Influencers’ inventive recipes for high-protein dairy product have boosted trade by 40% for one producer

If you peered into a UK fridge in the late 1970s, it is more than likely you would have found a pot of cottage cheese tucked between the prawn cocktail and sherry trifle.

A popular “diet food” at the time, demand waned in subsequent decades as the high-protein, low-fat wonder food fell out of fashion. But 50 years on from its heyday, cottage cheese is making a comeback in the UK, and has become an unlikely hit with health-conscious Gen Z.

Driven by a wave of social media influencers sharing inventive recipes for the dairy product, which is made from milk curds, UK retailers are reporting significant increases in sales, while producers are struggling to keep up with demand.

“It’s come from absolutely nowhere,” said Robert Graham, managing director of Graham’s Family Dairy. “Since May of last year, when there was a TikTok craze that went on, cottage cheese sales for us are up 40%.”

The company said the growth in production, the equivalent of an extra 2m kilograms a year, means it is looking at ways to increase output, including an initial growth plan to invest £5m to bolster its production facilities.

“We are considering new factories because cottage cheese production is almost full,” said Graham, whose company supplies big retailers such as Co-op, Morrisons and Aldi.

Dairy company Arla is also benefiting from the cottage cheese rush, reporting a double-digit increase in sales in the last three months, while Marks & Spencer experienced a 30% increase compared with last year, and Waitrose reported a 22% year-on-year rise.

Continue reading...

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

We need protein to build muscle, produce hormones, regulate mood and appetite, and strengthen bones. But how much, and what kind, should you eat every day?

Eating protein is non-negotiable. Like carbs and fats, it’s a macronutrient that bodies need in relatively large, regular doses (compared with micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals). But our protein needs change throughout life, according to age, sex, activity levels and more. In fact our requirements can be highly individual and hence easily misjudged, especially when, says the dietitian Linia Patel, “There are conflicting messages around how much protein we should be eating.” On the one hand, the National Diet and Nutrition Survey shows that we exceed our daily protein recommendations, which scientists say could shorten our lives. On the other hand, says Patel: “What I see in my own clinical practice is that around 80% of my clients are not eating quite enough.” The booming protein industry, with its bars, pouches and shakes, would have us believe the more is always the merrier. So how much protein should we be eating?

Continue reading...

In Fisterra in north-west Spain, a diet rich in seafood, fruit and vegetables survives, and has been found to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart-related conditions

Seagulls shriek, boats bob and the morning sun silvers the waters off the Coast of Death as two sailors take a break from winding up their conger eel lines to ponder the sudden interest in precisely what, and how, people here have eaten for centuries.

Like many in the small Galician fishing town of Fisterra – whose name is derived from the Latin for land’s end, because the lonely peninsula on which it sits is about as far west as you can go in mainland Spain – Sito Mendoza and Ramón Álvarez are a little puzzled by all the fuss over the Atlantic diet.

Continue reading...

Study shows delivery apps such as Deliveroo and Just Eat still popular after pandemic boom in orders

Delivery app riders pedalling through cities and tailbacks at drive-throughs were familiar signs of Britain’s hunger for takeaway food at the peak of the Covid pandemic . Now a study suggests it became an enduring habit.

After a boom in orders on Deliveroo, Just Eat and other platforms by locked-down consumers, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests the popularity of takeaways, meal deliveries and food-on-the-go bought from retailer such as sandwiches and crisps has remained above pre-pandemic levels after the removal of Covid restrictions.

Continue reading...

A process called biofortification puts nutrients directly into seeds and could reduce global hunger, but it’s not a magic bullet

In 2004, Donald Davis and fellow scientists at the University of Texas made an alarming discovery: 43 foods, mostly vegetables, showed a marked decrease in nutrients between the mid and late 20th century.

According to that research , the calcium in green beans dropped from 65 to 37mg. Vitamin A levels plummeted by almost half in asparagus. Broccoli stalks had less iron.

Continue reading...

Shrinking portions, ‘very beige’ servings and rising costs leave schools and families bewildered

Parents and teachers have shared their own frustration with substandard school meals after a headteacher in Southampton complained about his school’s contract caterers, asking: “How difficult is it to bake a potato?”

Several parents and school staff who got in touch with the Guardian blamed the outsourcing of school catering for what they saw as declining provision. One headteacher in south-west England, who asked not to be named, remembers what lunchtime was like before budget constraints forced her to make the school’s cook redundant: “Children at playtime would go out and smell what was cooking for lunch and get excited. We felt it was making a difference to children’s diets”.

Continue reading...

Researchers in France believe subtle shift in facial attractiveness is down to changes in blood sugar and insulin

If you want to look your best in the morning, it may be worth swapping the ultra-processed pastries and fruit juice for wholemeal toast and tea without sugar.

Researchers in France found that people who ate a breakfast rich in refined carbohydrates were rated less attractive than those who started the day with healthier unrefined carbs.

Continue reading...