The Food Chain

The term 'food noise' has been used by some to describe thoughts about food that are unwelcome and intrusive. People who have used weight-loss medication have reported that the drugs can help to quieten these thoughts.

Ruth Alexander explores how frequent thoughts about food can be a pleasure for some, but distressing for others.

Ashley Ripple in Alabama explains why she feels the term fits her own thoughts about food and what happened when she took GLP-1 medication.

Daisuke Hayashi a phd student at Pennsylvania State University has conducted research on what the term means to different people and Emily Dhurandhar an obesity scientist at Texas Tech University worked on one of the first questionnaires seeking to measure food noise.

Dr Charlotte Ord a counselling psychologist in the UK specialising in eating disorders and body image says she’s concerned people may get the message that all thoughts about food should be silenced.

And Mexican chef and food writer, Pati Jinich, author of 'Foods of La Frontera', explains why her constant thoughts about food are a source of joy and inspiration.

(Image: A cartoon silhouette of a woman who is thinking, images of different foods such as a hotdog, egg and avocado float around her head. Credit: Getty Images)

If you’d like to contact the programme you can email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Beatrice Pickup and Amber Mehmood

Sound engineer: Hal Haines

Do you love to share food with friends and family? Or resent handing over even one french fry from your plate?

Sharing food has a long and proud tradition in some cultures and is relatively rare in others. Ruth Alexander looks at what it does for our relationships, how it can enhance the experience of a meal and how it can help boost a restaurant's bottom line. It can even improve the outcome of tricky work negotiations.

But what if you can't bear to share? You're not alone. Ruth hears from dedicated anti-sharers who will protect their own private portion at all costs.

Produced by Lexy O'Connor, Amber Mehmood and Beatrice Pickup.

Sound engineer: Hal Haines.

Image:A woman and a man's hand reach across table laden with curries and breads. She is dipping bread into a dish and the red and gold embroidery of her sleeve is also visible. Credit: Getty.

What does a life on tour do to a stand-up comedian's eating habits? And how do you stay healthy if half of your working life is spent travelling?

Ruth Alexander finds out.

If you travel regularly for work you'll know how hard it can be to hold onto good eating patterns. International flights, client dinners and the hotel's buffet breakfast can blow your diet out of the water. And that's before you consider the impact of sleep disruption, jet lag, late finishes and early starts.

Plus a work trip may involve a big presentation, a stressful conversation or a performance of some kind. So what do nerves and stress do to your appetite? And can you eat to maximise your performance?

Ruth chats to comedian Celya AB, currently three weeks into her UK tour and hears from Marisa Poster, boss of Perfect Ted Matcha who spends half of every month travelling – often taking long-haul flights.

Plus South African dietician Nathalie Mat on how to handle stress and jet lag and the vital importance of travelling with good snacks.

Produced by Lexy O'Connor, Sam Clack and Beatrice Pickup. Sound Engineer: Fiona Fairmaner.

Image: A young woman in a business suit sits on the end of a hotel bed, gazing out of the window. She is holding a wheelie suitcase. Credit: Getty.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Are you hungry? How often do you stop to think about why that is and what sort of foods you are hungry for?

In this programme Ruth Alexander explores the science of appetite – what causes us to feel hungry and full and why our appetites differ from one person to the next.

Geneticist Professor Giles Yeo at the University of Cambridge in the UK explains how much of our appetite is informed by our genes and how much by our environment. Registered public health nutritionist Federica Amati, author of 'The Appetite Reset', explains what happens in our gut to help us feel full, not just immediately but for hours after eating. Amber Alhadeff, neuroscientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, US says that GLP-1 weight-loss medications are changing what we know about appetite.

And Ruth meets Darren Ratcliffe at his home in Manchester, UK. Darren shares how GLP-1 medications affected his appetite, and what happened when he stopped taking them.

If you'd like to contact the programme you can email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.

Produced by Beatrice Pickup and Lexy O'Connor. Sound engineer: Andrew Mills

(Image: Darren Ratcliffe is standing in his kitchen. He is wearing a green t-shirt and holding a plate of food that contains a baked potato with tuna and sweetcorn and a salad. Credit: BBC).

Weight-loss medication, or GLP-1s as they are also known, are designed to suppress your appetite - so how do you make every mouthful count?

Ruth Alexander looks into what happens to the body on these drugs and what it feels like to take them. She learns why it's vital to change your diet to minimise side effects like nausea and constipation and to avoid vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Plus why what you eat before you start taking the medicines also matters, and how to give yourself the best chance of coming off them without regaining all of your weight.

Ruth Alexander talks to UK based medical scientist Federica Amati, author of The Appetite Reset and US dietician Whitney Black who takes the drugs herself and specialises in supporting patients on GLP-1s. Whitney shares her real-life experience alongside Michelle Herum from Denmark, a busy mum of four who's been taking Wegovy for three years.

Produced by Lexy O'Connor and Beatrice Pickup.

Sound Engineers: Hal Haines.

Image: Two donuts, one pink and one brown are balanced on a small plate in the foreground. A woman's hands are visible, holding an apple in one hand and holding up her other hand to reject the donuts. (Credit: Getty)

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Imagine not recognising the food in the shops, markets and restaurants around you. Moving to a new country to live and work can come with some culture shocks and food can be a big part of that.

Ruth Alexander speaks to people who have lived in different countries. Listener Jen Ballantyne in the UK has taught in Japan, Tanzania, Azerbaijan and Brunei. Chinese Canadian chef Kelvin Cheung has lived in Belgium and India and today has a restaurant called Jun's in Dubai. Miwa Kishi is a Japanese cookery teacher living with her family in The Netherlands. We also hear from listener Juanita Ruiz a Colombian chef living and working in a small ski town in British Columbia, Canada.

(Photo: a man wearing a blue shirt pushing a supermarket trolley and looking at the shelves of food in a confused manner. Credit: Getty Images)

If you'd like to contact the programme you can email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Beatrice Pickup and Rumella Dasgupta

Is it more expensive to eat healthily?

You might think the answer is simple: Yes of course, if you buy fruits, vegetables, beans and pulses and cook from scratch.

But is it that easy?

With the help of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, Ruth Alexander finds out where in the world a healthy basket of food costs the most, and why globally, billions of people are priced out of a nutritious and varied diet.

She hears from Frances in Nigeria, struggling to afford healthy basics for her family, and from Aurora in the US state of Arizona, who is out of work and has lost the food benefit known as SNAP. She's being supported by the charity St Vincent de Paul.

And even if you can afford healthy food, is it readily available within easy distance of where you live? Hear from the team running the mobile fruit and veg bus known as The Queen of Greens, tackling so called "food deserts" in Liverpool, North-West England.

Plus your questions answered: How to eat well on any budget, with dietician Grace Derocha.

Produced by Lexy O'Connor, Niamh McDermott and Beatrice Pickup

Sound Engineer: Hal Haines

Image: A woman with brown hair and glasses leans glumly on the handle of a supermarket trolley, contemplating the store's display of fruits and vegetables. (Credit: Getty)

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Ever wondered what the chef is eating? Snacking on the finest produce or surviving on thin air and caffeine?

In this episode Ruth Alexander speaks to three chefs about how they get through the day, and the importance of the ‘family’ or staff meal.

She’s joined by Juliette Feller, a Swiss chef working in London, Marisha Shukla a pastry chef in Bengaluru India, and Sam Grainger, an exec chef and restaurateur in Manchester in England.

You can contact the programme by emailing thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.

(Image: from left to right, Juliette Feller wearing a pinstripe blazer, Marisha Shukla wearing a white shirt and Sam Grainger wearing a blue denim apron. Credit: Fin Nichols, Victoire Terrade, Sam Grainger)

Do you have a local cafe, restaurant or bar that you go to all the time? Maybe the staff recognise you or know you by name, perhaps you even get special treatment.

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta finds out why people like to return to the same place, and the commercial value to a business of having regular customers.

You can contact the programme by emailing thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.

Produced by Izzy Greenfield.

(Image: a man sat at a bar chatting to a barman who is wearing an apron and cleaning a glass. Credit: Getty Images)

Moving out of the family home can be a big first step at whatever age you do it. Paying bills, budgeting, shopping, and importantly cooking for yourself.

In this programme Rumella Dasgupta asks what dishes you should be able to cook when you leave home for the first time.

Rumella meets chef and food writer Claire Thomson and her daughter Grace Williamson in their kitchen in Bristol, England. Claire's latest cookbook, 'Dear Grace: Recipes from Your Mother for the Next Chapter in Life', was written when Grace left home for university a year ago.

At Salford Youth Zone, a youth centre in the North of England, Rumella talks to teenagers about how confident they feel in the kitchen.

Shahpar Salim in Bangladesh talks about the challenges of leaving home for a new country when she came to the UK for her studies.

Food writer and editor Yeonjoo Jung explains why young people often live at home throughout their twenties in South Korea.

And mothers in the United States tell us how mealtimes changed once faced with the so-called 'empty nest'.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Produced by Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: a young woman standing in a green open doorway holding a suitcase and looking hopeful. Credit: Getty Images)

What can food reveal about the people who came before us? From ancient meals and family recipes to the chemical traces left behind in bones and teeth, food offers remarkable clues about how people lived, travelled and survived.

In this episode, Ruth Alexander explores how historians, archaeologists and old cookbooks are helping us piece together the story of our past.

Historian Professor Peter Scholliers explains how something as ordinary as the changing price of food can reveal shifts in society, politics and everyday life. In India, author and historian Tarana Khan takes us inside a remarkable collection of two-hundred-year-old cookbooks from Rampur, uncovering forgotten recipes that reveal changing tastes, cultures and identities. And in Scotland, archaeologist Dr Sam Leggett explains how scientific analysis of ancient bones and teeth can reconstruct diets, migrations and even challenge long-held assumptions about the lives of people in the past.

They explore how food can reveal trade routes, social class, cultural exchange, climate change, migration and the choices people made around the dinner table centuries ago.

From old recipe books to archaeological discoveries, we discover how food helps us understand not only where we've come from, but how our relationship with food continues to shape the world today.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Beatrice Pickup Sound engineer: Hal Haines Picture: Getty

Have you ever asked yourself: should I do Keto? Is white rice good for me? Am I eating too many carbohydrates? If so, then this episode of The Food Chain is for you. Carbohydrate-rich foods are everywhere and they’re delicious. But are they good for us? Carbs have a reputation for spiking our blood sugar and making us fat. But is that reputation deserved?

Ruth Alexander talks to Javier Gonzalez, Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Bath in England and US-based dietitian Julie Stefanski from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to find out whether we’ve been approaching carbohydrates all wrong.

Plus: are there some populations who need to think more carefully about carbs than others? Dr Nelum Dharmapriya thinks so. She’s an Australian family doctor with a special interest in metabolic health in South Asian populations. She advises her patients to make some tweaks to the traditional South Asian carbohydrate-rich diet and says it can be done without losing heritage and identity.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Produced by Lexy O'Connor and Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: A woman stares over her sunglasses as she slurps pasta from a fork in a sunlit garden.Credit: Getty images/BBC)

When should you eat your evening meal? Is it really better to eat earlier, or does it depend on when you go to bed? And if you do have to eat late, is there anything you can do to reduce the impact on your health?

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores what science says about the timing of dinner. From our internal body clocks to the food on our plates, we examine how the evening meal affects our metabolism, digestion and overall health, and separate the evidence from the myths.

Circadian rhythm researcher Dr Emily Manoogian, from the Salk Institute in California, explains what happens inside the body as the day progresses, why eating close to bedtime can affect the way we process food, and whether biology cares more about the clock or our own sleep schedule.

Nutrition scientist Professor Sarah Berry from King's College London shares practical advice on what a healthy evening meal should look like.

Around the world, however, people eat dinner at vastly different times. Food historian Professor Jeffrey Pilcher from the University of Toronto explains why meal times vary so much between cultures, how work, family life and history have shaped the evening meal, and why there has never been one universal way to organise dinner.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield Sound engineer: Hal Haines Picture: Getty (plate of food indicating the time)

Listener Melanie wrote into The Food Chain to ask us to make a programme about the rising numbers of people who eat alone. She told us she often dines solo and sometimes finds the experience daunting. So today Ruth Alexander hears from Melanie and from other solo diners – some who find peace and joy in a table for one, and others who would much rather not be alone.

With the help of Sociologist Professor Eric Klinenberg from New York University, Ruth looks at what’s behind the global rise in single-person households.

And she hears how another Food Chain listener, Malvina from California, brought her friends together around the table, over a video call and how Nishi Singh, determined to enjoy a solo dining experience in Delhi, has turned it into a social media phenomenon.

(Photo: A woman holds a spoon up to her mouth as she eats from a bowl. She is sitting at a sunlit table next to a window, with large, leafy indoor plants behind her. She has long brown hair and wears a blue, ribbed, jumper and a silver necklace. Credit: Getty Images)

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Lexy O'Connor Sound engineer: Andrew Mills

Elite footballers are among the world's most finely tuned athletes. Every meal is carefully planned to fuel training, maximise recovery and prepare for the next match. But it wasn't always this way.

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores how football's relationship with food has changed, from the days of steak and beef before a game to today's highly personalised nutrition plans.

Sports historian Professor Matthew Taylor traces the evolution of football's food culture, explaining why clubs once left players to fend for themselves and how attitudes began to shift.

Former Denmark international goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel reflects on how nutrition changed during his own career, and what modern players understand about food that previous generations didn't.

Mona Nemmer, former Head of Nutrition at Liverpool FC and a nutritionist with the German national team, explains what elite footballers actually eat before, during and after matches, how meals are tailored to individual players, and why feeding a squad is about far more than calories alone.

At major tournaments, those carefully designed nutrition plans have to work on the move. Giulio Caccamo, who was chef for the US Men's National Team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, takes us behind the scenes of feeding an international squad. From planning menus months in advance to serving players in hotels, training grounds and on flights, he reveals the logistical operation behind every meal, and why food can be as important for morale as it is for performance.

From pre-match pasta to post-match burgers, from sports science to supply chains, this episode explores what it really takes to feed footballers at the highest level.

(Photo: Erling Haaland looks up as eats a snack. His blonde hair is tied back. Credit: Getty Images)

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield Sound engineer: Jack Wilfan

With dining out becoming an increasingly expensive luxury, we find out how to order the perfect restaurant meal with top tips from a panel of seasoned pros.

The Irish Times food critic, Corinna Hardgrave, veteran server and podcast host Brittany Felton and chef and hospitality advisor James Knight-Pacheco join Ruth Alexander to discuss how to make the most of a well-deserved meal from your hard-earned money. They cover everything from sharing dishes, whether to trust a waiter’s recommendations and if it’s best to stick to what you know – or try something more adventurous when visiting a restaurant with friends or family.

We get the inside track from the diner’s table to the wait staff and of course the kitchen. Brittany Felton explains how her 15-year career as a server means she can quickly assess a table’s needs, even to the extent of working out what kind of meal and evening the diners would like to have.

Corinna Hardgrave shares advice from her 20-plus years as a professional restaurant critic, including how to stay in control if you experience pushy or impatient wait staff when eating out.

And chef James Knight-Pacheco shares his insight on when is the best time to order the special – and when to avoid certain dishes on a menu.

Producer: Sam Clack and Niamh McDermott Sound engineer: Hal Haines

(Image: Waitress taking the order of a group of friends eating at a restaurant - stock photo. Credit: Getty Images)

Many of us have our own theories about sleep. Perhaps it's avoiding coffee after lunch, drinking chamomile tea before bed, or having a warm glass of milk. But what does the science actually say?

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores the relationship between food and sleep, asking whether changing what we eat and drink can help us get a better night's rest.

Professor Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep & Circadian Research at Columbia University, explains what decades of research have revealed about the links between diet and sleep quality. She discusses why poor sleep can change our food choices, how certain dietary patterns are associated with better sleep, and why scientists are increasingly interested in nutrients such as fibre and tryptophan.

Sleep physician Dr Allie Hare, President of the British Sleep Society, brings the perspective of the clinic. She explains the questions patients ask most often, from caffeine and alcohol to herbal remedies and sleep supplements, and discusses some of the biggest misconceptions people have about improving their sleep.

Together, they discuss whether there really are "sleep foods", what role meal timing might play, and how social media trends and expensive supplements can distract us from the basics.

Along the way, they answer listeners' questions and share practical, evidence-based advice on the changes you can make today to improve your chance of a good night's sleep tonight.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield Sound engineer: Hal Haines

(Image: A woman with brown hair, holding an orange cushion, yawns while standing next to an open fridge full of food. Credit: Getty Images)

The history of smoking foods stretches back many years, but when did what began purely for preservation become a highly sought-after flavour? In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores the origins of smoked foods and finds out why their flavours are so appealing to so many people around the world. She visits a smokehouse run by Michael Price in the port city of Lancaster in north-west England, where he explains the techniques used to flavour a variety of fish, as well as some of the more unusual demands he’s received from chefs. We learn about the science behind smoked flavours from Professor Heather Smyth, a flavour chemist and sensory scientist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. And food historian, Professor Ken Albala, walks us through thousands of years of history via a meal prepared using his own home smoker in Stockton, California. We also investigate the impact of EU legislation with the European Food Safety Authority, following a European ban on several smoke flavour additives, and ask what this might mean for the future of smoked foods.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producers: Sam Clack and Izzy Greenfield Sound engineers: Jack Wilfan and Hal Haines

(Image description: racks of fish fillets inside a smoker)

Music is part of the backdrop to millions of meals every day. But what if it is doing more than simply creating atmosphere?

In this episode of The Food Chain, Rumella Dasgupta explores the growing evidence that sound can shape the way we experience food and drink. From scientists studying how the brain combines hearing and taste, to chefs designing dishes around playlists, we ask whether music has become an ingredient in its own right.

Chef Gaggan Anand explains why music sits at the centre of his restaurant in Bangkok, where sound, lighting and food are carefully choreographed into a single experience. Cognitive neuroscientist Ophelia Deroy shares research showing how music can influence our perception of sweetness, bitterness and texture, and explains why flavour is far more than what happens on the tongue.

We also hear from Ola Sars, founder of the business music platform Soundtrack, whose company helps restaurants, cafés and hotels tailor the music they play. He shares research suggesting that the right soundtrack can influence customer behaviour and even affect sales.

But not everyone is convinced. Dan Keeling, co-owner of London's Noble Rot restaurants and a former music industry executive who signed artists including Coldplay and Lily Allen, explains why he has chosen not to play music in his dining rooms at all.

From silent restaurants to carefully curated playlists, from neuroscience labs to commercial dining rooms, we explore the increasingly important role sound plays in the way we eat.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Running a restaurant is hard. Long hours, tight margins and constant stress. In this week's programme Rumella Dasgupta travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, to meet Lisa He and her mum Sophie. Lisa has just put her life and acting career on hold, to try and help her mum save the family's restaurant, the China Star. A video she made documenting her attempt has gone viral, with more than fifteen million views.

But is a viral video going to be enough to turn a failing business into a success? Lisa's got to fix the sprawling menu, digitise the paper ordering system and cut costs.

Lisa and Rumella meet restaurant turnaround expert David Hopkins from the Fifteen Group in Canada, who's on hand to give advice and to explain why restaurants are such difficult businesses to run.

Meanwhile the Mand family in Sydney Australia know only too well what Lisa and Sophie are going through. Last year, son Bhav documented his fight to save his dad's failing restaurant. So how's it doing now?

And, in such a difficult industry, when is the right time to walk away? Rumella hears from Carleigh Bond, who made the tough decision to close her vegan fast-food restaurant Forked Up in October 2025.

Producers: Lexy O'Connor and Beatrice Pickup.

Sound Engineer: Andrew Mills

Image description: Lisa He and mum Sophie in their restaurant, The China Star. Lisa is looking at mum and smiling. (Credit: BBC)