Stronger Minds

This episode is a Food Story, where I sit down and talk to someone about what food means to them and what role it plays in their lives. So allow me to introduce you to Franceska Venzon Franceska is a pastry chef who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Canada before moving to London and working as a sous chef at Ottolenghi (look out for her name in the upcoming Ottolenghi baking book coming out in the autumn!). Hailing from Brazil but with roots in Italy in this episode she introduces me to the wizardry of traditional Brazilian tapioca and discusses how much of the cultural history of Brazil, can be understood by following the movement of cassava, a popular traditional root crop. In this conversation we discuss how food intersects with family and national identity, how leaving her home country made her more Brazilian, and what she considers to be ‘the best thing that England has ever made’. She’s a very funny, intelligent, warm and honest woman and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a complex and common illness that affects the function of the gut, creating uncomfortable and embarrassing symptoms for sufferers. In this episode I give a brief overview of research in to IBS, outline aspects of the brain-gut-microbiome axis in the disorder, and highlight the critical role of psychological stress in driving symptoms.

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My guest today is baker and activist Gavan Knox. Gavan is a man of many pseudonyms. He has a baking blog and business as Mr. Moms and also answers to The Bearded Baker. Five years ago Gavan and his husband adopted two children, siblings aged four and five. In this conversation we talk about his experience of becoming a father, including the challenges and triumphs, and how food is a way to build family traditions with his children.

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Every year in early summer members of the Sikh community take to the streets to hand out cool, sweet drinks to passers-by offering them relief from the heat. In this episode I talk to Gurmeet Dhillon about the significance of this tradition and the broader importance of food in the Sikh faith.

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New and ongoing research has shown a link between the microbiome and the body's response to fasting on the health and repair of nerve cells. In this episode I report on the latest research on fasting and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) a common autoimmune neurodegenerative disease. Are we standing on the verge of new nutritional interventions for neurological disorders? Tune in to hear what two leading researchers, Dr. Valter Longo and Dr. Jeremy Chataway, think is going on and the future directions of their research.

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In this episode I speak to Victoria Prever, food editor of the Jewish Chronicle, the world's oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper. She tells me about the symbolism of dairy foods during the festival of Shavuot and the role of food in Jewish culture.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/strongerminds.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.