Saturday, January 17, 2026 |
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If you've seen that stat about us effectively eating the salt in 22 bags of crisps a day and thought, "Well, I don't even like crisps", sorry – you're not off the hook. That figure, from the British Heart Foundation, isn't about people chain-eating Walkers; it's what an entirely normal day of toast, soup, pasta and the odd ready meal quietly adds up to. We walk through a very ordinary menu – Marmite on sourdough, a meal deal, a jarred pasta sauce – and show how easy it is to blow past the 6g "maximum" before you've even thought about takeaway. The problem isn't awareness or willpower, it's structural: around 85 per cent of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy, and while ministers have gone hard on junk-food ads and multibuys, they've largely swerved the one thing that works – mandatory reformulation.
If that feels a bit bleak for mid-January, Victoria Young meets Life Kitchen founder Ryan Riley, who's just been awarded a BEM for helping cancer patients rediscover the joy of food – even as he's still learning how to grieve his own mum. He talks about the "rocketship" of Life Kitchen, the 50 funerals he'd been to by 30, the casino win that funded a move to London, and a recent health scare that put him on the cancer pathway himself. Now, he's plotting Life Kitchen's next chapter: free classes on the road, more books, more quietly radical hospitality. To go with it, we've launched his new column, Small Pleasures, opening with a bowl of easy umami noodles rich with miso, soy, mushrooms and jammy eggs – the culinary equivalent of shutting the curtains on a rainy evening.
For anyone slogging through Veganuary, we've put together a recipe bundle that refuses to accept a month of beige penance. This is vegan food built on big flavours and clever textures, not meat-free misery. Think George Egg's baked bean dal, Natalia Rudin's shawarma mushroom flatbreads, Gigi Grassia's sweet potato and gochujang soup with 25g protein a bowl, plus peanut tofu "fingers", grate-only bolognese, lemony pea and broccoli pasta and a duvet-like vegan ramen.
If your priority this month is simply getting through winter in one piece, nutritionist Jo Travers has a grounded guide to hacking your health with food. Rather than supplements and superfoods, she focuses on five evidence-based tweaks – supporting immunity, gut health, mood, respiratory function and heart health – using things you can actually find in the veg aisle. Cavolo nero stroganoff, a kale and black bean Mexican casserole, miso-ginger salmon with crispy kale, Thai-style cavolo nero and chicken rice soup and a spinach and turkey kofta curry all pull double duty as comfort food and quiet insurance policy.
And because all of this has to fit around work, school runs and the general chaos of existing, we finish with Deliciously Ella on how to eat better when your brain is fried. She talks about moving on from the rigid "clean eating" era towards small, sustainable wins: planning just enough so that 7.30pm doesn't always mean toast, aiming for a few more plants a week rather than a total overhaul. Her new book, Quick Wins, delivers exactly that in recipe form – a one-pan chickpea and lentil soup, creamy white bean and mushroom orzo, and a pulled miso aubergine ragu that cleverly turns into tortillas later in the week. January is still long. Dinner doesn't have to feel like another problem to solve.
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'I help cancer patients enjoy food again, but I have never properly grieved for my own mum' |
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Cheered on by Nigella Lawson and honoured with a gong from the King, Ryan Riley, founder of Life Kitchen, talks to Victoria Young about the healing power of food, coming to terms with losing his mother, and why, after his own health scare, he has put together a new collection of joyful recipes for our readers
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When Ryan Riley opened a letter from the Cabinet Office last month, his elation about being awarded a British Empire Medal in the King's New Year Honours list was tempered by the instruction not to tell anyone.
"That was the hardest part," says Ryan. The one person he couldn't keep it from though was his father, Shaun. "I told him 'this crazy thing has happened…' He said, 'it's about time.' Dad is my biggest fan, but I only believed it was happening when they invited me to the Cabinet office and for a private tour of Downing Street on 29 December."
Chef Ryan was being honoured for his work at Life Kitchen, the not-for-profit cookery school helping cancer patients rediscover the joy of food, set up by Riley and his best friend, Kimberley Duke, in 2019. Despite being endorsed by three different prime ministers – including a Point of Light award from Theresa May and Boris Johnson saying that Riley had inspired him to start cooking – it was his first time at Downing Street, and he's still buzzing from the experience.
"It felt like the highest honour that could be awarded to two disadvantaged kids like us who are from a council estate," says Riley, 32, who grew up in Sunderland and has been best friends with Duke since nursery.
Life Kitchen was inspired by his mother, Krista, who was diagnosed with lung cancer when he was 18, and subsequently died, and who experienced a loss of taste and appetite as a side-effect of chemotherapy. Duke's mother also died of cancer when she was 15, meaning that Duke had to move into a hostel. "Life Kitchen was my idea, but Kimberley and I did it together," says Riley. "We have been doing projects together since we were 10, and when we get together, sparks fly. Without her, I would be so screwed. We are best friends until the ends of the earth."
Read the full article here
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| Quick Wins: Healthy, Ultimate Plant‑Based Guide is a grounded, feel-good cookbook that makes wholesome eating effortless and tasty. Focusing on simple, flavour-forward, plant-rich meals, it helps you cut down on ultra-processed foods and hit 30 different plants a week with 75 fuss-free recipes, adaptable meal plans and practical tips for real-life cooking without stress or sacrifice.
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