The Food Phoenix Blog

Image by  Matthieu Joannon By Dr Catriona Walsh This excellent question was asked in a group that I moderate. I love it because it's actually not all that straight forward to answer. Essentially, I would say it depends on a lot of variables. Anyway, here are my thoughts on it. Smoked sausage is actually a traditional food, which has a long history of consumption throughout recorded human history. Traditional cultures around the globe have found ways to grind up bits of leftover meat, herbs, spices, some filler, like rusks, oats or corn, and preserve them in casings, which were often just lengths of cleaned out intestines and bladder. Sometimes blood or offal is added as well. They may have used salt and added probiotic cultures to cure the meat as it dried, in order to reduce the risk of pathogenic microbes growing. Alternatively, smoking the sausage was another way to reduce the risk of the meat being contaminated with bacteria which would spoil it. In this way, whatever ...

By Dr Catriona Walsh Photo by  Christopher Flowers  on  Unsplash A recent survey of European GPs indicates that they are not confident in managing obesity, and are too short of time during sessions with patients to go into any detail anyway, with only 10 minutes spent on each patient on average. GPs recognise that obesity is a complex issue, but are overwhelmed by their workload. Ironically much of this is obesity, diet and lifestyle related, and therefore much of it is largely preventable.  GPs are calling for more training on obesity, but also feel that the public needs more education on the causes and consequences of it. 97% of U.K. GPs felt that there should be more education of the public on these topics. I wonder what the remaining 3% were thinking? There is a feeling amongst European GPs that people are becoming more complacent about the negative health effects of obesity. This is probably largely due to the fact that it has become so normal and ...

By Dr Catriona Walsh Image by  unsplash-logo rawpixel There is growing awareness that the drug industry uses financial incentives to get doctors and institutions to change their practices in such a way as to favour prescription of their drug. This practice has been going on behind the scenes for decades, but more attention has been brought to the problem over the past few years.  Patients are consumers of what is often a profit-driven business. In a conflict of interests, doctors and institutions are being paid , not only to provide patient care, but also to promote certain drugs, treatments, medical devices and investigations. There is plenty of evidence that shows that, even when people realise that payments are being made to influence their behaviours (in this case prescribing habits) the majority of people believe that they can remain objective. But they are usually wrong. Pharmaceutical influence has been proven to alter prescribing patterns. Sponsorship...

By Dr Catriona Walsh Image by  Katherine Chase We had always assumed that osteoarthritis is a “wear and tear” problem that happens as we get older, unlike autoimmune arthritises like rheumatoid and psoriatic, which are caused by the body attacking itself. However, recently some studies have linked inflammation and diet with osteoarthritis. This latest study suggests that the gut microbiome might play a role in its development. This is just a mechanistic study done on mice, so we need to exercise caution when interpreting it. Human studies will be necessary to confirm these findings.  However, this study suggests that feeding obese mice a prebiotic supplement, called oligofructose, altered their gut microbiome in such a way that the amounts of beneficial Bifidobacteria in the gut were  increased. The obese mice fed the prebiotics didn’t lose weight either, so their joints were under the same wear and tear type of strain as the obese mice not fed the prebioti...

by Dr Catriona Walsh What is all the fuss about cassoulet? You might have heard of a dish that hails from the south of France called cassoulet. Described as a simple peasants' dish, it is actually a labour of love that can require days of preparation, even though the ingredients are essentially beans, onions, tomato, some herbs, sausage, and a lot of meat. What makes cassoulet so special is that it is a dish resplendent with connective tissue. Skin and joints really elevate this simple casserole to the ultimate gelatine-rich comfort food and, like so many casseroles, cassoulet actually improves if you allow it to sit in the fridge for a few days allowing the flavours to meld. Some people swear that the secret to a good cassoulet is to add extra pork rind, but I make do with the trotters, the skin of the pork knuckle, the bacon rind and the duck skin. Also it really has an obscene amount of garlic. It's just as well it gets cooked for such a long time. Cassoulet really d...

by Catriona Walsh These lovely little pigs can be found on Pheasants' Hill Farm where they have a splendid view of the Mourne Mountains and a quite wonderful outdoors life. None of them built their houses out of straw. Every Saturday Pheasants' Hill Farm sell their ethically raised rare breeds meat at St George's Market, Belfast . There is also a little farm shop on site near Killyleagh. They even deliver throughout the British Isles using Parcelforce. Background A good stock is a great foundational recipe to have. Stocks, soups and broths have an extremely long history of use, certainly predating bread and beer by many thousands of years. Boiling meat and bones probably even predates the use of pottery, since our early hunter gatherer ancestors may have been able to use animal hides, gut, bladder or bark to make waterproof containers that would endure boiling . The name "bone broth" is now being used to describe any savoury liquid dish where bones, meat,...

By Dr Catriona Walsh Image by unsplash-logo Jorge Zapata Recently headlines about pasta being able to aid weight loss might have caught your eye. Pastafarians (and other wheat worshippers) all over the world rejoiced, having heard the wonderful news, delighted that huge guilt-free plates of pasta were back on the menu again. For most it was probably more about assuaging guilt over devouring pasta, rather than a behavioural change that was most important here. No more tears shed over a great big plate of spaghetti or lasagne. Some people were understandably confused, given that every week there seems to be a contradictory new nutrition study. That’s where it comes in handy to have some training in critiquing research. Having your research published in a peer reviewed journal is certainly not a guarantee that your findings are reproducible, or that your research is any good. So without further ado, let’s take a deeper dive into the most recent nutrition study that has h...