Eating a balanced diet Eating a healthy, balanced diet is an important part of maintaining good health, and can help you feel your best. This means eating a wide variety of foods in the right proportions, and consuming the right amount of food and drink to achieve and maintain a healthy bo Food...

Unfit in middle age After accounting for other factors (including socio-economic status, a number of long-term conditions, smoking, alcohol and BMI), researchers found men between the ages of 37 and 45 were over two-and-a-half times more likely to die than non-frail people of the same age. The figures were similar...

The UK health tax hurting foreign nurses When a Kenyan nurse took up a job in the UK a few years ago, he felt his family's future had been secured. But now the distraught father-of-three is struggling financially to reunite his family. Ken, not his real name, lives with his wife and daughter. But his twin children,...

Prostate cancer spit test is trialled A spit test to detect men at increased risk of prostate cancer has started early trials. The new DNA test looks for high-risk genes that are thought to affect one in every 100 men. Three hundred men are taking part in the trials, from three London GP surgeries. Developing...

Smoked mackerel pilau rice This is a great one-pan family meal that’s tasty and healthy too. If you like more spice, add some ginger and chilli to the vegetables at the start. You can also add boiled eggs at the end too bulk it out. Ingredients 1 tsp rapeseed oil 1 onion, roughly chopped 1 garlic clove,...

Brain 'can be trained to prefer healthy food' The brain can be trained to prefer healthy food over unhealthy high-calorie foods, using a diet which does not leave people hungry, suggests a study from the US. Scientists from Tufts University say food addictions can be changed in this way even if they are well-established. They...

Barnsley bans sugary drinks in 'sugar-free borough' bid Sugary drinks have been barred from sale at Barnsley Council in a bid to make the town a "sugar-free borough". The authority launched its food strategy after its public health department identified smoking, excessive drinking and poor diet as major problems...

Clementine and cod curry Ingredients For the curry 2 tbsp vegetable oil 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 small onion, chopped 2 green chillies, split lengthways 1 tbsp tomato purée 1 tsp turmeric ½ tsp chilli powder ½ tsp curry powder 3 clementines, peel only 400g/14oz cod fillet,...

'I thought if I was fat nobody could see that I was evil' Girls who are sexually abused in childhood are more likely to become obese when they grow up. Like many women, Pauline Sharp used binge-eating as a coping strategy, wearing her 24-stone weight as a "mask, providing padding from the outside world". I can barely...

Gluten-free chicken nuggets These gluten-free chicken nuggets have a crisp coating thanks to ground almonds. Try them with throw-together BBQ sauce. Each nugget with a little BBQ sauce provides 77 kcal, 6.7g protein, 0.8g carbohydrate (of which 0.7g sugars), 5g fat (of which 1g saturates), 0.1g fibre and 0.3g salt. Ingredients For...