The Circus Gardener's Kitchen

seasonal vegetarian recipes with a side helping of food politics

Tag Archive for ‘cancer’

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spaghetti with olive, caper and tomato sauce

Monsanto, once dubbed the “most evil corporation in the world” no longer exists but its toxic legacy shows no sign of disappearing, thanks to one of its flagship products, the weedkiller Roundup. The principal ingredient of Roundup is a chemical called glyphosate, which seven years ago the World Health Organisation labelled “probably carcinogenic.” Since then, a growing body of evidence has associated exposure to glyphosate with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer […]

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pea pancakes with feta, olive and mint

A recently published study has confirmed a link between the consumption of sugary drinks and increased risk of bowel cancer. The study involved a cohort of over 95,000 women, whose diet and health were monitored between 1991 and 2015. It found that women under the age of fifty who regularly consume more than a pint of sugary drinks per day have double the risk of developing bowel cancer compared to […]

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pea and rocket consommé with asparagus

There have been three recent surveys into the impact of what are termed “ultra-processed foods” on human health. I must admit that until quite recently I had not come across this term, having tended to mentally divide foods into two simple groups – “processed” and “not processed”. “Ultra-processed foods”, it transpires, are foods which have incorporated multiple additives, in the form of preservatives, sweeteners, colourants and processing aids, but which […]

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Lebanese-style rice and lentils with crispy onions

For the second time in less than a year, a US court has found that the weed killer Roundup is responsible for causing cancer. In this second case, the jury also found that Roundup’s manufacturer, Monsanto (which has since been taken over by German multinational Bayer) had deliberately manipulated records to hide the risk of cancer from exposure to Roundup. The judge in this most recent case stated that “there […]

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pak choi and broccoli with soy sauce and garlic

wok fried pak choi and purple sprouting broccoli with soy and garlic: vegan and gluten free

To kick off the new year on this blog here’s a healthy, quick and delicious dish of pak choi and broccoli with soy sauce and garlic. This is a time of year that is full of good intentions, when many of us making resolutions and many of those resolutions are about improving our diet. Whether you are someone who has signed up for “Veganuary” (a month of meat-free and dairy […]

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spicy roast cauliflower with hummus and pomegranate

hummus with pomegranates and pine nuts, spicy cauliflower and halloumi

It is now three years since the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that glyphosate, the key ingredient of the popular weedkiller Roundup, is “probably carcinogenic to humans”. In response, Monsanto (the manufacturers of Roundup) has set about trying to discredit the WHO’s findings by, for example, setting up and funding numerous research projects, each of which, unsurprisingly, has gone on to conclude that Roundup is safe. Safe or not, glyphosate […]

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sesame crusted cabbage and potato cakes

The British Medical Journal recently published a study carried out by the French Sorbonne University and Brazil’s University of Sao Paolo. The study followed a cohort of nearly 105,000 people over a five year period, measuring their consumption of what the researchers called “ultra processed foods” (included in this category are foods such as sugary cereals, ready meals, chicken nuggets, pot noodles, pizza, sliced bread, crisps, biscuits, cakes and sweets). […]

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vegan Indonesian-style fried rice

We are all going to die one day, one way or another, but there is a growing chance that for many of us it will be as a result of the biggest cause of death in the developed world today: so-called non-communicable diseases. These include cancer, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. And the biggest principal cause of death from non-communicable disease is obesity. According to calculations by the World Obesity […]

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aubergine, basil and tomato penne

Last week the UK Conservative Party held its annual conference. Most of the British media’s coverage focused on the various tribulations which haunted the Prime Minister, Theresa May, as she attempted to deliver her keynote speech. But a coughing fit, an interruption by a prankster and a collapsing set weren’t the only causes for embarrassment at that conference. As one newspaper, spotted, the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt managed to deliver […]

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herb and Parmesan stuffed tomatoes

The UK’s National Health Service is creaking at the seams as it struggles to deal with a growing wave of chronic conditions resulting from poor diet, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, heart disease, obesity and cancer. Given the scale of this challenge, it is astonishing how many NHS hospitals continue to allow fast food franchises to operate on site. It’s not as if they need to generate more work […]

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individual pear tatins with cinnamon ice cream

Professor Jane Plant, a pioneering scientist and remarkable woman, died in March of this year. I had not heard of Jane Plant until last year, when a relative who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer recommended that I should read her book Prostate Cancer – Understand, Prevent, Overcome. Jane Plant was a geochemist by profession, whose personal circumstances ended up taking her in an unexpected direction: researching the impact of […]

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yellow split pea and wild garlic tarka dhal

The recent announcement by the makers of Dolmio and Uncle Ben’s, advising consumers that their sauces should only be consumed once a week, struck me on two levels. Firstly, as the manufacturer was not required to make this declaration, I wondered what could have motivated it to take such a unilateral step. Ever the cynic, I believe this move was less about serving the interests of consumers and more about […]

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