Eat This Podcast

Tara Schmidt, lead dietitian for the Mayo Clinic Diet, shares her thoughts on diet, diets and dietary advice

In the past few decades Puglia has improved its food, wine and olive oil almost beyond recognition

For much of the world, food has never been as abundant or as inexpensive as it is now, but at what cost?

Size and market concentration lock farmers onto a technological treadmill that does nobody any good, excpet for the giant corporations and their shareholders

A new book looks beyond the hype to chronicle the effect of an unsustainable boom on the entire quinoa trade in Peru

“The more that the pig comes to signify Jewish identity, the more it comes to signify Christian identity, and vice versa.”

“What kind of food system do we want for the future? What kind of questions should we be asking? Whose questions matter? What kind of questions matter and what kind of expertise is considered relevant to the question of what the future of food should be like?”

“On the eve of a quarter day, the time is liminal, so there's kind of a thinning of the space between the real world and the other world.”

Gilda; how Rita Hayworth might have inspired the original anchovy-on-a-toothpick

“In a way, the multinational food industry is providing solutions for women.”

What foods do poor people buy when they have a bit more money? What you might expect, but not as much of it as you might expect.

“Is it because of high prices? Is it because of low incomes? Or is it because ... you can't see, taste, or smell the nutritional composition of food?”

”You know, anchovies are in our blood. My family's been eating them for 500 years.” Er, no. Not really.

To some, they're stinky little fish in a tin can. To others, they're a deep hit of umami delight that honour the work of women.

”Insect farming mostly adds an inefficient and expensive layer to the food system we already have.”

The diease that has already killed 11 million olive trees in the south of Puglia might be a blessing in disguise

Louise Gray's new book dives deep into the trade-offs that accompany every food choice we make, where nothing is as simple as it seems.

Why are some people tap-water hesitant and what do we expect water to taste like anyway?

“I thought, okay, I'm eating meat, but am I supposed to be eating meat? Would I ever kill an animal myself? Would I ever butcher an animal?”

Throughout history, people repurposed food leftovers and surplus and animal byproducts, challenging the modern perception of them as waste.

In the end, the meaning of chametz rests on history and tradition, and new traditions are possible.

God's original insturctions for Passover did not include one of the crucial items on the Seder plate.

Ordinarily, evading food rationing in times of war is considered a crime. There are times when it must be accepted as a necessity.

The European Union has failed to implement one of the most effective public health interventions, one that the United Kingdom is now able to contemplate.

Pizza Hut says it invented the stuffed crust pizza. A judge agreed. But Anthony Mongiello has US patent 4,661,361, no matter what the law says.

In many respects the diets of farmers and hunter-gatherers were more alike than different

Commercial baby food was perhaps the original industrial food product, with all that that entails

A lichen, which has no taste of its own, contributes hugely to the flavour of many Indian dishes

A close look at more than 1000 varieties of maize solves a mystery about how the crop evolved from its wild relatives.

Why is honey the world's third most-adulterated food? Because adulteration delivers profits.

Before he uncovered "Nutrition Science's Most Preposterous Result," David Johns had already dug into reports on salt and sugar.

The Jewish Community of Rome arrived before the Christian Era and has never left. Its cuisine was created by hardship and ingenuity.

If you're lucky enough to live in the right place, you may be able to experience real, fresh, whole milk.

When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose ... except your life

The first celebrity doctor's fad diet is still going strong today, 300 years later, and it has a lot to answer for.

“It is about migrations: of ingredients, of recipes, of stories — but most importantly of the people who make them.”

Accumulating the genetic diversity of birds around the world in a population of truly cosmopolitan chickens

Once upon a time, government made it possible for people to get a good meal at a reasonable price.

Yields are generally lower than those of unfortified varieties and there's little evidence it works. Biofortification is a waste of land and money.

The standard story is that ethnic Chinese don't eat cheese or drink milk because they are lactose intolerant. They do, but it's complicated

A chicken has two wings, two legs, two breasts; how does the market cope when all people want is wings?

Patrik Johansson blends ancient knowledge and modern science to craft exquisite butter: hand-made, intensely flavourful and scarce.

The price of subsidised bread in Egypt has not changed in decades, though the bread shrunk. That remains a huge challenge to security, for the government and the people.

One tin of tuna may contain 10 times more mercury than another, and there's no way to tell them apart.

How farmers in Belgium and the south of France are taking advantage of new a EU regulation to become more sustainable

Mussolini made the trains run on time, but that doesn't work for hungry infants

Speculators can actually drive prices higher, which was news to me

“The corollary to white innocence is white passivity, the feeling that what one's ancestors did was so messed up that it couldn't possibly make a difference where one eats a barbecue sandwich.”

Asking for a doctor's note when your guest says they are allergic or intolerant is not an option

There's a huge difference between neophobia and picky eating, just as there is between food and nutrition. How best to undertake the tricky business of helping children to eat well.

Organic growers and breeders in Europe are preparing to take advantage of their new freedom to sow biodiversity