeds due to the potential presence of high levels of thebaine – an opioid alkaloid. The elevated levels of thebaine has been caused by non-food grade poppy seeds incorrectly entering the human food supply chain.
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Continue reading...After examining carp remains, researchers claim people who lived 780,000 years ago liked their fish well done
Early human ancestors living 780,000 years ago liked their fish well done, Israeli researchers have revealed, in what they said was the earliest evidence of fire being used to cook.
Exactly when our ancestors started cooking has been a matter of controversy among archaeologists because it is difficult to prove that an ancient fireplace was used to prepare food, and not just for warmth.
Continue reading...Chefs are hoping the concept will tempt diners to spend a little more and fight the cost-of-living crisis
Linden Stores, in the Cheshire village of Audlem, has started a whole sharing menu of modern British food, with two people sharing seven dishes including charred pepper and Cornish Quartz cheddar croquettes, hake wrapped in wild boar pancetta and chocolate and peanut butter tart.
Laura Christie and her partner, Chris Boustead, relocated the restaurant to the village from London in 2020. She has been surprised by the reaction.
Continue reading...Martinsgans – or martin goose – is eaten around 11 November, but restaurants are dropping dish to save cash
Soaring inflation threatens to cast a shadow over one of Germany’s most popular cultural festivities, which culminates in eating roast goose.
A Martinsgans, or martin goose, is eaten on or around 11 November – St Martin’s Day – when the 4th-century Roman soldier-turned-saint who shared his cloak with a poor man is remembered throughout the country in lantern parades, song, bonfires and theatrical reenactments of his life.
Continue reading...Scientists have long sought to farm the scarce seafood staple, but critics say animals are not suited to intensive methods
Scientists in Japan say they have developed a groundbreaking method of farming squid that could solve shortages of the seafood staple, amid warnings from environmental groups that aquaculture is incompatible with the animal’s welfare.
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) say their system produced a reliable supply of squid and has the potential to be commercialised.
Continue reading...Rise of 11.6% in October from 10.6% a month earlier comes as milk, teabags and sugar become more expensive
Food prices in the UK soared by 11.6% in October – the fastest rate on record – as staples such as teabags, milk and sugar became more expensive along with fresh food, data shows.
Annual food inflation rose from 10.6% in September, the latest monthly report from the British Retail Consortium and the data firm Nielsen showed.
Continue reading...Food blogger was played by Amy Adams in the film inspired by her memoir, about attempting to cook more than 500 Julia Child recipes in a year
Julie Powell, the food blogger best known for her cooking memoir, Julie & Julia, which inspired a film starring Meryl Streep, has died at the age of 49.
Her husband, Eric Powell, confirmed to the New York Times that she died of cardiac arrest caused by heart arrhythmia at their home in Olivebridge in upstate New York on 26 October.
Continue reading...Global heating is warming waters, changing salmon and tuna migration – and hurting fisheries
There is little at Shiogama seafood market to suggest that Japanese consumers could one day be deprived of their favourite seafood – from giant crab’s legs simmering in a winter nabe hotpot to spheres of salmon roe resting on a bed of rice wrapped in nori seaweed.
Stalls heave with huge sides of bluefin tuna, expertly transformed into more manageable portions by knife-wielding workers, while early-morning shoppers pause to inspect boxes of squid, flounder and sea pineapples landed only hours earlier.
Continue reading...Experts call for tighter regulations as tests find ethoxyquin exceeds maximum limits in Tassal and Petuna salmon
A fish feed additive banned in the European Union out of concerns for health impacts in animals and humans has been found in Tasmanian salmon at concerning levels, say experts who are calling for tighter regulations.
Dr Christian Narkowicz, an organic chemist, last year commissioned the National Measurement Institute to test salmon for residues of ethoxyquin.
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Continue reading...US assistant secretary of state says two countries have stopped creation of new protected areas in Antarctica ‘for too long’
The US has urged China and Russia to “get on side with conservation” and stop blocking nearly 4m sq km in new marine protected areas around Antarctica.
Speaking at a major international meeting on Antarctic conservation in Hobart, the US assistant secretary of state, Monica Medina, said the two countries had prevented the creation of three new protected areas in Antarctic waters “for too long” and it was time to “shake up the system”.
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Continue reading...Loblaw Companies says it will lock in prices of ‘no name’ amid looming parliamentary investigation into the food retail industry
Canada’s largest grocer has announced a price freeze on its low-cost product line, amid accusations of profiteering a worsening cost of living crisis – and a looming parliamentary investigation into the food retail industry.
Inflation figures on Wednesday showed that grocery prices in the country rose 11.4% over last month, continuing a surge not seen in more than four decades.
Continue reading...Scorching summer left reservoirs depleted and unlikely to recover, as growers warn of supply chain collapse in leaked meeting
Farmers have warned they will not be able to grow crops next year if predictions that the drought will last until next summer prove accurate.
Leaked slides from a national drought group meeting, seen by the Observer, show there are concerns that because reservoirs are still empty due to record dry conditions, the fruit and vegetable supply chain could collapse.
Continue reading...Rhinoceros-size Minnesota native wins big in California and will compete once more before being retired to stud
Growers from across the country descended on the California coast carrying with them some of the world’s most gargantuan pumpkins.
The giant pumpkin weigh-off, held annually ahead of Half Moon Bay’s pumpkin festival just south of San Francisco, is considered by competitors to be a Super Bowl of sorts in the unique sport, and the behemoths entered this year – some weighing as much as an average rhinoceros – did not disappoint.
Continue reading...Citizen scientists find high phosphorous levels in the soil could be polluting the river in Herefordshire
Campaigners have revealed the results of farmland testing which provides new evidence of the potential link between intensive poultry units and the decline of the River Wye.
Citizen scientists sampled farmland along public footpaths near a tributary to the river in Herefordshire. They discovered the soil with the highest levels of phosphorus, which can blight a river, were close to intensive poultry units.
Continue reading...Higher obesity risk linked to maternal diet of ultra-processed food is not affected by other lifestyle factors, US researchers say
Children of mothers who consume ultra-processed foods such as ready meals, sugary cereals and biscuits are more likely to grow up overweight or obese, a study suggests.
The link between a mother’s diet and her child’s obesity risk is independent of other lifestyle risk factors, including the child’s own consumption of ultra-processed food, according to the research. The findings are published in the BMJ.
Continue reading...As demand for honey slows after the pandemic, stockpiles far exceed the amount usually sold in a year
New Zealand is drowning in honey after a boom in beekeeping collided with slowing international demand to create towering stockpiles.
Over the past five years, global desire for mānuka honey and demand for home-based honey remedies during the pandemic helped push up prices, creating a kind of honey gold rush on New Zealand farms.
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