'1000-lb Sisters' star Tammy Slaton mocked for flaunting 'loose skin' in braless mirror selfie after 300 lbs weight loss
Tammy Slaton showed off her weight loss in stunning white floral dress
2023-06-28 09:53
Vitamin D intake ‘may reduce cancer mortality in the population by 15%’ – study
Taking regular Vitamin D supplements may reduce cancer deaths in the population by 15%, according to scientists. Data gathered from the UK Biobank, an online database of medical and lifestyle records of around 500,000 Britons, indicates vitamin D deficiency is linked to an increased cancer mortality risk – particularly in relation to bowel, stomach, prostate, and lung cancers. The researchers said their work, published in Elsevier’s European Journal of Cancer, adds to evidence that vitamin D may have a protective effect against cancer. While the findings do not explain why this happens, the team said one possibility is that vitamin D supplements may induce anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and DNA damage repair mechanisms, which can thwart mutations that allows tumours to grow. Study author Ben Schottker, an epidemiologist at the German Cancer Research Centre, said: “Our findings identified a statistically significant relationship between vitamin D deficiency and increased mortality among several cancers. “These results can be explained by other studies, which found mechanisms by which vitamin D inhibits cancer growth and metastasis.” The NHS advice is that adults and children over four take a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D throughout the year. According to the Department of Health and Social Care, around one in six adults and almost 20% of children in the UK have vitamin D levels lower than government recommendations. Older people, the housebound and people from black and South Asian communities are more likely to have lower levels of vitamin D. Our findings identified a statistically significant relationship between vitamin D deficiency and increased mortality among several cancers Ben Schottker For the study, the researchers looked at data from more than 400,000 people aged 40–69. In-depth medical information was gathered through blood, urine and saliva samples. A short interview and a questionnaire as used to assess vitamin D consumption as well as lifestyle factors such as alcohol consumption, smoking. Follow-up data on health outcomes were gathered through NHS links as well as care data, cancer screening data, and disease-specific registers. Over a period of nearly 13 years, close to 13,000 people died of cancer. Results showed a majority of the study population had either vitamin D deficiency (21.1%) or insufficiency (34.4%) – used to describe low levels of vitamin D. Of the people involved in the study, only 4.1% regularly took a vitamin D supplement and 20.3% regularly took a multivitamin. Results showed that vitamin D supplement users had 15% lower total cancer mortality and 25% lower lung cancer mortality compared to those who did not take the supplement. The also found researchers found that those with vitamin D deficiency had 42% increased mortality for stomach, 27% for bowel, 24% for lung, and 36% for prostate cancers. Meanwhile those with vitamin D insufficiency were found to have 14% increased bowel cancer mortality and 19% increased lung cancer mortality. The scientists said that the potential to reduce cancer mortality by vitamin D supplementation in populations with low levels should be further explored in new research. Commenting on the study, Dr Jenna Macciochi, senior lecturer in immunology at the University of Sussex, said: “This study adds to the growing body of evidence on vitamin D and cancer. “Vitamin D plays multiple key roles in immune health and the immune system is part of the body’s cancer defence system. “With cancer rates rising and presenting a serious public health issue, its useful to have further insight into the role of vitamin D in the prevention of cancer.” But Dr Macciochi also cautioned that the Biobank data might not be diverse and representative of the whole of the UK population. Alex Ruani, doctoral researcher at University College London and chief science educator at The Health Sciences Academy – who was not involved in the study, said that the exact dosage taken by participants was not ascertained and the risk reduction was not the same for all cancers. She said: “This research doesn’t imply that taking vitamin D3 supplements will for sure lower your risk of death from cancer. “Supplementation may help with consistent vitamin D levels, whereas production from sunlight can be variable and dependent on weather, time of the day, exposure duration, being outdoors or indoors, protective UV wear or sunblock, and many other factors.” She added: “Common food sources of vitamin D3 include full-fat dairy, egg yolks, and fish. “Although toxicity is rare, there is an upper tolerable limit set in the UK, where vitamin D3 supplementation shouldn’t exceed 100 micrograms a day.”
2023-08-16 17:15
Eddie Huang: ‘I’ll never eat at BAO London – I know mine’s better’
For a decade, Baohaus was one of the best-known restaurants for Taiwanese fare in New York City. According to Eater, the restaurant “helped lay the cultural and culinary groundwork for an ambitious class of modern Taiwanese spots” in the city. It also catapulted founder Eddie Huang to fame as his culinary expertise was thrusted into the spotlight with shows on the Cooking Channel (Cheap Bites), Viceland (Huang’s World) and MTV (Snack Off). He first opened Baohaus on the Lower East Side of Lower Manhatten in 2009, before relocating it to a bigger venue in the East Village. During the 10 years he ran Baohaus, Huang also wrote his memoir Fresh Off The Boat, which led to the TV series of the same name, starring Randall Park and Constance Wu. But in 2020, around seven months into the coronavirus pandemic, Huang announced that Baohaus would be no more. At the time, he wrote in an Instagram post: “I opened this restaurant to tell my family’s story through food at a time when no one was giving Asian Americans a chance in TV, film, books or media generally.” Since then, however, things have changed drastically for the diaspora; this year, the celebrated Asian-led cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once clinched seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Michelle Yeoh) and Best Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Sheinert). Now, Huang is casting his eye back to Baohaus, but this time he’s bringing it across the pond and into London. His three-month residency at Neighbourhood in Islington – which previously held “ramen junkie” Ivan Orkin’s Ivan Mazemen residency – will dominate this summer with his signature Taiwanese baos, fried chicken and noodle dishes, bringing a bowl of the Big Apple to the Great Smog. I sat down with Huang over a steaming, fragrant bowl of Taiwanese mince pork stew and rice to talk about what Baohaus’ legacy in New York was, its future in London, and what it means to have a vision. How did it feel when you closed Baohaus in NYC? I always loved having Baohaus. I never intended to close it, but the pandemic hit and I went to Taiwan to be safe, but our landlord kept on charging rent in New York. I just didn’t see an end to it. I’ve been wanting to reopen for a while but when I got home, I had to immediately get to work promoting Boogie. It was kind of bittersweet, but I try to think about everything from a more existential perspective. To have owned a restaurant for 10 years in New York while writing a memoir and doing all these shows, and then directing my first film… I just felt an immense sense of accomplishment and I felt like it was really a part of the fabric of downtown New York. So many people had come through those walls and it meant so much to me, so I was just really proud even though it was closing. It forced me to look back on everything and I had a sense of gratitude and pride, and I wasn’t angry at all. I think I was sad that it was closing, but thankful to the universe for the time that I did get. Baohaus left a legacy for Taiwanese food in New York that spread across the rest of the Western world. How does it make you feel? Even when I go back to Taiwan, people will say, ‘Yo, that’s the pork bun kid’. That’s my name back home. I’m very, very grateful that I made a lot of people happy and Taiwanese people were proud of it, and that New Yorkers were proud of it and loved it. But now, starting it back up in London is just par for the course for me. I’ve never lived in one place. Born in DC, grew up in Orlando, made New York my home. I would say I identified with New York more than anywhere else. I got dragged to LA for my work and then now I got dragged out to London to open Baohaus, so this [Neighbourhood] is now the new home base for the next three months. But the idea is to then start to look at brick and mortar spaces in London and hopefully make it more permanent. What makes Bao Haus stand out? There’s a lot of Taiwanese cooking in London now. What really defines my cooking is there is a straight line between my grandma, my mother, and myself. There are very, very small things I do to adapt it up for my taste or modern tastes, but it’s not adding trendy ingredients or smashing things together. For example, this mince pork stew is how my grandma and my mum would make it. The only thing I pay more attention to is knife skills and the exact cut of the pork belly mixed in with the ground meat. It’s the same with the Chairman Bao, it’s exactly like the baos you get in Taiwan except that I red-cook my pork instead of brown braising. So I stay within the Taiwanese pantry, but I really work on the technique. I read that you don’t really like being called a chef. What don’t you like about that chef territory? The thing is, I definitely think cooking is an art, right? Even the guy selling a dollar bowl of rice is just as artistic to me as somebody doing a tasting menu. But I feel like every generation has these chefs whose food always has to be about them. It’s less about culture and community, and more about, ‘Check out my new idea, my new thing’ and none of it ever has staying power. I get disappointed going to a lot of young chef restaurants because they’re working their s*** out and they want you to pay for their food because they feel they’re being creative. Like, ‘Because we were being creative, you should f***ing pay us and buy our food’. And I’m like, well, this just doesn’t taste f***ing good. If you’re going to charge people this, s*** should be good. There’s a lot of ego. A lot of people didn’t set out to be chefs, they say, ‘I was in fashion or I was in music, or I was a director and I busted out and ended up in food’. People see food as a place they can be all artistic and they think they can creative-direct a restaurant, but this s*** is a lot harder than you think. You can have a cool brand and a great vibe, but to keep people coming back for 10 years, your food’s gotta be really good and be a good deal for your customers. Everything is exciting when it’s new, but does it stand the test of time? Do you keep thinking about it the next day? Are you a perfectionist? Here’s an example: chips. We were known for our taro fries in New York. I did taro fries because you can get French fries anywhere, and they go great with our food, but I wanted to do something different. So I would brine the taro, black it and then double fry it, and they were some of the best fries I’ve ever had and people went nuts for them. But it’s much harder to source taro here in London, because I want the whole fresh taro, not frozen. It was proposed that we do French fries, but they were bringing in frozen ones. But I didn’t want anything like that on our menu that isn’t the best version of it. I guarantee you everything on our menu is the best version you can get here in London. No one’s going to touch my bao. I know there’s another place here, BAO. I’m not even going to eat there. I know mine’s better. I will not try it. I will not. So, back to the fries, I said those fries aren’t going on my menu because they’re not the best fries. So now we’re sourcing all kinds of potatoes. Certain restaurants like St John’s only have chips seasonally when the potato is consistent, and I like that. I like when people are like, when it’s good, it’s good, and I will serve it to you then, and when it’s not good, I’m not going to serve it to you. That philosophy needs to be adopted by more. You don’t have to serve everything, you don’t have to do everything. You don’t have to be the most clever. Just be the best version of you and do what you do best. You know, I got a dozen madeleines from St Johns and I smuggled them all the way back to LA. My wife was like, ‘Dude, are these going to be good?’ After my flight and then another day in between, I heated them up and they were phenomenal. I gave some to my dogs – my dogs got to eat St Johns madeleines! They went crazy. You used to host a TV contest show called Snack, where people got random ingredients and had to make something with it. What’s the best thing you made with random ingredients? I invented the Cheeto fried chicken. It happened when I was really high one night. I didn’t have any bread crumbs, so I crushed up Cheetos in a bag, then coated the chicken and fried it. This s*** is crazy. It was a lot of fun but I spent a lot of time on it and then I found the right Cheetos, the right cheese dust, and I think we really perfected the dish. We only offered it once a year on 4/20 at Baohaus, it became a tradition. So if we have a brick and mortar space in London, I would absolutely bring the Cheeto fried chicken bao back only on 4/20. You’ve worn a lot of hats in your lifetime, restaurant owner, chef, author, director, fashion designer. How do you feel about hustle culture? Everything right now is based on the image and identity that you’re selling. Who are my friends? How do I dress? How am I curating my life? What starter pack do I fit into? I get it – I definitely think it’s important to work extremely hard because it’s hard to make money right now. The income inequality gap is insane and my solution to that is to acquire a skill and just refine it. If you have a tangible skill, you’re already ahead of most people in your generation because most people have knowledge and contacts and willingness, but do they have an actual skill? For example, the idea of a creative director is just so funny. What’s the skill? There’s very few creative directors who are skilled and honour the craft, but being a creative director is not just knowing a few really good photographers and good graphic designers and telling them what to do. You’re telling a story, you’re directing the creative. Do you have the vision? It’s not just the mood board, they need to take it seriously. Read More ‘Ramen junkie’ Ivan Orkin on mazemen, MSG and the resilience of the human spirit BBQ salad recipes without a soggy lettuce leaf in sight Grace Dent’s quick and easy recipes that only require the microwave How to shop for and cook Japanese food at home like a pro
2023-06-15 13:52
10 Surprising Facts About Rogue Waves
These freak waves are rare and unpredictable—and are believed to have caused numerous shipwrecks.
2023-07-14 00:22
The Reason Your Dog Follows You Everywhere
If your dog follows everywhere you go, don’t be too worried about it. The behavior indicates they see you in a positive light.
2023-05-23 01:27
UK royal family unite for King Charles III's birthday parade
Britain's royal family rounded off King Charles III's inaugural birthday parade Saturday with a balcony appearance at Buckingham Palace to...
2023-06-17 21:48
'Miracle in the Andes' crash survivor dies half century later
Uruguayan Jose Luis Inciarte, one of 16 survivors of a 1972 Andean plane crash immortalized in the film "Alive," died in his home city of Montevideo Thursday...
2023-07-28 02:55
Seasonal affective disorder: Can you eat to improve your mood?
As the clocks go back and the days get shorter, we could all do with a boost in serotonin to fight the winter blues. One way to get just that is a spicy, vibrant, warming meal. Recent studies show that one in three Brits admit to being affected by seasonal affective disorder, with younger adults more likely to experience the mood disorder. In an attempt to lift moods through foods, I’ve created a dish that contains ingredients scientifically proven to boost your mood and warm the winter nights ahead. This beef cheek jungle curry brings the heat, with jungle curry being one of the spiciest curries to come out of Thailand. The chemical capsaicin, found in chillies, acts as an endorphin that makes our body release serotonin, which helps to lift your mood. Originating from northern Thailand, the dish is traditionally cooked out using only stock rather than coconut milk, adding to this fiery curry’s intensity and vibrant orange colour. Research has shown that bright colours can also trigger the release of serotonin to help fight those winter blues. The science Heat It’s reported that even a whiff of ginger can improve your mood. No Thai curry would complete without a healthy amount of ginger and garlic, but it’s fresh chillies that really pack a punch. Capsaicin, a chemical compound found in chillies, triggers the release of endorphins that can boost your mood, and may even reduce stress and anxiety. Increase the heat levels to give yourself a boost, and to keep warm when the cold weather kicks in. Colour Our brains respond to colour by stimulating glands which regulate hormones, including serotonin. Research has shown that bright colours can trigger the release of serotonin, which is responsible for making us feel happy and satisfied. The bright reds of my jungle curry signal excitement to the brain, whilst orange and yellow hues are the feel-good colours of the rainbow, eliciting feelings of happiness, optimism and hope. Lean proteins It’s no secret that protein is vital for a balanced diet. According to mental health charity MIND, diets high in protein can support your mental health. Protein contains amino acids which your brain needs to produce neurotransmitters – these help regulate thoughts and feelings. Beef cheek is inexpensive and packed with protein, it works perfectly in this jungle curry. Beef cheeky jungle curry recipe Serves: 2 Ingredients: 1 pot jungle curry Payst 2 tbsp vegetable oil 2 tbsp coriander roots, washed and finely chopped 4 garlic cloves, peeled 2 tbsp wild ginger, krachai, peeled and roughly chopped (regular ginger can be used instead) ½ tbsp coarse sea salt 200g beef cheek, trimmed (any slow cook beef can be used) 2 whole stick lemongrasses, bruised in a pestle 20g galangal, bruised in a pestle 4 kaffir lime leaves, torn slightly to release flavour 2 tbsp table salt 1 whole garlic head, sliced in two across the cloves 4 banana shallots, chopped in half 1 tbsp caster sugar 2 tbsp fish sauce 10g hot Vietnamese mint (optional) 10g betel leaves (optional, spinach can be used instead) 10g coriander 10g Thai sweet basil 10g fresh curry leaves 30g new potatoes, chopped in half 30g green beans 1 head pak choi, core removed and chopped into bite sized pieces. Fresh chillies to taste Method: 1. Firstly, braise the beef cheeks. In a large oven-proof pan submerge the beef cheeks in water and then add the lemongrass sticks, bruised galangal, lime leaves, banana shallots, table salt and whole garlic. Cover the surface of the liquid with parchment paper and the pan with tin foil to protect from the direct heat of the oven and then cook in a pre-heated oven at 100C for 8 hours (this is best cooked overnight). Check the beef cheeks before removing from the oven, they should easily be chopped with a spoon with tenderness. When cooked, remove from the oven and leave to one side to use immediately. 2. In the meantime, cook out the paste. When cooking a jungle curry, it is fried in 2 stages and then boiled, this is for depth of flavour. To start, pound the coriander root, wild ginger and garlic cloves to a paste, using the sea salt as an abrasive. 3. Next heat the vegetable oil in a wok or non-stick pan and then proceed to fry out the paste, scraping and stirring constantly. When the paste begins to darken slightly, add the jungle curry paste and continue to cook out the paste, making sure it doesn’t stick and burn, at this point add the kaffir lime leaves and the lemongrass from the beef braising stock. Continue to fry the paste until it begins to darken in colour and then add the sugar and fry for a further minute until the sugar has caramelised and the paste has darkened a little more. 4. Next de-glaze the pan with the fish sauce, 300ml of beef braising stock and bring to a simmer. Once simmering add the potatoes and continue to simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes are beginning to soften. At this point add the pak choi, green beans and beef cheeks and use a little more braising stock if needed, then continue to simmer until all ingredients are softened and edible. 5. Lastly add all the herbs and gently toss them through the hot curry and then serve immediately, the curry should be loose, yet rich and spicy with a salty edge. Serve the beef cheek jungle curry in bowls with steamed jasmine rice, if you like top with crispy garlic, shallots and fresh chillies. The winter Mood Boosting recipe has been created by Sebby Holmes, Head Chef and owner of Farang and PAYST Read More The Independent high street Christmas sandwich and drink taste test How to host a dinner party for under £2 per portion Three new cookbooks worth buying, from James Martin to the Hairy Bikers Pearly Cow, Margate, restaurant review: Go for the steak, but stay for the potatoes What does Saturday Kitchen’s Matt Tebbutt cook at home? Don’t throw away Thanksgiving leftovers - here’s what you can do with them
2023-11-24 14:46
AP PHOTOS: Pastoralists in Senegal raise livestock much as their ancestors did centuries ago
ANNDIARE, Senegal (AP) — The planet is changing, but pastoralists here in the Sahel region of Africa are in many ways still raising livestock the way their ancestors did centuries ago.
2023-11-16 23:45
Who is Rachel Sword? Texas woman arrested for animal cruelty after 12 horses and 24 dogs found dead at her home
Sword told investigators the animals belonged to her recently deceased husband, but she had been unable to care for them because of her depression
2023-08-05 16:24
Brazil scientists developing new 'vaccine' for cocaine addiction
Scientists in Brazil, the world's second-biggest consumer of cocaine, have announced the development of an innovative new treatment for addiction to the drug and its...
2023-10-26 09:48
Brazil's Embraer plans to build electric flying taxi factory near Sao Paolo
Embraer says it will build electric aircraft with hopes they will take flight from 2026.
2023-07-21 09:20
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