Me, myself and I: Loneliness can be as damaging for your health as smoking, research shows Obesity and alcoholism may be bad for your health, but there’s a
less obvious condition out there that is just as dangerous –
loneliness.
According to a study the support of family, friends and neighbours
can increase your chances of living to a healthy old age by 50 per
cent.
But the findings, based on an analysis of more than 300,000
people, suggest social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking
15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic. It also does more damage to your health than not exercising – and is twice as harmful as obesity.
The American scientists who made the discovery say lack of social
support should be added to the ‘short list’ of risk factors for an
early grave. Dr Julianne Holt-Lunstad, of Brigham Young University in Utah, who
led the study, said friends and family influenced health for the better
by offering a ‘calming touch’ or by helping people find meaning in
their lives. When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility for
other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking
better care of themselves and taking fewer risks,’ she said.
The researchers looked at data from 148 previously published
studies that measured people’s social networks and tracked their health
for an average of seven and a half years. The data did not show whether people were in ‘positive’ or
‘negative’ relationships – simply the number of people they were in
contact with regularly.
The authors of the study believe the health benefits of positive
friendships could be even stronger. ‘The data simply show whether they
were integrated in a social network,’ said Dr Holt-Lunstad.
DVT death highlights threat to travellers
A healthy woman's collapse on a transatlantic flight underlines the dangers
travellers face, says Dr Richard Dawood.
By Dr Richard Dawood 23.07.2010
'The human body is simply not designed for deep sleep in a sitting position'
The death from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) of a 36-year-old passenger on a
transatlantic flight has provided a frightening reminder of the risks of
taking sleeping pills on aircraft, particularly when travelling long-haul
The New England Journal of Medicine reported last week that the woman, an
American citizen, had taken a single sleeping tablet shortly before
departure and spent most of the flight asleep in one position – undoubtedly
the critical factor in her death.
Seven hours into the flight she woke to go to the lavatory, but collapsed in
the aisle. A doctor on board attempted to resuscitate her and the plane made
an emergency landing in Boston, touching down two hours after her collapse.
She was taken to the Massachusetts General Hospital, where tests confirmed
that she had suffered a massive pulmonary embolism – with blood clots from
her legs travelling through the venous system and lodging in her heart and
lungs, causing brain damage from lack of oxygen and an unrecoverable coma.
The doctors caring for her faced an unusual ethical dilemma, which is the main
reason her case was reported in the Journal. Devastated by what had
happened, the woman's family had asked if egg cells could be taken from her
ovaries to enable a child to be conceived. The doctors explored the request
but could not comply with it. Eleven days after she had boarded her flight,
life support was discontinued and she died.
The implications for travellers are broader than this. Here was a fit and
healthy young woman, for whom the only other risk factor for DVT was the
fact that – in common with millions of other female passengers – she was
using the contraceptive pill.
While in the air, many fliers try to shut out noise and – particularly when
travelling long-haul – attempt to catch up on some sleep.
A significant
number – whether to avoid jetlag or because they are nervous fliers – rely
on medication to help them drop off, thinking little of the potentially
fatal consequences.
Unfortunately, the human body is simply not designed for deep sleep in a
sitting position. Sitting compresses the veins of the pelvis, and slows down
blood flow through the veins of the calves. Calf muscle contraction – simply
moving around without restriction – counteracts this effect.
Reduced blood flow leads to stagnation, activation of the blood's innate
clotting mechanism, and therefore an increased tendency for blood clots to
form.
Reduced oxygen pressure in the cabin increases the clotting tendency
still further, and so too can a variety of individual medical factors (see
right). In such circumstances, a sleeping pill can make things considerably
worse – by relaxing calf muscles, reducing movement, and rendering the
sleeping passenger motionless for hours, even in an uncomfortable and
adverse position.
The message is clear. By all means, use mild sleeping medication to avoid
sleep loss and reduce fatigue after a flight, when you have reached your
destination and may be struggling to adapt to a new time zone. But if you
want to use medication to help you sleep on a long-haul flight, you should
only ever do so when you can lie flat and move your legs comfortably. Stick
to short-acting medicines, wear compression stockings, and discuss all of
the issues carefully with your doctor.*
How to minimise the risk
The risk of DVT is highest on long-haul flights, and especially on flights
longer than eight hours. It is also greatest in people who are obese, have
varicose veins, are pregnant, smoke, use hormone replacement therapy or take
the contraceptive pill.
Prevention consists of keeping well hydrated during a flight, stretching and
moving around, and wearing compression stockings.
The risk is even higher for people who have a history of DVT or who have
recently had surgery (particularly to hip or knee) or cancer; for these, a
pre-flight injection of a blood-thinning drug may be advisable.
* Remember, alcohol and flying don't mix - the effect of alcohol on
the body is up to 3 times that on the ground. Alcohol and sleeping
tablets don't mix, and raise the risk of DVT even higher.
Dr Richard Dawood is a specialist in travel medicine at the Fleet Street
Clinic, London (www.fleetstreetclinic.com)
China's 'cancer villages' reveal dark side of economic boom
Polluting factories in rural communities are forming a deadly toxic cocktail for villagers, leading to surging rates of cancer
Zheng Gumei thought she was down with a cold until the doctor told
her to wait outside the room so he could talk to her son alone.
"I knew then that I must have a serious illness," the 47-year-old
farmer recalled, wiping away the tears and then staring into the
distance. "I'm having treatment now. See, my hair has fallen out," she
said, taking off her hat to show the side-effects of chemotherapy.
Like many other residents of Xinglong, a small rural community next to an industrial park in China's Yunnan province, she had little doubt about the source of her cancer. "The pollution in this village is bad, people get sick."
Such stories have become much more common in China in recent years
as breakneck economic growth increasingly takes its toll on the
nation's health.
Since last year, there has been an explosion of lead poisoning cases close to smelting plants. Studies have shown that communities that recycle electronic waste
are exposed to cadmium, mercury and brominated flame retardants.
Elsewhere, there have been protests against chemical factories that are
blamed for carcinogens that enter water supplies and the food chain.
Nationwide, cancer rates have surged since the 1990s to become the nation's biggest killer. In 2007, the disease was responsible for one in five deaths, up 80% since the start of economic reforms 30 years earlier.
While the government insists it is cleaning up pollution far
faster than other nations at a similar dirty stage of development, many
toxic industries have simply been relocated to impoverished, poorly
regulated rural areas.
Chinese farmers are almost four times more likely to die of liver
cancer and twice as likely to die of stomach cancer than the global
average, according to study commissioned by the World Bank. The
domestic media is increasingly filled with reports of "cancer villages"
- clusters of the disease near dirty factories.
The vast majority are on the wealthy eastern seaboard, the first
area in China to accept "outsourced" dirty industries from overseas.
But as these regions have moved up the value chain and tightened
regulations, there are signs that the pollution and cancer belt may be
moving inland to areas that are either less aware of the dangers or too
poor to turn away business.
Deep in the scorched dry countryside of northeast Yunnan, the
residents of Xinglong fear they may soon join the list of sick
villages. An acrid stench assails the senses near the Luliang City
Industrial Park, the thicket of polluting factories that locals blame
for an outbreak of deadly tumours.
Cui Xiaoliang says he lost his aunt and father to cancer after the
village streams changed colour. Pointing to the lurid red discharge
from the Yinhe paper mill and a yellow trickle below the Peace
Technology chemical factory, he said health had declined along with the
environment.
"Before the factories were built, there was no cancer. We were
free of strange diseases," he said, grimacing at the nauseating fumes.
"Now, we hear every year that this person or that person has cancer,
especially lung and liver cancer. My aunt never drank alcohol or
smoked. Her cancer was completely caused by pollution."
At the village clinic, doctor Zhang Jianyou said he has noticed an
increase in cancer cases among the 3,000 residents. "The pollution has
definitely has an impact," he said. "I have been here 43 years. In the
past, cancer was not obvious, but in recent years it has become a very
evident problem. Last year alone, we had five cancer cases."
When locals tried to protest, Zhang said they were blocked by the
authorities because the chemical factories contribute to the local
economy.
Everyone the Guardian spoke to at the village knew of someone who
had died of cancer and most blamed the toxins that flowed from the
chemical factories into the nearby Nanpan river and ground water supply.
Farmers said they have no other source of water for their crops
and animals. Goat herders said a tenth of their animals had died.
The impact may well have spread into the human food chain. Wang
Qingdi, a peach farmer who lives next to the chemical factory, said her
crops were ruined by contaminated water and air, but she still sold
them at the market because she had no other source of income.
"When the wind blows in this direction, a thick layer of soot
settles on my peach trees," he said. "Lots of fruit turn black and fall
to the ground, I dare not eat the rice I plant and harvest because the
pollution is so bad. I sell it on the street."
The county environment department said it was monitoring the
industrial park and paying particular attention to three companies:
Longhai Chemical, Yunnan Luliang Peace Technology and the Yinhe paper
mill. But inspectors lack the authority and the resources to keep close
tabs and impose harsh punitive measures on any factories that break the
rules.
"It is like police trying to catch a thief. It's not easy," said
Song Bin of the Luliang Environmental Protection Department. "Some
factories secretly discharge pollution. Some shut down treatment
devices when electricity is in short supply. Others turn off their
systems at night when they know we are not checking."
He was cautious, however, about the health implications. "It is
hard to say whether there is relationship between cancer and the
factories because the workers do not have unusually high rates of the
disease," he said. "Many officials have suggested we invite experts to
do a systematic study, but we haven't done this yet because of budget
and other reasons."
The Guardian requested data on factory emissions and water
quality. Under the government's information transparency law, such
information is supposed to be publicly available, but officials
insisted their monitoring results were for internal reference only.
Yinhe paper mill refused to comment. The chemical factory - Yunnan
Luliang Peace Technology - said the pollution problems dated back to
previous owners and were now being rectified.
"The cancer situation in the village has nothing to do with us,"
said Candy Xu, foreign sales manager. "The pollution accumulated over
10 years. It can't be solved immediately but we deal with it year by
year. Within three-to-five years I believe we can clear it up. The
previous company was irresponsible to the local residents and it is not
fair to blame us for their mistakes."
The new owners from the rich coastal province of Zhejiang have
invested in new equipment and are trying to shift production towards
cleaner, high-end nutritional supplements and feed additives, but their
website still lists sodium dichromate – a highly carcinogenic chemical
– among its products.
In a recent study of "cancer villages", Lee Liu of the University of Central Missouri
said the problem was exacerbated by the government's tendency to focus
on urban development at the cost of rural areas. This – and a lack of
independent oversight by NGOs and journalists – have mixed into a toxic
cocktail.
"China appears to have produced more cancer clusters in a few decades than the rest of the world ever had," he notes.
Whether the village of Xinglong will join the list cannot be
confirmed without a full study. But rising cancer rates and appalling
pollution levels leave locals in little doubt.
For Zheng, her breast cancer does not just threaten her life, but
the financial well-being of her daughter. She has had to borrow 20,000
yuan (£2,000) for two courses of chemotherapy and estimates it will
cost another 80,000 yuan to cure the disease. She knows that is far
from certain.
"My brother-in law had cancer like me. He is dead already," she
said as her infant daughter pulled at her shirt. "I want to tell the
factories they make too much pollution. Because of them Xinglong
village is sick." Additional reporting by Chen Shi
WHO launches measles and rubella campaign
Europe is set to miss the
WHO target of eliminating measles and rubella by the end of this year -
the sort of rhetoric we normally only hear in the context of developing
nations
It's not so often the UK finds itself on the receiving end, so to speak, of a World Health Organisation campaign. Generally we think we can manage our own health. But the object of the WHO's Europe region campaign for European Immunization Week - beginning on Saturday (April 24) - is to get MMR rates down, which we have noticeably failed to do.
The goal is no less than the elimination of measles and rubella by
the end of 2010 and was set a decade ago, apparently. Thanks largely to
the paper in the Lancet by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that
undermined confidence in the MMR (measles, mump and rubella)
vaccination in 1998, many parents in western Europe decided not to have
their children immunised and we are nowhere near stamping out those
diseases by the end of this year. It is not only Millennium Development
Goals in poor countries that get missed.
More than 95% coverage of MMR is needed to prevent any cases
occurring. In 2004, according to WHO data, Britain was on 80-90% and so
were other similar European nations like France and Italy. Germany and
Portugal managed 90-95%, while Spain got a gold star for immunising
more than 95% of children. The campaign site is here.
On another issue, Liverpool University
is working with a number of international partners on a £3 million
project to try to use climate change modelling to predict how epidemics
of infectious diseases will spread. Obviously a good hot rainy season
in Africa will swell the numbers of mosquitoes and other potentially
disease-spreading insects. This work is intended to take things a bit
further. Thsi is Dr Andy Morse from the school of environmental
sciences:
We know that climate variability has a significant impact on the
incidence of human and animal diseases. In Africa, where the
relationship between climate change and health is becoming recognised,
human and animal disease has a particular effect on economic
development. It is vital, therefore, that we improve our understanding
of the climate triggers for disease and the forecasting systems used to
predict outcomes.
And Professor Matthew Baylis, from the school of veterinary science:
Rift Valley Fever can spread amongst the human and animal
population during periods of heavy rain, when flood water mosquitoes
flourish and lay their eggs. If this rainfall occurs unexpectedly
during the dry season, when cattle are kept in the villages rather than
out on the land, the mosquitoes can infect the animals at the drinking
ponds. Humans can then contract the disease by eating infected animals.
Working with partners in Africa, we can bring this information together
to build a much more accurate picture of when to expect epidemics.
Pizza Hut has topped a new Pizza League of Shame for having the fattiest, smallest and least tasty dishes on the High Street.
Food experts from the Good Food Guide have drawn up a list of the country's best and worst margheritas after visiting six chain restaurants.
Consumer magazine 'Which?' sent reviewers to examine pizzas at Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, Zizzi, Prezzo, Ask and Frankie & Benny's. The reviewers discovered that the lowest in fat - from Pizza Express - also scored the highest for taste.
.
All six dishes were rated "red" according to the Government traffic light system for saturated fat and salt.
Pizza Hut pizzas were the smallest on average but also the highest in total fat. They contained 70% of a woman's daily recommended maximum amount of saturated fat. The pizza at Zizzi had the highest level of salt, and at Prezzo the highest level of saturated fat.
On average, all the pizzas contained more than half of an adult's recommended daily maximum amount of salt.
Pizza Express came top for taste - 30.5 out of 45 - earning praise for "flavoursome pizzas with good quality, well-balanced ingredients". They were followed by Ask which scored 27 out of 45. Zizzi came a close third with 26.5, and Prezzo scored 25.5.
Meanwhile another 'Which?' feature reveals that children who eat at fast food chains can consume nearly half their recommended daily calories in one sitting. Young people who went to KFC ate two-thirds of their guideline maximum daily salt intake in one meal.
Children aged between 11 and 14 had half the recommended amount of sugar at McDonald's and Burger King. Well... that comes as no surprise!
The 50 best things to eat in the world, and where to eat them
From cake, steak and tapas, to oysters, chicken and burgers, Killian Fox roamed the world to find the 50 best things to eat and the best places to eat them in, with a little help from professionals like Raymond Blanc, Michel Roux, Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray
Killian Fox The Observer, Sunday 13 September 2009
1. Best place to eat: Oysters. Strangfor Lough, Northern Ireland
Richard Corrigan reckons Strangford Lough oysters are the world’s best. Photograph: John Smith/Corbis
"If I were to die tomorrow, I'd walk to Strangford, get a couple of bottles of really cold Chablis, and eat as many Strangford Lough oysters as I could. Then I'd die very happily indeed. There are very few places you can get Strangford Lough oysters now. Last time, we bought some from a company called Cuan and went to a beautiful local pub and opened them ourselves. The speed of the tidal movement, and the huge nutrient richness of the water, is what makes them so good. The only accompaniment you need is lemon juice and black pepper: you'd never ever use vinegar and shallots or Tabasco."
Cuan Oysters, Sketrick Island, Killinchy, Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, 02897 541461, www.cuanoysters.com
2. Best place to eat: Aubergines Ta Kioupa, Athens
"The aubergines were slow- baked for six hours, brought to the table whole, and skinned in front of us. They took out the flesh, crisscrossed the aubergines with two knives, and then added whipped cream with hazelnuts, lemon, sweet pepper, oil, feta cheese, salt and pepper. Incredible."
3. Best place to eat: Hamburgers Little Owl, New York
There are many fine hamburgers in New York, even the most mediocre of which would put its British counterparts to shame. But the best is the bacon cheeseburger at a small Greenwich Village bistro called Little Owl. "This sandwich is so copiously juicy, so rich with precious bodily fluids," says Josh Ozersky, author of The Hamburger: A History, "that it practically haemorrhages onto the plate. But the meat, which is a signature blend from New York's virtuoso hamburger maker Pat La Frieda, is perfectly paired with a bun of uniquely moist and yielding character. It's by far the best cheeseburger in this or any other city."
The best place in the world to eat zabaglione, according to Giorgio Locatelli, is at his uncle's restaurant, La Cinzianell, in Corgeno, northern Italy. "As the sun goes down behind Monte Rosa and it starts getting a bit chilly, the thing I enjoy most is the zabaglione prepared by my cousin Maurizio…"
Via Lago, 26 Corgeno, 0039 0 331 946 337
5. Best place to eat: Pho Pho 24, Vietnam
Vietnam’s signature dish Pho at 'Pho 24' in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photograph: Krista Kennell/Corbis
Pho, a noodle soup with thin slices of meat (usually beef but sometimes chicken), is Vietnam's signature dish, and the issue of who makes it best is as tangled as white rice noodles in tasty broth. The Hanoi streets throw up a lot of persuasive contenders, such as the shack at 172 Ton Duc Thang Street. However, the sleek chain restaurant Pho 24, with branches around the country and across Asia, produces Vietnam's most reliably good pho. The meat is of a consistently high quality – a rarity in Vietnam – and the stock impresses even the hardest-to-please critics.
5 Nguyen Thiep Street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (and other locations). 0084 88226278, www.pho24.com.vn
7. Best place to eat: Macaroons Laduree, Paris
The original M Ladurée opened his bakery on the rue Royale in 1862. In 1930 his grandson invented the double-decker macaroon – two shells of the meringue-like pastry held together by creamy ganache filling. Ladurée has produced the definitive macaroons ever since. In recent years the company has opened shops around the world, but the original is by far the best.
8. Best place to eat: Roast Chicken L'Ami Louis, Paris
This Paris fixture, open since 1924, is the ultimate French bistro. Heads of state (Clinton, Gorbachev) and cultural giants (Welles, Hemingway) have come here to feast on sumptuous roast chicken, served whole with matchstick pommes frites and a simple green salad. It's touristy and expensive and the decor is a bit clichéd, but such details become trivial once the chicken (which inspired Simon Hopkinson to write his much-loved Roast Chicken and Other Stories) turns up at the table.
32 rue du Vertbois, 3e, 3rd arrondissement, Paris, 0033 1 48 87 77 48
9. Best place to drink: Milkshakes Fosselman's, Los Angeles
The ingredients for the perfect milkshake are extremely good ice cream mixed with just the right amount of milk, and a classic American setting. The award-laden Fosselman's, in the LA suburb of Alhambra, has been offering both since 1924. The milkshakes, made with home-made ice cream, taste like you'd expect milkshakes to taste in the movies. Make a beeline for the double-chocolate malt.
1824 W Main Street, Alhambra, Los Angeles, 001 626 282 6533, www.fosselmans.com
10. Best place to eat: Texas barbecue Snow's, Texas
The title of best BBQ joint in Texas is hotly contested in a state where the consumption of charred meats is as serious as religion. Texas Monthly magazine does the definitive annual poll. Most recently, the magazine awarded the title to Snow's, a rank outsider that has been trading a mere five years. Run by a former rodeo clown and an elderly lady named Tootsie, the restaurant only opens on Saturday mornings and consists of a small number of tables around a smoking pit.
11. Best place to eat: Steak El Carpicho, Jimenez de Jamuz, Spain
Time magazine called it "the perfect steak". American Vogue's exacting food writer Jeffrey Steingarten said it was "probably the greatest steak I've ever eaten". They were referring to an enormous chuletón taken from the central rib section of a 16-year-old Rubia Gallega ox, dry-aged for 90 days, and served in the cellar dining room of a rural bodega named El Capricho, near León in north-west Spain.
Paraje de las Bodegas, s/n, Jimenez de Jamuz, near León, Spain, 0034 987 664224
12. Best place to eat: Fish and chips The Wee Chippy, Fife, Scotland
The nearby Anstruther Fish Bar wins all the plaudits – it was named Fish and Chip Shop of the Year by the National Federation of Fish Friers last January – but locals swear by its rival, The Wee Chippy, which serves sublime fish and chips on the same street and without the endless queues.
4 Shore Street, Anstruther, Fife, 01333 310106
13. Best place to eat: Strawberry tart Restaurant de Bacon, Antibes, France
"When I go to the south of France in the summer, I always visit the Restaurant de Bacon in the Cap d'Antibes and I wait eagerly, in front of the sea and the old town, for the most amazing wild strawberry tart. The crust melts in the mouth, it is deliciously flavoured with butter, and once you have finished it you feel delightfully naughty."
14. Best place to eat: Pastrami on rye Katz's Deli, New York
The mail order department of Katz's Delicatessen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. Photograph: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
The legendary pastrami on rye from Katz's, New York's oldest (and possibly shabbiest) deli, could qualify as king of all sandwiches by virtue of size alone: a whole pound of brined beef, pre-trimming, is used in each serving. The sandwich – stacks of juicy meat with mustard and pickles between slices of rye bread – is as jaw-dropping, taste-wise, as it is gobstopping. (Recall Meg Ryan's unfaked endorsement of it in When Harry Met Sally.)
205 E Houston Street at Ludlow Street, New York, 001 212 254 2246, www.katzdeli.com
15. Best place to eat: Custard tart Antiga Confeitaria de Belem, Lisbon
Creamy, flaky custard tarts – served warm with cinnamon – are one of Portugal's great culinary gifts to the world. The original pasteis café in the Belém district of Lisbon, next to the monastery where the dessert was invented, is still the best: their secret recipe has been guarded since 1837. Sit down with a plateful, and a strong coffee, and you'll understand why more than 10,000 tarts are baked here every day.
16. Best place to eat: Leg of beef Le Louchebem, Paris
"For the most wonderful leg of beef I can't go past Le Louchebem in Paris, a simple, plain café with a very, very good rotisserie, located in the old meat district of Les Halles. The beef comes with mashed potato and three different sauces."
31 rue Berger, Angle 10, rue des Prouvaires, Paris, 0033 1 42 33 12 99, www.le-louchebem.fr
17. Best place to drink: Tomato juice Happy Girl Kitchen, California
"If you find yourself in Marin County, California, it's well worth the time to drive down the beautiful shoreline road to San Francisco and visit the Ferry Building for the heirloom organic tomato juice from Happy Girl Kitchen, which has a stall there on Saturdays. They blend it with coriander and chilli and it's quite literally the best tomato juice you'll ever taste."
Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, One Ferry Building, San Francisco, 001 831 750 9579, www.happygirlkitchen.com
18. Best place to eat: Italian slow food Coco Lezzone, Florence
"You can get the most amazing 'slow food' in this tiny family- run restaurant which has been around for about 30 years. It is famous for its pappa pomodoro and ribollita – the two most traditional Tuscan bread soups. And they do the most delicious arista: pork loin cooked on the bone, stuffed with fennel seeds, garlic and rosemary, and served at room temperature."
Via del Parioncino 26, Florence, Italy, 0039 05 52 87 17 8
19. Best place to eat: Nordic food Olo, Helsinki
"When I'm back home in Finland, I always visit Olo in Helsinki. The chef, Pekka Terävä, has created a brand in its own right, cooking modern Nordic cuisine with the best seasonal ingredients."
20. Best place to buy: Olive oil Turkish embassy electrical supplies, London
Mehmet Murat in his electrical shop. Photograph: Andy Hall
The most unlikely olive oil vendor in the world? At his electrical supply shop in London's Clerkenwell, Mehmet Murat sells wonderful, intensely fruity oil from his family's olive groves in Cyprus and south-west Turkey. Now he imports more than a 1,000 litres per year. His lemon-flavoured oil is good enough to drink on its own.
One of the priciest olive oils in the world, the minimum order of a litre of Manni costs £190. Film director Armando Manni harvests olives from seven plantations at different altitudes on a Tuscan mountain and speed-couriers the oil in small, UV-resistant bottles. The flavours are extraordinary. Chef Thomas Keller, of The French Laundry and Per Se, has called it "the best olive oil in the market".
Monte Amiata, Seggiano, Italy, 0039 069 7274787, www.manni.biz
21. Best place to eat: Tacos El Pastorcito, Mexico City
People drive the length and breadth of Mexico City, causing traffic jams, to get to this neighbourhood taqueria, which spills out onto the street from dusk till dawn. The main draw is their superlative tacos al pastor – a speciality of the capital – made with pork carved from a shawarma-style spit and ultra-fresh salsa served in dramatically massive stone bowls.
22. Best place to eat: Peking Duck Quanjude, Beijing
Beijing's most famous purveyor of Peking duck is nothing if not well-endorsed: more than 115 million ducks have been dished up in the restaurant's 145-year history, and China's first Premier, Zhou Enlai, personally chose the location for the seven-storey Hepingmen branch. Quantity hasn't affected quality: the duck, with its crispy red skin and melt-in-the-mouth flesh, is sublime – 400 versions of the classic dish are available: opt for the classic kaoya.
23. Best place to eat: Pork belly Gramercy Tavern, New York
The dining room at Gramercy Tavern in New York. Photograph: Neville Elder/Corbis
"As far as I'm concerned, the Gramercy Tavern is one of the best places to eat in New York, and the best place to eat pig. It is very relaxed but serves spectacular food. I always have the rack of pork and braised belly and it always tastes perfect."
24. Best place to eat: Vegetarian Indian Sagar Ratna, Delhi
"Sagar Ratna, in Delhi, serves South Indian vegetarian food – pukka food that nourishes the body and soul and is always in harmony with the seasons. My favourite dish there has always been idli sambhar: steamed rice cakes with coconut chutney and sambhar lentils."
18 Defence Colony Market, New Delhi, 110024, Delhi, India, 0091 11 24 33 36 58
25. Best place to eat: Sushi Daiwa sushi, Tokyo
If you want the world's best sushi, don't even think of looking anywhere but Japan. Empty your bank account and eat at one of Tokyo's swankiest sushi temples, such as the three-Michelin-star Jiro in Ginza. Alternatively, go right to the heart of the action, to the city's overwhelming Tsukiji fish market (the largest on the planet), and eat unsurpassable sushi for a fraction of the price at Daiwa Sushi. It's a fast-moving hole-in-the-wall establishment without tables and it's only open for breakfast, but none of this matters once the expertly prepared rolls come your way. Try the melt-in-the-mouth tai, a type of sea bream that is impossible to get outside Japan.
Building 6, Chuo-ichiba, 5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 0081 3 3547 6807
26. Best place to eat: Filipino cuisine Lighthouse Restaurant, Cebu, Philippines
"The Lighthouse in Cebu in the Philippines is my favourite restaurant. We always eat bulalo (beef stew), banana heart salad, adobo (marinaded meat), baked oysters, pancit noodles, lechon de leche (suckling pig) and, to drink, green mango juice – my daughter is addicted to it! The staff are so friendly and welcoming. The chef has been there for more than 20 years, so the food is very consistent."
Gaisano Country Mall, Banilad, Cebu city, Philippines, 0063 32 231 2478
27. Best place to eat: California cuisine Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California
"Chez Panisse doesn't just do the world's best Californian food: it is quite simply the best restaurant in the world. Superb."
28. Best place to eat: Algerian food Restaurant Gnaoua, Algiers
"To get a really good North African meal in Algeria you have to get yourself invited to someone's house, and as there are so few tourists, people would love to have you to their home for a meal. The few restaurants around tend to serve bad French food. That said, there is a handful of really good grilled-fish restaurants down in the port in Algiers. My favourite is a small, traditional place called Restaurant Gnaoua. The owner, Hamidou, understands Algerian cuisine. It's not an easy cuisine to get, but he just does."
Cite Sahraoui, les Deux Bassins, Ben Aknoun, Algiers, Algeria
29. Best place to eat: Classic French cuisine, Close des Gourmets, Paris
"I eat at Clos Des Gourmets two or three times a week when I'm in Paris. They only use seasonal ingredients and always add a touch of wackiness to very classic dishes. They love creating new things. I suppose it's new classic French cuisine. I'll have roast kidneys or grilled rabbit with fresh herbs in a white wine sauce, asparagus with truffle in early summer, and a lavender crème brûlée to finish. It's always madly busy but the dishes are always perfectly cooked. And it's amazingly cheap: ¤80 for three courses with wine. Unbelievable."
"Cal Pep does completely amazing tapas. It has a brilliant atmosphere, and the bar is presided over by the owner, Pep, himself. Order the langoustines with onions, chickpeas, spinach and bacon, and fried seafood."
Plaça de les Olles 8, Barcelona, 0034 93 31 07 961, www.calpep.com
31. Best place to eat: Pizza Frank Pepe Pizzeria, New Haven, Conneticut
You could generate enough heat to fuel a brick oven with the argument over which country bakes the world's best pizza: Italy, where the concept originated, or America, where it was globalised. Neapolitan purists will make pilgrimages to hotspots such as La Sorrentina, outside Naples, whose chef has won the prestigious Naples Pizza Championship, but we contend that the upstart Yanks do it better. The best American pizza can be found, not in New York as is commonly assumed, but in New Haven, Connecticut, where the Pepe family has been spinning dough since 1925. Their white clam pie has no equals.
Pizzeria La Sorrentina, Via Domenico Pirozzi 37, Fratta Maggiore, Italy, 0039 338 3248615
32. Best place to eat: Thai curry Krua Apsorn, Bangkok
"When I'm in Bangkok, I go to Apsorn's Kitchen, also known as Krua Apsorn, a small restaurant just up from the National Library. It is a great place to go for incredibly traditional Thai food. I have the crab in curry powder, followed by the deep-fried kingfish with green mango and the yellow curry with prawns and lotus shoots."
503-505 Sam San Road, Dusit, Bangkok, Thailand 0066 2 24 18 52 8
33. Best place to eat: Simple French food Le Vin et L'Assiette, Besancon, France
"When I go home, I go to Le Vin et L'Assiette in Besançon and order pâté de campagne, a big chunk of crusty bread and a glass of wine. The restaurant is honest, simple, and a wonderful place. It has fantastic wine cellars with local wines that people would never have heard of."
97 rue Battant, Besançon, France, 0033 3 81 81 48 18
34. Best place to eat: Ice cream Corrado Costanzo, Noto, Sicily
The legend about Romans making the earliest ice creams from the snows of Mount Etna may be apocryphal, but Sicily is still the best place for frozen treats in gelato-crazed Italy, and Italian ice cream, as everybody knows, is the finest in the world. (Gelato is made with considerably less butterfat than the heavier American variants, for starters.) Corrado Costanzo's pastry shop can be found in the crumbling baroque town of Noto, in the south-eastern corner of the island. We defy you to find an ice better than his transcendent mandarin-orange granita.
Via Silvio Spaventa 7, Noto, Sicily, 0039 931 835 243
35. Best place to eat: Kebabs Bade Miya, Mumbai
An entire Mumbai street gets overrun, nightly, by pilgrims to an unassuming grilled-food vendor on a pavement behind the Taj Hotel. People hunch over rickety outdoor tables, or the hoods of their cars, to gorge on cheap, basic but spectacular kebabs, roti rolls and drumsticks hot from the grill. The chicken tangdi kebab is especially delicious.
Tulloch Road, Apollo Bunder, Mumbai, India
36. Best place to eat: Ravioli Babbo, New York
"I love the oxtail ravioli with black truffles and pigeon liver sauce at Babbo in New York, my favourite restaurant. It is a simple neighbourhood Italian, but it has a wonderful atmosphere . The only problem is that the restaurant is so busy you have to book a month in advance."
37. Best place to eat: Prawns Casa Bigote, Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain
"The logo of this restaurant is actually a prawn, and they get their seafood from little dayboats. They serve the local Sanlucar prawn, which is mild and sweet, a bit like a tiger prawn but pinker. They do mantis shrimps too – prehistoric-looking things which taste like white crab meat. They steam them, and really needn't do anything else."
Restaurante Casa Bigote, Bajo de Guia, 10, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cádiz, Andalucía, 0034 956 36 26 96/956 36 32 42
38. Best place to eat: Currywurst Konnopke's Imbiss, Berlin
The German obsession with currywurst – 800m portions of chopped sausage with sweet curry sauce are consumed each year – reaches its zenith in Berlin, where countless diners and roadside stalls vie for the currywurst crown. It's hard to improve on Konnopke's, which has been serving superlative sausage since 1930 under raised train tracks in Prenzlauerberg. Consume with fries and a cold bottle of Berliner Pilsner for maximum impact.
"Aracena, 40 minutes north of Seville, feels like a frontier town, because north of it is an area the size of Wales of nonstop forest. Here groups of men disappear for months at a time harvesting the cork bark and tending the oak so the iberico pig may gorge on acorns. Black foot ham from nearby Jabugo is some of the finest in the country, and there is nothing better than sitting down in any of the bars and restaurants in Aracena to a plate of this rich delicacy, sliced and served with unpretentious understanding. Last time we were there we had a memorable revueltos (scrambled eggs) with setas (local wild mushrooms) and jamón at Casas."
40. Best place to eat: Chocolate cake Pierre Herme, Paris
"When Pierre Hermé first let me try his heart-shaped Chuao cake, made with blackcurrants and a chuao couverture from Pralus, I totally forgot where I was. It was a firework of aromas, temperatures and textures. The freshness of the fruit flirted with the roundness of the chocolate. Hermé is a genius – one of my chocolate gods. The cake is seasonal and available on demand, and now made with Valrhona, but it is still my favourite in the world."
41. Best place to eat: Fried potatoes Bomba Bar Cova Fumada, Barcelona
"It's an ancient place, with a marble bar on which they note down what you've had with chalk. Father and son run the bar, while the grandmother and mother look after the stove. Go for the bomba, crushed potato balls with minced meat, bread-crumbed and deep-fried with a spicy sauce."
No 56 Carrer del Baluard, Barceloneta, Barcelona, Spain, 0034 93 221 4061
42. Best place to eat: Octopus Tholos, Symi, Greece
"On my most recent trip to the Dodecanese islands, outside a tiny taverna in Symi port that overlooked the beautiful bay, we ate monster 4kg octopus cooked in its own water then barbecued and brushed with the juice from the cooking. It was super-tender and crunchy on the outside. The flavours were incredibly intense – the juice had been flavoured with rosemary, garlic and olive oil. The best time to eat octopus here is May or late September."
43. Best place to eat: Bouillabaisse Restaurant de Bacon, Antibes, France
"The most powerful experience I ever had with a bouillabaisse (Provençal fish stew) was at this restaurant by the sea in Antibes. The place itself is nothing fancy but it's very famous for this dish, and people travel a long way for it. They kill you with the price – it costs an arm and a leg – but it's worth it. They use fish from the region that's been caught that same morning, and bouillabaisse is their speciality: they do it better than anyone else on this planet. It's really an experience."
44. Best place to eat: Steak and kidney pie The Hinds Head, Bray
Heston Blumenthal in his pub, The Hinds Head. Photograph: Karen Robinson
Heston Blumenthal made hundreds of different versions of steak and kidney pie before deciding that oxtail gave the preferred meaty kick. The result is on the menu at his pub, just down the road from The Fat Duck in Bray, and it is beyond spectacular.
45. Best place to eat: Pasta Trattoria Caprini, Verona, Italy
"This little restaurant in Verona makes the most beautiful pasta in the traditional way, rolling it into wafer thin sheets before cutting it into the various shapes. The pasta is rich and eggy with a slightly tough texture that ensures that it doesn't turn sloppy when cooked. We went recently and loved the pasta so much we bought some back for the chefs at the restaurant. It was so delicious that they ate it with just some olive oil – the pasta spoke for itself."
9 Via Paolo Zanotti, Torbe di Negrar di Volpolicella, Verona, Italy, 0039 0457500511, www.trattoriacaprini.it
46. Best place to eat: Ceviche Sankuay, Lima, Peru
The ceviche craze has gone global in recent years (it now graces the menu at London's Nobu), but to really experience Peru's national dish of raw fish cured in lime juice and hot pepper, you have to venture into the backstreets of Lima. The title of best cebecheria is hotly contested in the Peruvian capital. Javier Wong's Sankuay undoubtedly has the greatest sense of theatre. There's no sign outside, and the building in the anonymous Balconcillo district turns out to be the chef's own home. There are only 10 tables, and no menu. Wong's cebiche, made with lenguado (a type of sole) and accompanied by octopus discs rather than the usual choclo (white maize) and camote (sweet potato), is out of this world.
Garcia Leon 114 (between block 3 and 4 of Av Canada), Santa Catalina, La Victoria, Lima, Peru, 0011 51 1 470 6217
47. Best place to eat: Suckling pig Montimar, Estellencs, Mallorca
"This restaurant is in the tiny village of Estellencs in Mallorca, where our mother grew up. Every time we come to visit we eat here – you actually have to walk through the terrace of the restaurant to get to our house. The suckling pig is delicious."
Plaça Constitució 7, 07192 Estellencs, Mallorca, 0034 971 618 576
48. Best place to eat: Curry Karim's, Delhi
In a beehive of rooms off a hectic Old Delhi bazaar, the Zahiruddin family, which once cooked for Mughal emperors, has been serving sumptuous curries and grilled meats since 1913. The butter chicken curry, served in a rich tomato sauce, is as much a landmark as the colossal Jama Masjid at the end of the street. Devotees swear it's the best curry in India and therefore, naturally, the world.
49. Best place to eat: Dim sum Luk Yu Tea House, Hong Kong
"Hong Kong is the best place for dim sum, and Luk Yu Tea House is a Hong Kong institution. It feels very authentic, and the dim sum they do is of an extremely high quality (it's incredible how they've managed to keep both the quality and the authenticity). The menu hasn't really changed since it opened in 1933. You get things here you won't get anywhere else. They buy the best Chinese ham and grill it in small slices as an appetiser – amazing with a glass of red wine. And they still do incredible egg tarts."
24-26 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong, 00852 2523 5464
50. Best place to eat: Ramen Ramen Jiro, Tokyo
"People in Japan always say ramen (Japanese noodle soup) can't be this and can't be that. Ramen Jiro is very non-traditional, in your face, take it or leave it. You either love it or hate it, but people who like it are good people. It's got pork, it's got cabbage, it's got garlic, and the sauce is sweet. It's gnarly. There are several branches; my favourite is the one near Keio University."
2-14-11 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
WITH THANKS TO
Fergus Henderson, St John, London Anthony Demetre, Arbutus, Soho Skye Gyngell, Petersham Nurseries, Richmond, Surrey Rowley Leigh, Le Café Anglais, London Oliver Rowe, Konstam at the Prince Albert, London Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, The River Café, London. Helena Puolakka, Skylon, London Stuart Gillies, The Boxwood Café, London Jason Atherton, Maze, London John Torode, Smiths of Smithfield, London Atul Kochhar, Benares, London Mourad Mazouz, Momo, London Sally Clarke, Clarke's, London Michel Roux Sr, The Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire; author of "Pastry" Jun Tanaka, Pearl Restaurant, London Sam Hart, Quo Vadis, London DavidThompson, Nahm, London Raymond Blanc, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire Richard Corrigan, Bentley's, London Theodore Kyriakou, More, London Alan Yau, Wagamama, Hakkasan, Yauatcha, all London Sam and Sam Clark, Moro, London Eric Ripert, Le Bernardin, New York Chloe Doutre-Roussel, chocolate connoisseur, buyer and writer David Chang, Momnofuku, New York Eddie Hart, Fino, Barafina, London
Deep-fried locust, anyone? Insects may be the answer to our looming food crisis
Sustainable and nutritious, it's time insects were seen as another source of protein. The problem is how to make them desirable.
Grub's up: fried crickets for lunch. Photograph: KHAM/REUTERS
As with gingerbread men and gummy bears, the dilemma when served a locust is whether to begin eating it head or legs first. I choose to start with the six little legs (sometimes you need to fold them in a bit because they tend to trail out of your mouth otherwise), then the abdomen and finally (gulp) the head. Crunch, crunch, swallow. Think: bbq prawns, but unshelled.
I'll be honest, deep-fried locust is not the most delicious snack I've ever had. But on a long road trip through Cambodia, it was cheap, filling and tasty enough – more than can be said for most motorway service station food in Britain and less frightening than other menu options in the region. Goat-scrotum hotpot, anyone?
In south-east Asia, insects are an important part of the daily diet for millions of people. Crickets, cockroaches and other bugs and grubs are sold across the region by roadside vendors and in smart restaurants. They are harvested commercially and by home producers, providing vital income for struggling farmers. Often, insects are the only source of income for women earners, who rig polythene awnings above a fluorescent tube-light to trap flying insects after dark.
Insects are plentiful, multiply and grow to adulthood rapidly and require little food to sustain them. They are the perfect source of protein. As countries in the west and developing world wake up to the looming threat of food shortages, it's time that governments seriously considered an alternative source of protein. Could insects provide food security for the coming centuries?
Entomophagy (insect eating) is a growing industry with more than 1,400 insect species being gobbled in 90 countries. In terms of how much food insects require per gram of protein produced, they are twice as efficient as chickens and more than six times as efficient as cows. One reason for this is that insects are cold-blooded, so they don't need to eat food to keep warm.
Animal feed is an important consideration as agricultural costs soaring across the world, leaving millions of families unable to meet their basic rice needs. Meat is an unheard of luxury for many in the developing world, leading to protein deficiencies for populations across sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and Latin America.
The nutritional benefits of insects and better ways of marketing them were probed during an international conference last year in Chiang Mai, Thailand, involving scientists from 15 different countries, but not enough progress has been made since then. Researchers, governments and international agencies such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization need to look seriously at insect harvest and production to meet the world's food needs both in the poor world and the rich west. This doesn't necessarily mean a cockroach burger with grub fries, but it could mean using insect protein to replace soya bean protein in packaged foods. Insects are a far more environmentally sustainable source of protein, because they can be harvested without destruction of forests or food crops.
It's not the perfect food. People allergic to some seafood are likely also to suffer insect allergies. And insects exposed to pesticides retain high levels of toxins in their bodies.
There is a niche market for insects; there are cookbooks, websites, online recipe sites, suppliers and restaurants specialising in bug dishes. But insects need to follow the path of other exotic foods, such as sushi in the 1990s, and become desirable. As entomologist Gene DeFoliart, at UW-Madison, says: "If insects become more widely accepted as a respectable food item in the industrialised countries, the implications are obvious. They would form a whole new class of foods made to order for low-input small-business and small-farm production. International trade in edible insects would almost certainly increase."
Still grossed out by the yuck factor? It's worth realising that most of us do already eat insects. The US Food and Drug Administration allows, for example, up to 75 pieces of insect in 55mm of hot chocolate and up to 60 aphids in a portion of frozen broccoli.
And even before the economy got nasty, seniors were found to be generally happier than Baby Boomers. Some of that owes to the American Dream being lived by past generations, while Boomers work two jobs and watch the dream whither.
In times like this, it's clear how age can have its advantages. While not all seniors are weathering the recession well, for many the impact is much less severe than it is for younger people.
Why? Many people 65 and older retired and downsized their lifestyles before the economy imploded, according to Pew analysts. Most aren't raising kids and many are not so worried about being laid off. Loss of income can be, of course, a source of stress and displeasure. (While money doesn't buy happiness, a study in February showed cash can help, especially when people use it to do stuff instead of buy things.)
If you're thinking that Republicans are happy just because they perhaps make more money, that does not seem to be the case. The study that found Republicans to be happier than Democrats also showed that it held true even after adjusting for income.
It's those age 50-64 who've "seen their nest eggs shrink the most and their anxieties about retirement swell the most," the Pew survey found. It also finds that younger adults (ages 18-49) "have taken the worst lumps in the job market but remain relatively upbeat about their financial future."
Not everyone in any category is blissful, of course. Other research has shown that happiness in old age depends largely on attitude factors such as optimism and coping strategies. Add financial planning to the list.
In the new Pew telephone survey, taken in March and April of 2,969 adults, here's how many respondents in each age group said they had cut back on spending in the past year:
18-49: 68 percent
50-64: 59 percent
65+: 36 percent.
And is the recession causing stress in your family?
18-49: 52 percent
50-64: 58 percent
65+: 38 percent.
Now for the good news: A study in January found that key groups of people in the United States have grown happier over the past few decades, while other have become less so. The result: Happiness inequality has decreased since the 1970s. Americans are becoming more similar to each other on the happiness scale.
Robert Roy Britt is the Editorial Director of Imaginova. In this column, The Water Cooler, he looks at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond.
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Grow your own medicine with James Wong by Marianne Kavanagh...awaiting permissions...
Meet James Wong, an ethnobotanist, who grows his medicine in the garden. This is going to interest students, particularly as Traditional Chinese Medicine is influential and respected in Asia.
James Wang turns to his garden to treat ailments
Most of us look for a dock leaf when we've been stung by a nettle, but that's as far as it goes. We wouldn't dream of using plants to treat everyday ailments like eczema, sore throats, indigestion and insomnia. But James Wong, a 27-year-old ethnobotanist (a scientist who studies how people use plants), wants to change our minds. He passionately believes that safe, natural remedies can be made from the everyday plants you find in hedgerows, the back garden or local garden centres.
''Nowadays we think of plants as pretty objects, as soft furnishings in an outdoor room," he says. "But just two generations ago they were your hardware store and chemist all rolled into one." In Malaysia, where Wong grew up, everyone treated themselves with natural remedies. Food, too, was used as medicine – not only herbs, but ginger, chilli and garlic to ward off the symptoms of a cold. "My grandmother had a tiny patch of garden," says Wong, "which to anyone else would just look like a bunch of flowers, but she could make soup, or a face pack, or something to treat insect bites, in a matter of minutes. It was magical – real Harry Potter stuff.''
The problem, Wong believes, is that there's a big cultural dividing line between conventional medicine, which is thought of as effective, proven and serious, and herbal medicine, which has the reputation of being a bit flaky. But, as Wong says, up to 50 per cent of over-the-counter medicines are based on chemicals that were first isolated from plants. "Aspirin, for example, is made from the same chemicals that were first isolated from willow, which has been used for thousands of years as a painkiller.''
But don't you need green fingers to grow the kind of plants that are good for your health? Not at all, says Wong. ''Most herb species live in poor environments with low water and low fertiliser, and you probably have to keep hacking them back or they'll take over the whole garden. You might as well make something from them instead of throwing them on the compost." Common plantain, for example, which brings down inflammation and is good for insect bites and stings, makes up a quarter of most garden lawns.
Of course you should always consult your GP before using natural remedies, especially if you're already on medication, or are pregnant or breastfeeding, but Wong, who trained at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, is quick to point out that the herbs and plants he recommends all have a long history of use and no record of toxicity.
They also, in these uncertain times, have the distinct advantage of being cheap. Peppermint tea, which is brilliant if you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, indigestion or heartburn, is made from just fresh peppermint leaves and hot water. In his new book, published next month, Wong has also come up with recipes for body scrubs, deodorants and lip balms, most of which use ingredients that you already have in the kitchen cupboard. The basics for a lavender bath bomb, are citric acid, bicarbonate of soda and a splash of vegetable oil.
As a lecturer at Kent University, James is used to making the dry, academic facts about plants relevant and exciting, and he's enjoyed making his first television series, on BBC Two. If pressed to pick a favourite home-grown remedy out of the wealth of recipes he has gathered together, he admits to having a soft spot for the restorative powers of chilli. ''Scotch Bonnet or habanero boosts circulation and numbs pain,'' he says. ''We've used it to treat a whole team of battered rugby players.''
Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong is published by Collins on March 2 to tie in with the six-part series of the same name on BBC Two, which starts on March 2 at 8.30pm.
New - This brilliantly absorbing 6 part series begins 2009.03.22....
This week's recipes
Find out how to use figs to relieve constipation and hops for a good night's sleep, how to make a soothing face mask from kiwis and papayas, and how to cook an immunity-boosting soup. These recipes are taken from the book 'Grow Your Own Drugs', published by HarperCollins.
Syrup of figs for constipation
18 g dried senna pods 100 ml boiling water 8 fresh figs, quartered 100 g sugar Juice of 1 lemon
1. Place the senna pods in a glass bowl and pour over the boiling water. Leave to steep for about 30 minutes, then strain through a sieve or piece of muslin into a blender.
2. Add the figs and sugar to the senna infusion and whizz until smooth.
3. Pour into a saucepan, and heat slowly to reduce, stirring occasionally. You want to end up with a thick, glossy sugar-like syrup - this will probably take about 25 minutes. Add the lemon juice and stir in well.
4. Take off the heat and pour the syrup into a sterilized 150 ml bottle.
USE: Shake well before use. Take 2 tsp before bed when needed. Don't use for more than a few days at a time, or if you have severe abdominal pain.
STORAGE: Keeps in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks.
Goji berry and chicken soup for colds and flu
2 tbsp dried echinacea root 200 ml water, freshly boiled 5 tbsp goji berries, fresh or dried 2 litres chicken stock (homemade or from stock cubes) 3 chicken thighs or drumsticks (preferably organic) 2 large onions, peeled and sliced 12 shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced 10 cm root ginger, peeled and shredded 2 fresh medium-sized chillies, finely sliced 8 garlic cloves,chopped extra sliced ginger and chillis, to serve
1. Combine the dried echinacea root with the water in a bowl to make a simple infusion. In another bowl, pour just enough cold water over the goji berries to cover, and leave to rehydrate. Set the echinacea and goji berries aside and leave to stand.
2. Place the stock and chicken pieces in a large pan or slow cooker. Add the sliced onions, mushrooms, ginger and chillies and place around the chicken in the pan. On a very low heat, simmer gently for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until the chicken is tender and falls apart. Take off the heat.
3. Five minutes before serving, add the goji berries and chopped garlic. Finally, strain the echinacea infusion and add this to the soup, reheating if necessary.
4. Serve by ladling into bowls and garnishing with sliced ginger and chilli for an extra kick.
USE: Makes enough for 4. Can be eaten with noodles, if wished.
Hops pillow for insomnia
For a pillow about 32 x 23 cm: 4 handfuls dried hops flowers 4 handfuls dried lavender flowers
1. To dry the hops and lavender yourself, tie them in bunches and hang upside down in a well-ventilated space out of direct sunlight for 2 weeks. Alternatively, place in a low oven (about 100C) for 30 minutes or so until dry and crispy. Strip the flowers off the larger or harder stalks.
2. Put equal handfuls of dried hops and lavender flowers into a cotton pillowcase, and seal the end.
USE: Place the pillow under or beside your head to induce sleep.
Kiwi and papaya face mask
1 kiwi fruit, peeled juice of 1 lime 1/2 papaya 2 sachets vegetable gelatine
1. Mash the kiwi fruit through a sieve into a bowl. Add the lime juice to the kiwi mixture.
2. Scoop the seeds from the papaya, and mash the flesh on a chopping board using a fork (this makes it slightly easier to press through the sieve). Press the papaya through a sieve into a separate bowl and mix with the vegetable gelatine using a fork.
3. Put the bowl with the papaya mixture over a saucepan of boiling water and stir constantly until it forms a wallpaper-paste consistency. Take off immediately and continue to stir. Add the kiwi fruit juice slowly, bit by bit, stirring all the time. Leave to cool.
USE When cool or lukewarm, apply the gel to face, avoiding the eye area, and leave for 10 minutes to 1 hour.Wash off with warm water.
STORAGE Most effective when used as soon as possible. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture chart from Hua Shou (1340)
Acupuncture is a technique of inserting and manipulating fine filiform needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes.[3] The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick". In Standard Mandarin, 針砭 (zhēn biān) (a related word, 針灸 (zhēn jiǔ), refers to acupuncture together with moxibustion).[4]
According to traditional Chinese medical theory, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi, the vital energy, flows. There is no known anatomical or histological basis for the existence of acupuncture points or meridians.[5][6] Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice.[7][8][9] According to the NIH consensus statement on acupuncture, these traditional Chinese medical concepts "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information but continue to play an important role in the evaluation of patients and the formulation of treatment in acupuncture."[6]
Acupuncture originated in China[citation needed] and is most commonly associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).[citation needed] Different types of acupuncture (Classical Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Korean acupuncture) are practiced and taught throughout the world.
Chinese medicine is based on a pre-scientific paradigm of medicine with no biological plausibility, that developed over several thousand years. Its theory holds the following explanation of acupuncture:
Health is a condition of balance of yin and yang within the body. Particularly important in acupuncture is the free flow of Qi, a difficult-to-translate concept that pervades Chinese philosophy and is commonly translated as "vital energy". Qi is immaterial and hence yang; its yin, material counterpart is Blood (capitalized to distinguish it from physiological blood, and very roughly equivalent to it). Acupuncture treatment regulates the flow of Qi and Blood, tonifying where there is deficiency, draining where there is excess, and promoting free flow where there is stagnation. An axiom of the medical literature of acupuncture is "no pain, no blockage; no blockage, no pain."
Many patients claim to experience the sensations of stimulus known in Chinese as de qi ("obtaining the Qi" or "arrival of the Qi"). This kind of sensation was historically considered to be evidence of effectively locating the desired point. (There are some electronic devices now available which will make a noise when what they have been programmed to describe as the "correct" acupuncture point is pressed).
TCM treats the human body as a whole that involves several "systems of function" generally named after anatomical organs but not directly associated with them. The Chinese term for these systems is Zang Fu, where zang is translated as "viscera" or solid organs and fu is translated as "bowels" or hollow organs. In order to distinguish systems of function from physical organs, Zang Fu are capitalized in English, thus Lung, Heart, Kidney, etc. Disease is understood as a loss of balance of Yin, Yang, Qi and Blood (which bears some resemblance to homeostasis). Treatment of disease is attempted by modifying the activity of one or more systems of function through the activity of needles, pressure, heat, etc. on sensitive parts of the body of small volume traditionally called "acupuncture points" in English, or "xue" (穴, cavities) in Chinese. This is referred to in TCM as treating "patterns of disharmony."
Diets damage health. By FIONA MacRAE
Most people pile the pounds straight back on after dieting. The world's largest study of weight loss has shown that diets do not work for the vast majority of slimmers and may even put lives at risk. More than two-thirds pile the pounds straight back on, raising the danger of heart attack, stroke and diabetes*.
Indeed most dieters end up heavier than they did to start with, the researchers found. They warn this type of yo-yo behaviour is linked to a host of health problems. And they say the strain that repeated weight loss and gain places on the body means most people would have been better off not dieting at all.
The findings follow other research that shows the UK is in the grip of a dieting frenzy, with one in four Britons at any one time trying to lose weight.
The University of California researchers analysed the results of more than 30 studies involving thousands of slimmers.
Although the overview did not name specific weight loss plans, popular diets in recent years include the low carbohydrate, high protein Atkins diet and the GI diet, which is rich in slow-burning wholegrain carbohydrates.
Pooling the results of the various studies clearly showed that while people do lose weight initially, most quickly put all the weight back on.
In fact, most people end up weighing more than they did to begin with. Researcher Dr Traci Mann said: "You can initially lost 5 to 10 per cent of your weight on any number of diets. "But after this honeymoon period, the weight comes back.
A four-year study into the health of 19,000 men revealed that most of those who put on weight had dieted in the years before the start of the study. The analysis, published in the journal American Psychologist, concluded dieters may actually be damaging their health.
Research has shown the repeated rapid weight gain and loss associated with dieting can double the risk of death from heart disease, including heart attacks, and the risk of premature death in general. Such yo-yo weight loss has also been linked to stroke and diabetes and shown to suppress the immune system, making the body more vulnerable to infection.
The psychologist, who advises would-be slimmers to swap calorie-controlled diets for a balanced diet coupled with regular exercise, added: "Exercise may well be the key factor leading to sustained weight loss.
The finding comes as Britain fights a rising tide of obesity. A growing reliance on fast food and time-saving technology has led to the UK developing the worst weight problem in Europe, with almost a quarter of adults classed as obese.
Last night, British experts said that fad diets do not work and that the key to maintaining a healthy weight is making gradual, long-term changes.
*Recent studies in the UK show that new cases of diabetes - a disease in which sugars and starch are not properly absorbed into the body, are increasing at the rate of 1 every 3 minutes.
Exercise advice from the TA.
The TA stands for Territorial Army and is a reservist section of the Armed Forces in the UK. Affecionately known as 'The Weekend Warriors', it largely comprises volunteers who meet and train regularly, and are on call for emergencies, in and out of combat.
Recent advice from the TA places emphasis on the need for a healthy, balanced diet, and regular exercise. This does not include regular trips to gyms or membership of expensive Health Clubs, which in the UK can cost £100 (US$ 150, RMB1,000) per month.
They suggest: regular meals, with a balance of high fibre, protein, calcium, minerals and vitamins, such as those found in bread, rice, lentils, fresh fruit and vegetables - with reduced salt and fats. Favourite foods such as a cooked breakfast , or habits such as the occasional alcoholic drink or smoking, need not be prohibited, but should be used in moderation.
Regular exercise is also important, which can incorporated into everyday routines, using facilities which are readily available around your home. Regular brisk walks for example, instead of taking the car or bus. Swimming uses more muscles in your body than any other form of exercise.
You can use a solid piece of furniture at home or work to work out a routine of press-ups, a step or stair to perform step-ups, and exercise with a friend to do rolling sit-ups. Simple, but effective musscle exercise or massage such as rotating / rolling and stretching your arms, head and legs is easy to do in a spare few minutes, or when engaging in other activities.
The overall message is, take exercise regularly every day, and do things in moderation.
Food and Drink are deeply rooted in a Nation's Culture. Much of the things we eat are common foods. Foods that are readily available in the environment in which we live; the surrounding area. Some countries, China is a very good example, cover such a vast area and expansive range of longitude and latitude, from the fertile coastal regions in the east, across the North and South China Plain to the mountains of the west. From the cold climate of the north to the tropical south. Grain, such as wheat in the north, rice in the southern regions, apples and pears in the north; pineapples, oranges and bananas in the south.
We have fresh foods, convenience foods and fast-food . Fresh food, much of it staple food, basic to our everyday diet is usually grown locally .
Fresh food which is produced in other regions or, in the case of the U.K., imported from abroad. At home, we don't grow enough food to feed our population, although it is relatively small. This has never been more severely brought to the attention of the people of Britain, than during the second World War, when the German navy frequently attacked the North Atlantic Food Convoys (ships bringing imported food from across the Atlantic Ocean to British ports). It became such a problem, that the convoys had to have protection from our own Navy. Supplies were cut-off; food rationing was brought in, which lasted until 1953, nine years after the war had ended. Britain was under siege, and became close to within weeks of being starved out.
In the west, people lead busy working lives. In families, usually both adults work; their children too, if they have completed their education and are no longer studying. The family unit is no longer intact as it is in Asia.
Families consist of a closed unit; the couple, or father and mother, plus their children.The extended family of aunts, uncles and grandparents usually live somewhere else. Restaurants are expensive. Yes! There are small restaurants, pubs and transport cafes, serving snacks and hearty cooked breakfasts for truck drivers and lunches, but restaurants and eating out is much less common than in China. It is usually reserved for special occasions, birthdays, romantic evenings with a partner, or a celebration with friends.
In the west, convenience foodis much more common than in Asia . Pre-prepared food. Food that is dried and in packets .Food that is in tins. Frozen food, and food that can be cooked in a micro-wave .
'What are we having for dinner tonight ?'
'Chicken Ping !'
'Chicken Ping ? What's Chicken Ping?'
'It's chicken done in a micro-wave!' (Slams chicken into a microwave. Set the timer... ping!)
Convenience food is high in salt, sugar and other preservatives, which are added to make bland or tasteless, uninteresting food look and taste better.As a result, people tend to be fatter and overweight which, in itself creates health problems, such as heart-disease. When I come to China in 2,000, I weighed 89kg -15kg more than I do today.
Fast food 'the Golden Arches of McDonalds' have spread across the world.Their website gives you nutritional information about their products.It doesn't tell you the bad points and side-effects that it can have on your health . 'KFC' is another global fast-food chain. China doesn't escape either, California Beef Noodle Kingand 'Mr Li's' fast noodle restaurants are examples of traditional Chinese food being swept into the fast food requirement that affects so many people's busy working lives in the city.
I can go to an open-air place in the market, on the street outside my home and buy the creamiest, tastiest home made noodles, with beef or tomatoes with eggs, for a few pence .
A man in the same market ,barbecues mutton (lamb) on skewers, (wooden sticks). What a pleasure it is, to come home in the early evening in the summer, sit outside, with a plate of hot barbecued meat with toasted steamed bread and watch the sun go down. The hustle and bustle of people coming home from work, children playing and women shopping as I sip an ice cold beer!
Anyway ! We had better get on ¡
There can't be many things in life more pleasurable than sitting down with family or friends, chatting and eating.In China , there is a word for the atmosphere in restaurants. It is 'renao', which means 'hot and steamy' . When Chinese people eat out, they have fun !
Here are some of the differences between eating in China and at home; either at home or in a restaurant.
Breakfast: the first meal of the day. Generally speaking it is much more varied in China than in the U.K. , Europe or the United States .
A Traditional English Breakfast is usually cold with crusty bread rolls, jam, cold meats or cheese. Cereals (manufactured from wheat or oats), served with hot or cold milk and sugar are also common. Both are served with tea (Indian black tea) with milk and / or sugar, coffee or fruit juice .
In China, breakfast can be more or less anything. I have had dumplings (jiaozi), chepati(congyoubing), pancake with eggs and sausage, (shaobing), porridge - different to porridge in the west, which is made with oats and milk, served with sugar or salt, noodle soup (mi xian ), long doughnuts(youtiao) with hot soya mike or hundun-a kind of soup with chopped meat in dough, shrimps and herbs. Delicious ! I feel hungry !
Lunch is served at dinner time. Dinner is served at supper time. Supper is served at bed time. Oh dear, how confusing. Let me try to explain!
Forty or fifty years ago, and before that, common people had breakfast first thing in the morning, when they got up. That's OK! The aristocracy, wealthy people did the same, but that is more or less where the where the similarity ended.
Manual workers, labourers, shopkeepers and school children had a mid-morning snack of something like, bread and cheese, a sandwich or biscuits with tea or milk around 11 o'clock. It was called 'elevenses'. Simple so far, aint it ?
At about 12.30, ordinary people had their main meal of the day which was known as dinner at dinner-time. In the late afternoon, they ate a cold meal of bread and butter, jam or cheese, with cold meat, if they could afford it or, if there were left-overs from previous meals. It was accompanied by tea and cake. That was called tea-time and was taken between 4.30 and 5.30 pm .
My mother still follows that routine. When I stay with her, if I want dinner at 1pm it is late. When my father was alive, if tea wasn't on the table by 4.30pm after he returned from work, that was late too.
During the evening, anytime from around 8pm, most people had supper; a light snack before going to bed .
Not so the aristocracy and gentlemen with a good education, money and aposition in society. When common people were eating dinner, the aristocracy had lunch. They had afternoon tea at tea time. A light snack with cucumber sandwiches and fancy cakes was common. When the common people were eating supper gentlemen were sitting down to dinner. When ordinary folk were in bed, people with wealth tucked into supper, slept on a full stomach, and got fat!
In modern society in the west, with our rush here, race there, must get this done yesterday, mentality and life-style, people often skip breakfast altogether, or just 'have a coffee' .Lunch is often 'on the hoof ', which means whilst you are on the move, or sitting at your desk while you continue to work. Tea-time, when you arrive home from work is followed in the early evening by dinner, usually between 6 and 7 pm.
About the only thing that hasn't changed very much, is our traditional Sunday Dinner or Sunday Lunch, the same thing, eaten as a family between 12.30 and 2pm. Home, pub or restaurant cooked, it consists of 2 or 3 courses; soup or a fruit starter to begin. Followed by roast meat cooked in an oven, with roast and boiled potatoes and a selection of vegetables. Something sweet rounds off the meal - apple pie with cream (from milk), custard - a vanilla flavoured sauce made with milk or ice cream. The meal is often served with red or white grape wine.
In Asian countries food is often barbequed, as I have already mentioned. It is often steamed, boiled or stir-fried. In the west, boiling and roasting are more common.
Whether food is sweet, spicy or plain, the types of food are the same; meat vegetables/fruit, and seafood, fish, shrimps and prawns. Wwe eat more sea fish than river or lake fish, as we are surrounded by the sea. There are also foods which come from grains such as wheat, rice, and oats . They are made into bread and pasta or noodles .
Food is flavoured with condiments to make dishes look and taste better. Herbs and spices of endless variety. Black pepper, chili pepper, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, ginger, honey, salt, sugar, soy sauce, tomato sauce and vinegar, to name but a few.
We have the same types of drinks which fall into two groups; alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Beer, fruit wines and spirits or strong wine. Boiled water, mineral water, milk and tea. Fruit juices and fizzy drinks or sodas like Coca Cola, Pepsi and lemonade, with a high sugar content. Some food is good for your health, some, not so good. It's all a question of balance. A balanced diet.
'I'm a vegetarian. I eat fried potatoes ice cream and drink Coca Cola!'
Vegetarian Diets
with contributions from Wang Qi: '21st Century' : 2006.08.30.
WHEN Zhang Liping decided to go veggie after having read books about animal rights 10 years ago, she was definitely one the 'weird few' at Peking University.
“I felt so uncomfortable when I thought of animals being killed to be served on our plates. But when I talked to people about my lifestyle, most would ask whether I was a Buddhist.”
When the 33-year-old PhD student from Peking University ’s Communication College talked about the Vegetarian lifestyle on campus this June, no one asked about religion.
“Many showed interest and would like to try being a veggie, though some feared that they couldn’t stick to the lifestyle for long”.
Zhang is a member of the Vegetarian Food Society at Peking University , set up in 2000. Now it has more than 100 registered members, and many more who cannot totally give up meat, choose to become “flexitarians” (occasional meat eaters), according to Zhang. Other universities including Fu Dan University and Zhong Shan University have also set up vegetarian societies.
In China , vegetarian diets have long been related to Buddhism. “But the majority of today’s growing young vegetarian population adopt the lifestyle because of their concerns about animal rights, the environment and their own health,” said Huang Ying, from China Vegetarian Union’s Beijing Office.
According to the American Dietetic Association (ADA), vegetarians have lower rates of certain cancers, heart diseases and obesity.
Vegetarian diets were once thought to be lacking in certain nutrients. But experts say that with a little planning, vegetarians can easily meet all their nutritional needs.
“My mother used to force me to eat meat because she thought meat was more nutritious,” said Luo Hao, 23,a veggie from Peking University “But because of diseases, such as bird flu and mad cow disease, my family has given up meat and we are all healthy.”
To ensure adequate nutrition, ADA recommends that vegetarians eat a wide variety of foods including grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and soy products.
“And you don’t have to sacrifice tastes. Vegetarian dishes such as faux pork and faux fish made from soy protein and mushrooms are abundant on the market. They look and taste like meat and fish.”
SUPER FOODS.
American dietician, David Grotto reveals that some foods really are worth eating.Extracted from, '101 Foods That Could Save Your Life' by David Grotto Bantum Press £10.99.
Hardly a week goes by in the UK without us being told by an expert that this or that food is good or bad for us, or that certain diets are good for losing weight. A popular joke is to say, 'I'm a vegetarian. I only eat chips (fries) and ice cream!'
The Ministry of Health in Britain issues guidelines on healthy diets; we must eat 5 or 7 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day - take your pick, as the information varies. The Government even issues a guide to people working in foreign countries, including China. If we took any notice of what we shouldn't eat - water melon because they may be injected with unsafe water, food from stalls on the street etc., we would all starve. David Grotto has come up with an interesting little book which give positive examples of super foods which are good for our general health. Today we begin a 5 part mini-series exploring the benefits of eating certain food. Lets begin with...
TEA. One of the joys of living or visiting China is the vast choice of tea which is generally available in specialist tea shops and large supermarkets. It contains antioxidants which help prevent some types of cancer, particularly in the mouth, lungs, digestive system and skin. Research in Japan has shown that tea might reduce body fat and bone disease (osteoporosis). Women, in particular, who drink tea regularly, tend to have more bone density than men. The convenient tea bag, is disapproved of by many, but the fact that tea is finely ground, it increases the surface area when boiling water s poured on, thus increasing the amount of antioxidants that are released. Alternatively, you could stir the pot more frequently, I suppose.
CHINESE GOOSEBERRY or KIWI FRUIT is recommended a prevention against heart disease, as it contains a component which makes blood less sticky. It also protects and repair DNA against damage. It is also an excellent source of a number of chemicals including lutein and zeaxanthin which are found in the human eye. Eating it daily can help prevent cataracts - a film which often clouds vision as people get older. The skin, which is often thrown away, is an excellent source of nutrients and fibre.
Next: Eggs, walnuts and strawberries. 2008.06.20.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
There is considerable debate going on about the value of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This feature is based on a number of reports, some from '21st Century'.
It is ironic that as China embraces western medicine in favour of TCM, in Europe the trend is begining to swing the other way, mainly due to the large number of side-effects that many western drugs produce. The side-effects can be quite unpleasant including; drowsiness - which is dangerous because it affect a person's driving capability, dizziness, upset stomach, sickness, constipation or diarrohea.
In the doctor's practice that was local to my home when I lived in Bristol, one of the 6 consultants was a specialist in TCM. Several main ciities in the UK have Centres for Treatment by Chinese and other 'alternative' forms of medicine.
Chinese medicine focuses on health. The best Chinese doctors are said to be those whose patients remain healthy.
The main difference between traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine is that TCM focuses on health rather than disease. It focuses on keeping the body in balance and harmony with nature.
In China , TCM doctors keep their patients healthy BY supporting the body’s natural order to enhance immunity before imbalance and disease occur and reduce the potency of diseases.
Observation plays an essential part in the Chinese practitioner’s diagnoses. Everything about the person is observed, tongue, eyes, skin colour, hearing, pulse, age, weight, body type, voice, hair, posture and body odour.
Reveals weakness.
A complete examination reveals potentially weak areas. Herbal formulas are then prescribed to tone these areas, as well as to bolster the immune system. Acupuncture, which is considered a form of physical therapy, is used as an aid to herbology.
Herbology is particularly effective in helping to eliminate what the Chinese call 'evils' -viruses, bacterial infections, or anything else that invades the body from the outside.
If 'evils' are present, the doctor prescribes herbs, not only for the affected part, but to strengthen other parts which may be weakened by the disease.
In this way body balance is maintained. A well-balanced body is thought to heal itself more efficiently.
Allopathy (Western medicine), eliminates evils without supporting the normal order. The high toxicity of Western drugs often damages vital tissues like bone marrow and those lining the gastro-intestinal system, further weakening the patient.
Some herbs, on the other hand, support or increase the body’s natural killer immune cells, while leaving the body’s vital growth mechanisms intact.
TCM does have its limitations and cautions that some 'evils' do require the intervention of Western medicine. Injuries, traumas and illnesses where time is of the essence, often call for the Western approach. However, even in these cases, subsequent healing can be enhanced with herbs and acupuncture.
Controversy
Even for the Chinese themselves, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can still be controversial. The recent debate about whether TCM should be removed from the nation’s health care system showed this. While Western medicines have been embraced by Chinese, it is still hard for the west to accent TCM, such as herbal medicine and acupuncture.
TCM is often treated as a complementary treatment abroad. Only South Korea has it as part of its health care systems. This means the cost of using it is not covered by health insurance.
The US , for example, doesn’t recognize herbal medicine as medicine. It is often sold as a dietary supplement at health food shops, rather than in drug stores.
Broadly, the reason Westerners are skeptical about TCM, is not because they think it’s unsafe but because there is a lack of hard scientific evidence. Western medicine is based on evidence that can be proved by tests and machines. Remedies are created based on the understanding of infections, cellular structures, and organic chemistry. Chinese medicine, which reflects Chinese philosophy, is a science relying mainly on observation and description. A remedy is sometimes made without seeing the real symptoms.
The differences between the two medical practices make it difficult for Westerners to accept TCM widely. They find more comfort and trust in a medicine that is based on laboratory tests. But, TCM has its strength. It’s green and healthy. Perhaps that as more foreigners get to know Chinese medicine, it will get more popular.
The following table is taken from 21st century, and illustrates the differences in thinking between Western and Traditional Chinese Medicines.
Western medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine
Human body
Man is a machine which can be understood by taking it apart to its smallest components
TCM regards man’s body as interrelated and constantly interacting with the environment
Illness
Illness is the faulty functioning of various biological mechanisms.
Illness is due to disharmony between internal and external factors.
Treatment
Treatment corrects the malfunction of a particular mechanism.
Treatment activates the body’s self-recovery mechanisms.
The A to Zzz of sleep By Daily Mail Reporter from 'The Sleepyhead's Companion' by Saun Gloughlan
Sleep is one of the most pleasurable and mysterious areas of our lives. It is as necessary as breathing and as nourishing as eating, yet few of us feel we are getting enough of it.
In our overcrowded lives, sleep has become a modern obsession, the thing we crave more than anything else. But how much do we know about this nightly pleasure? Why did the Elizabethans rub dormouse fat on to their feet? Who was the insomniac Prime Minister forced to quit? Does counting sheep work?
A fascinating new book by Sean Coughlan, The Sleepyhead's Bedside Companion, answers these and a host of other nocturnal conundrums …
HEROIC SLEEPERS
In modern life, forsaking sleep is seen as a sign of strength, but this was not always so. In the toughest times of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill would go to bed in the afternoon. He said: 'You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner, and no half measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. You will be able to accomplish more.'
He did, however, admit to another reason for his siesta. 'Sleep enables you to be at your best in the evening when you join your wife, family and friends for dinner. That is the time to be at your best, a good dinner with good wines.'
Another heroic sleeper was Einstein, who clocked-up 11 hours a night. He developed a napping system in which he would break off from his work, sit in a comfortable armchair and hold a pencil in his hand. When he fell into a deep sleep, the pencil would be dropped and the sound would wake him up. Refreshed, he would return to his desk.
HOW OUR ANCESTORS SLEPT
Going to bed late in the evening and staying asleep until morning is the pattern of the Western industrial working culture, but this single stretch of sleep hasn't always been common practice.
Before the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of the electric light bulb, there was nothing fixed about our sleep patterns. Our intake of sleep was spread out across the day.
According to social historians, our agricultural medieval forebears got up at dawn, started work early and fell asleep in the late afternoon. They awoke in the early evening, revitalised for the big social activity of the communal meal. After eating and drinking, they would crash out in a boozy stupor around midnight, ready to rise again at dawn.
Later, it was traditional to go to bed at 9pm when it got dark (or earlier in winter), sleep till midnight, then wake for a 'watching hour' when people might read in bed, write a letter, talk, prepare a snack or do some light work.
This fits in with an acknowledged spike in the brain's activity around midnight (much utilised by poets and writers), after which a further four hours or so of sleep would follow.
This pattern continued into the early 19th century and, interestingly, this is also the way chimpanzees - our closest animal neighbour - sleep.
In some cultures, there was even sleeping akin to hibernation. Peasants in 19th-century France took to their beds for long stretches of the year. Graham Robb, in The Discovery Of France, writes of a civil servant in Burgundy, in 1844, who found that no one was working after the wine harvest. 'These vigorous men will spend their days in bed, packing their bodies tightly together in order to stay warm, and to eat less food.'
HOW MUCH SLEEP DO WE NEED?
The typical answer is between seven and eight hours, but, in fact, this varies greatly from individual to individual. Margaret Thatcher famously survived on just four hours a night, although one in 50 people is a long sleeper - needing more than nine hours a day. A recent survey found that women slept on average seven hours and 12 minutes, men for six hours and 45 minutes.
But beware, too much sleep can be bad for you. A Californian study found that people who slept more than eight hours a night were at greater risk of dying younger. On the other hand, a study of the sleeping habits of 10,000 civil servants by the University of Warwick found that less than five hours sleep a night increased the chances of dying from cardiovascular problems.
When the civil servants were revisited after a ten-year period, those who slept less than five hours nightly were 1.7 times more likely to have died, and twice as likely to have died from cardiovascular problems.
SLEEPING IN EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES
How do lone yachtsmen and women sleep? Sleeping for eight hours isn't an option, as there is no one else to keep watch. Instead, they learn to sleep in short bursts.
Ellen MacArthur perfected a system of short naps that balanced physical need for sleep against her need to be awake and alert for as long as possible, before her 2005 record-breaking solo round-the-world trip. She slept for five-and-a-half hours a day, in chunks of 36 minutes. She said: 'I can't describe the mechanism that wakes me up, but if I sleep for 40 minutes and the wind changes, I'll wake.'
Others are not so fortunate. Many astronauts find sleeping in space very difficult. The lack of gravity means they have to sleep vertically and can't have the reassuring pressure of a blanket on them. If they must have a pillow, it needs to be fixed to their heads. However, that doesn't stop astronauts snoring - as proven by the deep nasal tones detected on Nasa scientists' microphones!
DORMOUSE FAT, CANNABIS AND OTHER INSOMNIA REMEDIES
Every year, some 10million prescriptions for sleeping pills are written in Britain, and we are currently a nation struggling to get sufficient shut-eye. So what are the alternative remedies?
The Greeks and the Egyptians relied on opium. In the Middle Ages, the opium was mixed with the henbane and mandragora plants, lettuce seed and ivy. This was applied to a sponge then held to the nostrils of the person needing sleep.
The Elizabethans favoured 'the fat of a dormouse applied to the soles of the feet'. While this might sound strange - and it probably didn't work - dormice have a long-established connection to sleep, through the snoozing dormouse in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland.
In the 1870s, cannabis was the insomniac's drug of choice. A French company advertised its special brand of Indian cigarettes, called cannabis Indica, as possessing 'remarkable virtues against asthma, neuralgia and insomnia'.
DOES CHEESE GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES?
In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Scrooge blames his nocturnal visions on having eaten 'a crumb of cheese' before bed, and we have long associated cheese with nightmares. But a study of 200 people by the British Cheese Board found no connection. (Maybe not such a surprise given who conducted the survey.)
However, researchers did find that different cheeses could affect sleep. Red Leicester was said to create rose-tinted nostalgic dreams, Stilton generated bizarre dreams and Cheshire could inspire a dreamless night's sleep.
SLEEP CONCERTS
For all those who struggle to stay awake whenever their bottom hits the comfy cinema seat, enveloped in dark, with no one talking and no mobile phones - the Japanese have the answer.
Sleep concerts, dedicated to helping stressed workers get some shut-eye, have sprung up across the country. People pay for a ticket, make themselves comfortable in reclining seats, listen to music, and try to fall asleep. Judging by the photos of rows of dozing concert-goers - they work!
WHY CHARLES DICKENS TOOK A COMPASS TO BED
Charles Dickens suffered from insomnia. For a time, he tried a mixture of opium and alcohol. It put him to sleep, but made him feel terrible in the morning. Then he tried to go to sleep with the head of his bed facing due north - which apparently helped. This was in keeping with the Victorians' interest in the influence of magnetic fields. It is also, incidentally, the preferred sleeping position advocated by feng shui exponents.
THE PRIME MINISTER FORCED TO QUIT THROUGH INSOMNIA
When Harold Wilson was asked for the single most important ingredient for staying at the top of the political ladder, he said: 'The greatest asset a head of state can have is the ability to get a good night's sleep.'
The fifth Earl of Rosebery had no such luck. Hailed as the golden boy of late Victorian politics, he had to step down after just 14 months as PM because he couldn't sleep. When he began his tenure in March 1894, the pressures of office rendered sleep impossible and he was regularly driven in his carriage round the streets of London, trying to sleep. In a desperate bid to lull himself to sleep, he used ever-increasing amounts of morphine before admitting he could not go on. He stood down in June 1895 and never regained his political career.
EXTRACTED from The Sleepyhead's Bedside Companion by Sean Coughlan, published by Preface on March 19, ?12.99. ? 2009 Sean Coughlan. To order a copy (p&p free) call 44 + 00 + 845 155 0720.
Food experts from the Good Food Guide have drawn up a list of the country's best and worst margheritas after visiting six chain restaurants.
James Wang turns to his garden to treat ailments
Hops pillow for insomnia
Most people pile the pounds straight back on after dieting. The world's largest study of weight loss has shown that diets do not work for the vast majority of slimmers and may even put lives at risk. More than two-thirds pile the pounds straight back on, raising the danger of heart attack, stroke and diabetes*.
