Eating a Mediterranean diet to battle obesity may be better than calorie counting. A team of UK doctors writing in the Postgraduate Medical Journal (PMJ) said a Mediterranean diet quickly reduced the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The lead author, cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, says the scientific evidence is overwhelming. In their article the doctors say adopting a Mediterranean diet after a heart attack is almost three times as effective at reducing deaths as taking cholesterol-lowering statin medication. And they make the case for a diet including fruit and vegetables, nuts and olive oil, citing research suggesting it quickly reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and may be better than low-fat diets for sustained weight loss.

So, what’s the message to Professional Secrets foodies?

It’s simple: Stay true to our ethos of better understanding how to produce, transport, handle and prepare good food. Healthier food doesn’t just come from the Med; sensible food-lore in tune with our local environments and habitats always pays dividends wherever we live!

Brits have long suffered accusations about the quality of the food they serve up. Well that’s all changing apparently with new research showing Britain is becoming a nation of foodies, with a deep love of great food and a desire to eat healthily!

That's the conclusion of a recent study by food retailing giant Waitrose, which reveals shoppers are choosing to support local traders, with 8 out of 10 shoppers travelling less than a mile to their nearest shop, and 6 out of 10 of these doing so on foot. The study also shows that while weekdays remain all about 'convenience', a fifth of all households are cooking for their friends and families at weekends with a lean towards cooking from scratch.

Discover more about how Britons are bucking their reputation at waitrose.com

The UK is celebrating National Curry Week, which was started in 1998 to promote the cuisine and to raise funds for charities concentrating on hunger, malnourishment and poverty. During the week, curry lovers can get out and visit their local curry houses across the UK, some of which will be staging special events and fun challenges.

There’s an art and science to Indian cooking that is all about being adventurous in mixing and blending the huge palette of Indian spices to create magical colours, hues and flavours. Indian cooking has six key taste elements: Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. And unlike Italian dishes, where a dash of basil will almost always make the dish taste better, the spice tradition from India is all about understanding the specific flavours and properties.

If you want to learn more, we can recommended the following site, http://www.bigapplecurry.com/indian-cooking-toolkit/art-of-indian-cooking/.