The long standing UK chain of Marks & Spencers, much beloved for its sensible and well priced family clothing, and particularly its underwear, is now making an unlikely success out of..

The Beautiful Skin Diet is unusual in that it tells you what not to eat for best results. Glycaemic load comes into play as the diet shuns foods like baked beans, raisins, and pasta blaming them for..

The new Starbucks idea of relaunching its flagging food counter as "Real Food. Simply Delicious" follows a decision to try to attract health conscious coffee drinkers. Since June 30th the baked products will have no high fructose corn syrup used or artificial flavourings and dyes, the plan is also to offer..

The ever-controversial animal rights group, PETA, have launched a new billboard in Jacksonville, Florida, which encourage obese people to give up meat and eat their way thin as vegetarians...

Shouting your anger out is one way to relieve yourself of stress, and Burger King is took full advantage of this idea when launching its new Angry Burger in Tokyo, this week. The burger, which includes hot sauce, jalapeno peppers, onions, cheese, bacon, tomatoes and lettuce is not for the faint-hearted, nor the weak-stomached!...

Fizzy milk may not be everybody's “cup of tea”, yet Coca-Cola is launching its own carbonated milk drink in a bid to get consumers drinking more milk (and sugar and fat...). For the time being Vio is only being released in the States, and it will be a combination of milk, carbonated...

The camel has been a friend, food and transport to the Bedouin peoples of the Arab world for thousands of years. So, the camel's latest incarnation – in burgers in a fast food joint in Saudi Arabia – is somewhat of a downgrade from its normally prestigious standing...

Food-related gadgets are not new, but this one may just take the biscuit for innovation. The “Beanzawave” microwave which is powered using your laptop's USB port, is simply genius. This teeny little microwave stands just 7.4 inches tall, 6.2 inches wide, and is 5.9...

The Little Chef saga rumbles on this week with an exciting new twist in the tale. As we reported earlier in the year, superstar chef Heston Blumenthal used his expertise and battery of top-class chefs to revamp the food and interior of a Little Chef restaurant in Hampshire...

According to the LA Lakers basketball star Lamar Odom, candy is a great refueller for before a game and helps him to play better. Odom's problem, though, may be that he doesn't restrict his sweet intake to just before a game, instead he gobbles sweets all day long!...

Although Starbucks is revered as a coffee heaven for that early morning fix on the way to work, customers have been of the opinion that their food offerings leave a lot to be desired...

In the continuing saga that is Heston Blumenthal's one-man crusade to save the Little Chef chain of restaurants, some confusion has arisen regarding the national roll-out of the chef's new improved menu...

Nachos in the car, burgers in the truck – do things get messy while trying to eat junk food on the road? The US-based Dan's Products has come up with the ultimate driving companion – the BeltzBib.
This contraption hooks onto the shoulder harness of your seatbelt and...

As we reported in March, Italian manufacturer Claudio Torghele came up with the idea of a pizza vending machine...

In the States, two senators have put forward a bill to get rid of junk food from school vending machines...

As if fast food couldn't become more interesting...

An antiques collector from Oklahoma in the United States is believed to have found one of the...

Ever wondered why you're able to remember the most unhealthy meals?...

The late rise in popularity of fast-food is proving to be an alarming side-effect of the recession...

Is the Age of Innocence over once a leading ethical smoothie maker sells a chunk of its business to a multinational?...

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to eat a burger the size of your head...

In a country where the pizza is somewhat of a national cultural...

Celebrity chefs appear to be everywhere currently and their influence on the modern media is far reaching...

Upon hearing this, you may think it is a prank call, but a woman from Orange County in California recently called the...

Serving up halal meat to the local Islamic community is usually the preserve of specialist butchers and restaurants...

The UK's Health Secretary, Alan Johnson has come up with an apparently ingenius idea for reducing obesity rates in the...

As we reported before, there have been some imaginative changes made to one of the UK's Little Chef roadside cafés, thanks to...

In their latest ingenius marketing ploy, Burger King managed to tear apart friendships in a bid to raise the profile of the Whopper. Using the huge, globally popular social networking site...

Adults in their twenties are constantly on the go and according to a recent study conducted by the University of Minnesota, they are less likely to eat a balanced diet or have time to devote to eating during the day...

According to the powers that be at Coca-Cola, "Great Taste Has Its Benefits." Lucky for us, we can now swig back Diet Coke with a clear conscience that we'll be getting some good vits as well as a caffeine fix, thanks to Coca-Cola's latest drink, Diet Coke Plus...

Celebrity chefs have certainly become increasingly vocal in recent times and using their favourite medium of television to convey their message is certainly not uncommon. The latest chef in the UK to take up the mantle of food-saviour is Heston Blumenthal who has been busy transforming one branch of the Little Chef chain of roadside cafés...

Move over Chanel no.5, there's a new fragrance storming the market just in time for Christmas. The lucky man of the house can now smell like...wait for it...

In what could be the defining battle of the coffee giants, believe it or not McDonald's is taking on Starbucks to become America's number one choice for the quick coffee stop...

In an inspired grassroots marketing campaign, Burger King accidentally 'dropped' thousands of wallets containing real dollar bills and Burger King vouchers all over the U.S. cities of Chicago, Illinois and Orlando, Florida...

According to the French magazine Madame Figaro, chocolate, you will be glad to hear, is recession proof! Confectionary companies have been reporting business as usual and some even booming during this time of hardship, thus it ...

In southern California, there are legions of unemployed workers now thanking their lucky stars for McDonald's. Why? Because the fast food chain is taking their chance to hire skilled, fluent English speakers that have suddenly become unemployed due to the economic downturn..

Even in these hard times – when most of us are strapped financially and businesses are closing their doors – there are indeed those who are profiting from the economic downturn. The rising cost of food and the cost of living has meant that people are now staying..

It has been an old wives tale for a long time, but science has officially proved that eating fast makes you gain weight faster, regardless of the quantity or quality of the food itself. Japanese researchers at Osaka University this week reported in the British Medical Journal their findings that people who eat quickly..

It appears that Europeans have well and truly caught onto the US food-fashion trend, and that is eschewing their lunchbreaks in favour of, shock horror, working!

Reuter's Business Insight reported that more and more of us across Europe are taking much less time for lunch and, instead, snacking more throughout the day to make up for the food not..

According to recent research, one of the most important factors in a child's educational development is what they eat up until the age of three. A study conducted by the Institute of Education at London University and the University of Bristol found that if children were fed a diet of junk food when they were three..

It appears that in recent years, the Japanese have been busy inventing new and exciting things to do with beer, including plans by the Sapporo brewery and the Russian space team to brew beer in..

In a bid to curb the bad eating habits of some inhabitants of Los Angeles, city officials have approved a law which forbids new fast-food outlets opening up in one area of the city for one whole..

Persuading companies to give up their lucrative ad campaigns targeted at children is proving a hard task, it appears. In December 2007, a group of food companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Mars and Burger King signed an EU pledge to phase out all..

This week New Yorkers have been subjected to the terrifying truth about the vast amount of calories they consume with every bite of their favourite foods. All fast-food outlets and restaurants that have 15 or more establishments across the..

Flavoured water is one of the latest types of product to storm onto the beverages market. They often come with the message that they are beneficial to our health, are packed with antioxidants, can help ward off old..

Many wierd and wonderful gimmicks are employed to attract more customers to restaurants and cafes, but few will have been as terrifying as the newly refurbished "terrorism-themed" restaurant Buns and Guns in Beirut.

The Lebanese capital's cafe scene has been in sharp decline since 2006 due to troubles erupting in the area, however the owner of this novel cafe - situated in a predominantly Hezbollah area of the city - says that his..

If the only drinks to cause aggressive behaviour were alcoholic ones, then the issue of containing the aggression may be easier. However, research in the United States suggests that energy drinks should be red-flagged as possible aggressants, causing consumers to experience abnormal heart..

Have you ever wondered what a lemon would taste like if the bitter overtones went away? Now thanks to a "miracle fruit" you can completely turn your taste buds upside down, making it possible to eat bitter or sour foods as if they were..

Following up on our previous posts on research into the effects of E-numbers on children, this week there has been progress towards an additive-free future for soft-drinks giant Coca-Cola.

The US company which rakes in $14bn per annum apparently removed the additive sodium benzoate (E211) from its Diet Coke range in January of this year and consumers can be assured that stocks available after August will contain no trace of the preservative.

Benzoate causing DNA damage
In addition to the results from Southampton University's study into the effects of six artificial additives, further damning evidence was published back in 1999 by Professor Peter Piper from Sheffield University, which has only just been brought..

For a while now, the buzz around salt and its detrimental effects on our health have been well documented and now new research has found that a reduction in dietary salt can have an immediate impact on high blood pressure levels, or hypertension.

Why reduce salt ?
Dr Javad Kojuri and Dr Rahim Rahimi from the Shiraz University in Iran studied the effects of salt intake on 60 individuals with a degree of hypertension: the group consisted of both males and females with an average age of 49. The researchers tested the participants' blood pressure and the levels of sodium in their urine before and after putting them on a "no added salt" diet for 6 weeks.

After the 6 weeks, all participants had reduced..

If someone eyes you suspiciously the next time you're diving into a box of doughnuts, you can now happily claim that it's not your fault- it's in your genes! Scientists from the University of Toronto have found a link between the genetic variation of one gene and the increased preference of sugary food.

The experiment
The Department of Nutritional Sciences at the university looked into the effects of the gene called glucose transporter..

Among other frightening catastrophes that are happening in the world today, the so-called "obesity epidemic" that Europe and the US is on the brink of, is a worrying one, and it appears that governments are working towards cracking down on fat people. However, there is a growing body of scholars and scientists who discredit claims that this is a killer disease that is spreading exponentially.

BMI now Reduced
The Body Mass Index (BMI), which is the calculation of height squared divided by weight squared, is something that many take to be a truthful indication of "good" and "bad" body types. However in 1997 and 1998..

Maybe the world seems a bit upside down already, but when it's discovered that diet coke makes you put on weight, we seriously need a reality check. It has been found by researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, USA, that artificial sweeteners can actually cause the body to gain weight rather than aid it to lose weight.

Researchers Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson fed 27 rats with either real glucose or saccharin to monitor any changes in weight.

Their findings reveal that the super-sweet taste of..

Would you believe that in the world of European Michelin stars, Germany is now second on the list to France? Amazing but true. The world of fine dining in Germany has grown, such that 9 of its restaurants now hold the sought-after 3 Michelin stars.

Unadventurous cooking
Catching up with the French, who currently have 28 3-starred restaurants, has been a long time coming for the Germans, who have always held the stereotype among other Europeans as being a little un-adventurous when it comes to their kitchens. According to Juan Amador, owner of the Amador restaurant which has recently been awarded its third star, this about-turn in German cuisine has been quite a recent event..

Amazingly, Muffins, Puddings and breakfast Cereals all contain high salt content, and 97% of people interviewed did not understand this fact and the hidden risk to their childrens health. Over 80 per cent of our salt intake comes from processed foods in Europe and the USA according to CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health). Intuitively no-one expects salt to be included in sweet products but sadly this is widely practised. CASH ran a survey on the parenting website..

In 1983 it was revealed that leaded petrol could seriously stunt children's growth and intelligence, and thankfully it was phased out by the year 2000. Now there is a new nemesis for our children's health which may be just as lethal, and those are E-numbers. Since research conducted in the 1970's highlighted a link between artificial food colourings and behavioural problems in..

It appears that more and more Europeans are putting "healthy chocolate" high on their shopping list- or at least their shopping lists- but can there be such a thing? According to data collated by the Zurich-based chocolate company Barry Callebaut, 27% of people in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany and the UK buy some sort of "functional" chocolate each month- meaning chocolate that claims to contain a health benefit of some sort. The market research company Euromonitor reports that the market for "functional foods" has grown by an average of 15% each year over the past four years, and over a quarter of us want the "bad" food we eat to be good for us in some way. Types of so-called "healthy chocolate" include those which are pumped full of..

Many people claim that when dieting, you are restricted to such tasteless and boring foods that we are prone to losing our way very quickly. The allure of our favourite fatty foods is perhaps too strong! Well this may be about to change, as scientists are creating a way to "lock in" the fat that creates that great taste in desserts..

In the UK, the British adore Indian cuisine. It could be said, that they love it more than any other modern culinary import as it is an industry worth £3.5 billion. So why now, after such dazzling success over the years, is the curry trade falling on hard times? Firstly, UK government regulations surrounding temporary work permits have tightened dramatically in recent years, meaning a great shortage of skilled chefs. Secondly, the price of rice worldwide has increased dramatically in only..

Porridge oats again hit the headlines this month, this time for the enduring quality of reducing cholesterol and blood pressure. Since 50% of Europeans die every year from cardio vascular diseases, this is a timely reminder of this simple foods' health benefits. The authors of the review conclude that "given the numerous positive evidence-based reviews of oats and cholesterol reduction, the consumption of oats..

Not so long ago porridge was viewed as a healthy but boring start to the day and was associated with the sort of watery gruel fed to prisoners or the sick. Now it has been decided by a huge growth in sales, that porridge is now not only excellent for your health, but also very fashionable. In Europe, oat sales grew by 81% between 2000 and 2005 and in the UK alone 47 million gallons of porridge..

The UK debate on obesity rumbles on and the UK government claim to be working to improve nationwide issues such as child obesity and the onset of Type 2 or "diet affected" diabetes. So why, in such a climate of anxiety over expanding waistlines, are McDonalds sales rising in the UK? For the fast-food giant, 2007 was one of its hottest years yet, and in December alone the British made more than 88 million visits to the junk-food..

"..this survey shows that the salt levels in some of these meals are staggeringly high" says Prof. Graham MacGregor of Consensus Action on Salt and Health. Worst offenders were found to be Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Excess salt in our meals has been found to increase blood pressure which can lead to more serious conditions..

We could inceasingly see big brother taxes on food to persuade us what to eat. Applying a so called 'Fat Tax' to unhealthy foods changes peoples buying habits and persuades them to buy more healthy options, so says a study lead by Buffalo Uni in New York. UK academics have also suggested that 3,000 deaths could be avoided if the government were to apply a targetted Fat Tax..

Coca Cola will soon be sold in a new type of 'self chilling' bottle. The new invention by the leading drinks manufacturer could change the way we drink our Coke, with this idea then there will be no need to add ice and therefore over-dilute the drink. Twisting off the bottle top will activate the internal self chilling mechanism..

60% of us European consumers are looking for healthy snacks that are both convenient and indulgent according to a recent Datamonitor report, leaving the food manufactureres scratching their heads. We are apparently now looking for healthy snacks, the idea is to be able to snack freely, but without the downside consequences of high calories and overprocessed junk foods. In contrast to this however ..

New EU studies show that Italians are piling on the pounds as they abandon their traditional Mediterranean Diet in favour of highly processed and fast foods with high sugar and fat content. The EU quotes 35% of the population are now officially obese or overweight. Rising to the challenge a small town in the north of Italy..

Losing weight by enjoying your food would at first glance seem a contradiction in terms, but the combined benefits of better digestion and enjoying a stress free approach to meal times can lose you 20 pounds every year without changing your diet. The Slow Food organisation quotes many benefits to relaxing at meal times..

Apparently our kids are never too young to start brand indoctrination, and McDonalds, Kinder and Haribo are leading the pack. New Media Age magazine reckon they are targetting kids online using cartoons and games on their heavily branded websites..