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A Chinese restaurant offering an all-you-can-eat buffet is charging customers £20 in ‘wastage’ if they leave food on their plates. Managers at the Kylin Buffet in Ocean Road, South Shields, have put up a notice urging diners to eat up all their food – or face the penalty charge. The policy has outraged one mother [...]

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Women’s empowerment guru, Tyra Banks, has spoken out in support of Vogue’s decision to ban rail thin models from its pages. The 38-year-old media mogul and former supermodel praised the fashion glossy’s 19 editors today for banding together to put a stop to ‘thinspirational’ editorial and called for a toast ‘over some barbecue and burgers’. [...]

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The average family with children throws away £680 of food a year, according to research. The sum, which equals £13 a week, makes a total of £12 billion across the nation. The study found that the average household spends £68 a week on food but that 91% of households with children admit to throwing some [...]

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Giving water to children with their meals helps encourage them to eat their greens, a study has revealed. Researchers claim children who drink more water make better food choices and have a healthier appetite for vegetables. A team from the University of Oregon in the U.S. looked at the drinks and vegetables consumed by 75 [...]

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UK families are wasting £270 a year (£5.20 a week) on discarded food and drink, according to a survey of their kitchen habits. Most families massively underestimate the amount of food they throw away each week, according to new research. Despite the economic downturn they admit to buying more than they need, often tempted by [...]

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Were you breastfed as a baby and if so, do love or hate your mother? Do you have children of your own and if so, do you or did you breastfeed them? And for how long? And if it was a long time ago, do they still speak to you? And did you ever do [...]

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If you’re fed up with huge allotment waiting lists and want to enjoy produce from your own plot, here is a very modern solution. Gardeners can now rent a patch of land on a farm which supplies Fortnum & Masons – and manage the growing through the internet. The scheme, called i-Grow, lets people pick [...]

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We used ready-to-roll red and blue sugarpaste icing (£1.15 for 250g from janeasher.com) to decorate. It’s so easy children can do it. For the cakes 250g (9oz) butter, slightly softened 250g (9oz) caster sugar 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten 250g (9oz) self-raising flour 1 tsp vanilla extract 5 tbsp milk For the icing [...]

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A London hospital has set up the United Kingdom’s first specialist centre offering extreme weight loss surgery for children and teenagers. Childhood obesity rates are rising fast in the UK, with latest statistics showing that a third of children aged 10-11 in England suffer from obesity or weight issues. In Southwark, the south London borough [...]

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Children should be taught how to grow and cook their own food at school as part of the national curriculum, to encourage them to eat more healthily as adults, MPs will say today. A cross-party committee of MPs also called for a ban on internet junk food ads aimed at children, to help curb Britain’s [...]

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Nine out of 10 academies are selling pupils junk food such as crisps, chocolate and cereal bars that are banned in maintained schools to protect children’s health, research has revealed. The findings from a study by the School Food Trust (SFT) contradict the education secretary Michael Gove’s claim that the academies he champions are following [...]

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Jamie Lynne Grumet has appeared on the cover of Time magazine, looking fetching in a vest and skinnies, and staring into the camera as her three-year-old child sucks at her breast. She aims to publicise “attachment parenting”, although she also says: “There seems to be a war going on between conventional parenting and attachment parenting. That’s what [...]

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The latest cover of Time magazine has caused outrage. Under the headline “Are you mom enough?”, a young woman is pictured having her left breast suckled by a boy who appears way beyond usual breastfeeding age. The woman, it turns out, is Jamie Lynne Grumet, a 26-year old mother from Los Angeles, and the boy [...]

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With the numbers of eating disorders on the rise, many believe women are feeling more pressure than ever to be thin. But a new study claims that supportive families can help combat social pressures which cause people to focus unduly on appearance and unrealistic ideals. Findings showed that levels of emotional support affected the way [...]

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Being fortunate enough not to be intolerant of anything except horrible food, I realise the Baking Club thus far has been somewhat butter-centric. Butter is to cakes what grapes are to wine, little else will do. But for some, another type of fat must do. Lactose intolerance is not unusual, and those that suffer it [...]

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Many schoolgirls now say they feel “exposed” without make-up and spray tan while others feel under growing pressure to actively hide their intelligence, the study compiled for the Girl Guides found.   And while many list characters from television programmes such as The Only Way is Essex among their role models, few were able to [...]

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Martha Payne, nine, posted the series of pictures as part of a writing project she started with her father Dave. When she first checked her website, called NeverSeconds, late last month to see if she had any reaction, it had received only three hits. But on Thursday it had become an internet hit and amassed more [...]

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To all outward appearances Logan Knowles is a healthy, active little boy. The football-mad four-year-old loves nothing more than kicking a ball about in the garden after school, and if he’s not practising his goal-scoring skills then he’s usually to be found tearing around on his bike. So imagine his mother Stefanie’s shock — and [...]

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Eating probiotic yoghurt is known to calm troubled tummies – now scientists have found it could boost virility as well. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found male mice fed the vanilla-flavoured dessert had a certain ‘swagger’ when they walked. They discovered these mice had testicles that were five per cent higher than other [...]

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The new drink, called Fruitizz, is part of the fast food giant’s efforts to improve the health credentials of its children’s meals and follows the introduction of carrot sticks, fruit bags, mineral water and organic semi-skimmed milk to its Happy Meal menu.   However, a 500ml cup contains 200 calories and 49 grams of sugar. [...]

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It is hardly food for the hungry – a cheeseburger, two potato croquettes, tiny slices of cucumber and a lolly. Now nine-year-old Martha Payne’s miserable school dinner looks set to spark an outcry over nutrition for the nation’s children – and has turned her into an overnight star on the internet. The fair-haired schoolgirl posted [...]

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McDonald’s is to introduce a fizzy drink for children that promises one of their five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables, it has announced. The new drink, called Fruitizz, is part of the fast food giant’s efforts to improve the health credentials of its children’s meals and follows the introduction of carrot sticks, fruit bags, mineral [...]

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The new drink, called Fruitizz, is part of the fast food giant’s efforts to improve the health credentials of its children’s meals and follows the introduction of carrot sticks, fruit bags, mineral water and organic semi-skimmed milk to its Happy Meal menu. However, a 500ml cup contains 200 calories and 49 grams of sugar.   [...]

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As you take another sip of coffee and ponder a third slice of toast, consider this: there are primary schools in Britain where a quarter of all children arrive having eaten no breakfast. Not a crumb. This is not because these pupils are ‘not really breakfast people’, as some strange adults claim to be. It’s [...]

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In a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, Mr Oliver, alongside leading health figures, call on him to introduce a minimum 24 hours of practical cooking lessons and food education for all pupils aged four to 14. The group laments that the “pride” of hosting the Olympic Games has been “tainted by the shameful fact [...]

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Sweet foods, all comforting, soft and pappy, have proved popular in this recession. Over the past few years we’ve seen revivals or rediscoveries of cupcakes, whoopie pies, syrups and bacon jams, of posh ice creams and doughnuts, the American-style pairings of pig and sugar. Mouth-coating sweetnesses that help people stave off fears of the debtors’ [...]

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It has been the world’s fashion bible for decades, its pages adorned with beautiful clothes – all too often modelled by painfully thin women. But in a groundbreaking move, Vogue has pledged it will no longer use photographs of dangerously underweight models. In a statement published across all of its 19 international editions yesterday, the [...]

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Nutella, the much-loved chocolate-hazelnut spread, is definitely delicious, but not a part of a healthy breakfast, since it contains 21 grams of sugar, 200 calories, and 11 grams of fat per serving. However, last year one California mom fed her 4-year-old daughter Nutella after seeing an advertisement that promoted the sugary spread as a part [...]

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In 2008, my husband and I moved from Vancouver to France. Our younger daughter, Claire, was a toddler and my elder daughter, Sophie, was four, just about to turn five. Before we moved to France, they were what I thought of as typical North American children; they had a beige food diet, largely consisting of [...]

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Hundreds of cartons of children’s orange juice are being recalled after they were found to contain contaminated water. Drinks manufacturer Pepsi is recalling 277 multi-packs of Tropicana Kids Orange Juice which have been affected by “microbiological contamination”, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said. The drinks were contaminated following a “test procedure” and are easily identifiable [...]

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Nearly two thirds of children are not drinking enough at breakfast time to be properly hydrated, according to a study. Researchers in Sheffield believe the analysis of more than 450 children between nine and 11 is the first of its kind in the UK. It showed 60 per cent were classed as ‘not sufficiently hydrated’ [...]

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Teenagers’ love of energy drinks is taking a terrible toll on their teeth, scientists have warned. A study published in the Academy of General Dentistry charted an alarming increase in the consumption of both energy and sports drinks among young adults in the U.S. who use them to help get through the day. But they [...]

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Fizzy drink consumption amongst Scottish secondary school children has fallen dramatically, according to a World Health Organisation survey. The same study carried out a decade ago suggested Scottish youngsters drank more fizzy juice than their peers in most other European countries. Now the number of 11 to 15-year-old girls drinking fizzy drinks every day has [...]

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Parents are known for nagging their children to eat their greens, but a new study has found they don’t apply their healthy eating advice to their own plates. Despite good intentions, researchers found that juggling schedules, pressure on family finances and fussy children can all stop couples from improving their diets. Parents may not improve [...]

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A teenage girl has not been able to eat for six months because of a rare condition which means her body cannot handle food. Amy Knowles, 17, has Complex Neuromyopathic Intestinal Dismotility (CNID) and must spend 12 hours a day fed by tube to her heart which feeds liquid nutrients into her blood stream. Doctors [...]

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Young people who watch television fast-food adverts are at risk of becoming obese – and the effect ‘goes deeper’ than simply making them recognise brands such as KFC’s Colonel. A test of 3,342 young people aged 15-23 ‘challenged’ them to recognise fast-food brands from television adverts where the branding such as MacDonalds’ golden arches and KFC’s [...]

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At 19, with several teen magazine cover shoots behind her and the prospect of a lucrative modelling career ahead, she appeared to have the world at her feet. But while to others she seemed a confident and beautiful young woman, Bethaney Wallace was facing a crippling struggle with eating disorders which saw her weight plunge to [...]

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Around one in six youngsters believe a blueberry muffin counts as part of their “five a day”, a poll has found. Jam, milk, cereal and water were also listed by children as counting as fruit and vegetables, according to the survey by Dolmio. The poll, which questioned parents and children in more than 500 families, [...]

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Secondary school pupils are not eating enough at lunchtime according to a study by the body overseeing school food. School Food Trust research suggests pupils get a quarter of the recommended daily intake from lunch, rather than the third that is advised. A trust spokeswoman said it could be because pupils just chose a salad [...]

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A six-year-old girl has such a severe egg allergy that a crumb of cake burns her skin. Grace Roberts once collapsed after eating a chip – because it had gravy on it made with egg residue. She is also allergic to milk and her parents must strictly control her diet. Natalie, 31, and Gareth, 33, [...]

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Pupils are ditching chips, hamburgers and sweets for soup, sandwiches and fruit juice at lunchtime in the wake of the school food revolution begun by Jamie Oliver, a new study reveals. But the chef warned that this “huge progress” was at risk from the government’s “short-sighted and dangerous” decision to exempt academies and free schools [...]

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Almost six-in-10 teachers reported encountering pupils who are left hungry through lack of food at least once a week, it was revealed. In some cases, “scavenger” children have been caught finishing scraps of food or using school as a place to warm up and eat a decent meal, according to the poll Research also shows that [...]

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Most Saturday nights I go out — often to a party. Everyone drinks, and there are drugs around. Though I’ve not tried drugs, I did recently end up in hospital after drinking too much at a school friend’s party, which isn’t like me at all. I went to another friend’s house to get ready, and [...]

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Britain’s leading foodbank network, the Trussell Trust, says every single day it is handing out emergency food parcels to parents who are going without meals in order to feed their children, or even considering stealing food to put on the table, as the government’s austerity measures start to bite. The number of people to whom [...]

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I’m a patriot about baked goods, soldiering bravely along in the belief that the British rule the waves at teatime. I’m proud of the fact that, according to a recent radio programme, we Brits are “one of the word’s biggest spenders when it comes to biscuits. But while we’ve created some fine examples in our [...]

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The family of a 17-year-old who died of anorexia are calling for changes to the way sufferers are treated by the NHS. Charlotte Seddon had eating problems since she was 13 but died at home near Burnley five months ago from heart failure. Charlotte’s family say the system doesn’t work and departments “don’t talk to each [...]

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Three leading supermarkets have been named as the ‘worst offenders’ for undermining parents’ efforts to feed their children healthily. The Children’s Food Campaign (CFC) said Asda, Morrisons and Iceland displayed unhealthy food or drink at more than 80 per cent of their checkouts. It also criticised the Co-operative, Sainsbury’s Tesco and Waitrose for making families queue [...]

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As students, we are lampooned for our lack of culinary ability. There is some truth in the cliche. We’re overly dependent on can openers, have a liberal attitude towards best-before dates and aren’t great at washing up. With exams looming, things are just getting worse. A heavy exam schedule makes you feel like there’s simply [...]

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Nestlé has secured its place as the biggest player in the worldwide baby food market with a $11.9bn (£7.4bn) deal to buy the drug maker Pfizer’s infant-nutrition business. The deal enables Nestlé to regain a stronger footing in the Chinese baby food market. It had to withdraw two milk powder products from China in 2005 [...]

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Chindo Khady cradles her dying son in her arms. Two of her children have already died from malnutrition and she knows it will not be long until tiny, helpless Kinda joins them. A drip dangles from his frail arm in a filthy, overcrowded hospital but for the seven-month-old baby, who at 11lbs weighs almost half of what [...]

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