Can coffee reduce your risk of diabetes?

By HFG expert Tracy Kelly, registered dietitian and clinical adviser at Diabetes UK

Coffee lovers will no doubt be rejoicing after being greeted with headlines such as ‘Drink more coffee to slash risk of diabetes’. But before you pour yourself a double espresso, let’s look more closely at the new study behind the news stories.

How to pick wild garlic

By Hannah Sherwood

If you’re a fan of pick-your-own, have you considered wild garlic as your veg of choice? You can find it growing in woodlands up and down the UK, often in amongst the bluebells, from April to June.

Wild garlic is quite different from the papery bulbs we’re used to seeing in the supermarket and tastes like a cross between garlic and chives. Its soft green leaves are similar in appearance to those of lily-of-the-valley and the pungent aroma draws you to the woodland areas where it grows in abundance.

It’s delicious eaten raw in salads as it doesn’t have the harsh kick of the domestic variety, or you can cook it alongside roast meats or include it in risotto for a subtle extra flavour dimension.

If you don’t want to track down your own wild garlic, order some as part of the Riverford home-delivered organic veg boxes (riverford.co.uk).

Yes, you could run the Marathon, too

By HFG fitness writer Hannah Ebelthite

Four words you need to know about the Marathon: you can do it. Injury or illness aside, I truly believe anyone can run 26.2 miles if they want to.

And that’s what I did yesterday, along with 36,000 other runners who lined up to start the 34^th London Marathon. It was my third marathon and I was proud to be representing my running club, Ranelagh Harriers, in my blue vest. Waiting in the warm spring sunshine at the start on Blackheath I felt a flutter of nerves, but was determined to channel them into energy. My goal was to come in under four hours, for which I’d need to run even splits of nine-minute miles.

Eat chickpeas to lower cholesterol

They’re an HFG staple, and with the news today that eating a daily serving of chickpeas could reduce levels of bad cholesterol and, therefore, the risk of heart disease, now there’s even more reason to keep your storecupboard stocked with this versatile pulse.

Should we raise our five-a-day?

By Melanie Leyshon

If it’s not a rude question to ask, how much did you get yesterday? Two bowls of carrot soup, a rice veg pot and seven strawberries meant I just about scraped my five-a-day. And I’m not alone – only a quarter of the UK population meets the five-a-day target, so the call to increase this to seven-a-day and potentially double it to a massive 10 daily servings might seem a fruit and veg step too far.