Life Style

    Smoky beef wraps with kale, onion and red pepper 350g thin cut beef steaks 15ml rapeseed or sunflower oil 2tsp smoked paprika 1tsp ground cumin Salt and freshly milled black pepper 50g kale or baby spinach leaves, rinsed and roughly shredded 1 small red or yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced ½ small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced 5ml lemon or lime juice 1 ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and mashed 4-6 tortilla wraps, warmed Greek yoghurt, to serve Freshly chopped coriander or flat-leaf parsley, to serve 50 Grilled Fruit and Vegetable Recipes That Prove There's More to a Barbecue Than Just Meat In a small bowl, mix together 2tsp of the oil, smoked paprika, cumin and seasoning together. Combine the kale or spinach, peppers, on...

    Nine million people across all age groups and walks of life in Britain are affected by loneliness. We've partnered with giving platform Benevity to raise funds for three charities - Mind, the Campaign to End Loneliness, and Wavelength – to tackle this debilitating and complex issue. You can help make a difference - please donate now. Chronic loneliness changes the chemicals produced in the brain, causing feelings of aggression and fear, scientists have discovered. But an old, largely failed psychiatric drug might work to alleviate those negative emotions by suppressing the loneliness chemical. Social isolation has been a growing problem in the US, and has been not only led to increased rates of depression and post traumatic stress disorder, but to higher risks of c...

    The price of filling up the car with petrol soared by more than £3 last month – meaning motorists must be more vigilant than ever about fuel consumption. The cost of both petrol and diesel rose by an average of 6p a litre in May, according to the RAC. This has been blamed on US sanctions against the major oil producer Iran as well as the pound being weaker against the dollar, which is the currency used for trading in oil. The average cost of filling a family car up with petrol is now £71 while for diesel it has risen to £73 costing £1.29 a litre for petrol and £1.32 for diesel. Here, we show how you can save at least £6 every time you fill up or even pay just £1 for your fuel by investing in a new vehicle. COMPARE PUMP PRICES  SAVING: £6  The recent price hike is...

    Dating in your mid-30s isn’t easy. Many of your friends are either married or in serious relationships, and work or raising children has pushed them into the suburbs. It was hard enough meeting the friends I have, nevermind making new ones. When my last serious relationship ended, I was slow to explore online dating. It took me a while to realize how sedentary my life had become, and that dating apps seem to be necessary to meet new people these days (and sometimes just to leave the house). I signed up and started swiping. This wasn’t the kind of dating that I was used to pre-apps. Within the confines of a common social group, dating, no matter how casual, always required a certain decorum. If you didn’t want “keep seeing” someone, you had to say so, because you we...

    From procrastinating to smoking, nail biting or spending too much time in front of Netflix, we all have bad habits that we could stand to lose. But these everyday addictions can be hard to break because they are so deeply wired into our brains. So, what can we do to help break these bad habits for good? According to one expert, your success lies in one simple word don’t. Speaking to Today, psychologist Amantha Imber says that habits are so difficult to quit because they are hard wired through default behaviour and that trying to go against this means the brain has to work incredibly hard. As such, the easy thing to do is go back to the default behaviour and continue with your bad habits. However, by using the word don’t either in conversation or as self-talk Imb...

    Most of the popular vitamin and mineral supplements people take do not boost health, a major study says. Some could even increase the risk of death, scientists claim. Their research concludes only folic acid is proven to reduce risks of heart disease or stroke. They looked at five years of reviews of the most common supplements taken, incl­uding vitamins A, B1, B2, B3 (niacin), B6, B9 (folic acid), C, D and E. Multivitamins , vitamin C and D and calcium showed no advantage or added risk in prevention of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes or early death. But B3 and antioxidants showed a very small increased risk of death from any cause. Lead author Dr David Jenkins, University of Toronto, said: We were surprised to find so few positive effects of the mo...

    You’ve probably had an on-again, off-again relationship with eggs. One minute their cholesterol causes heart disease and the next you better eat the whole egg, otherwise you’re missing out. Well, a new study has (hopefully) settled the debate: eating up to one egg per day is actually associated with a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. Published in the journal Heart, the study looked at more than a half million adults in China. Participants reported on their egg eating habits and the scientists followed-up after nine years on average, comparing egg consumption with disease and death registries. Specifically, daily egg eaters enjoyed an 11 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to people who didn't eat any eggs at all. For haemorrhagic stroke (a brain ble...

    What is everybody’s obsession with age? Seriously. Age is nothing but a number, a socially constructed myth and excuse for oppression and segregation. I for one am a firm believer that adulthood is adulthood, regardless of what decade of adulthood you may be. I believe that relationships are made from something far deeper than a few digits on a birth certificate. It is made from a genuine connection of shared interests, hobbies, humour and of course an aesthetic attraction in most cases! So why is age brought into the equation? And more importantly, why does the media hone in and scrutinise the relationships whereby the female is significantly older than her male partner? I have read numerous articles in which the age of an older woman is frequently referenced an...

    Wedding tattoo spelling Love. Marriage vows are permanent but some newlyweds are taking their commitment a step further with wedding ring tattoos. The new trend, which already has 5,000 posts on Instagram, replaces the typical wedding ring in favour of a matching tattoo to display your unwavering dedication to each other. It also allows non-traditional couples to express themselves through more than just the choice of platinum, gold, or silver. And the ring finger is not the only digit to get the wedding tattoo treatment - couples on social media are showing off their #weddingtattoos on thumbs, even wrists. For the most part, the tattoos are dainty, with the majority of couples opting for a few lines of ink or a symbol of their love, such as the eternity symbol. ...

    Popular fasting diets involve going without food for two days a week, or every other day. Fasting every other day to lose weight could have damaging side effects. That is the conclusion of a group of scientists speaking this weekend at the European Society of Endocrinology’s annual meeting. Their findings suggest that fasting-based diets may impair the action of sugar-regulating hormone insulin, and lead to increased risk of diabetes. Care should be taken before starting such programmes, say researchers. Ana Bonassa, whose team from the University of São Paulo in Brazil carried out the study, said: This is the first study to show that, despite weight loss, intermittent fasting diets may actually damage the pancreas and affect insulin function in normal healthy indi...