The Food Chain

What can food reveal about the people who came before us? From ancient meals and family recipes to the chemical traces left behind in bones and teeth, food offers remarkable clues about how people lived, travelled and survived.

In this episode, Ruth Alexander explores how historians, archaeologists and old cookbooks are helping us piece together the story of our past.

Historian Professor Peter Scholliers explains how something as ordinary as the changing price of food can reveal shifts in society, politics and everyday life. In India, author and historian Tarana Khan takes us inside a remarkable collection of two-hundred-year-old cookbooks from Rampur, uncovering forgotten recipes that reveal changing tastes, cultures and identities. And in Scotland, archaeologist Dr Sam Leggett explains how scientific analysis of ancient bones and teeth can reconstruct diets, migrations and even challenge long-held assumptions about the lives of people in the past.

They explore how food can reveal trade routes, social class, cultural exchange, climate change, migration and the choices people made around the dinner table centuries ago.

From old recipe books to archaeological discoveries, we discover how food helps us understand not only where we've come from, but how our relationship with food continues to shape the world today.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Beatrice Pickup
Sound engineer: Hal Haines
Picture: Getty

Have you ever asked yourself: should I do Keto? Is white rice good for me? Am I eating too many carbohydrates? If so, then this episode of The Food Chain is for you. Carbohydrate-rich foods are everywhere and they’re delicious. But are they good for us? Carbs have a reputation for spiking our blood sugar and making us fat. But is that reputation deserved?

Ruth Alexander talks to Javier Gonzalez, Professor of Nutrition and Metabolism at the University of Bath in England and US-based dietitian Julie Stefanski from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to find out whether we’ve been approaching carbohydrates all wrong.

Plus: are there some populations who need to think more carefully about carbs than others? Dr Nelum Dharmapriya thinks so. She’s an Australian family doctor with a special interest in metabolic health in South Asian populations. She advises her patients to make some tweaks to the traditional South Asian carbohydrate-rich diet and says it can be done without losing heritage and identity.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Produced by Lexy O'Connor and Beatrice Pickup.

(Image: A woman stares over her sunglasses as she slurps pasta from a fork in a sunlit garden.Credit: Getty images/BBC)

When should you eat your evening meal? Is it really better to eat earlier, or does it depend on when you go to bed? And if you do have to eat late, is there anything you can do to reduce the impact on your health?

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores what science says about the timing of dinner. From our internal body clocks to the food on our plates, we examine how the evening meal affects our metabolism, digestion and overall health, and separate the evidence from the myths.

Circadian rhythm researcher Dr Emily Manoogian, from the Salk Institute in California, explains what happens inside the body as the day progresses, why eating close to bedtime can affect the way we process food, and whether biology cares more about the clock or our own sleep schedule.

Nutrition scientist Professor Sarah Berry from King's College London shares practical advice on what a healthy evening meal should look like.

Around the world, however, people eat dinner at vastly different times. Food historian Professor Jeffrey Pilcher from the University of Toronto explains why meal times vary so much between cultures, how work, family life and history have shaped the evening meal, and why there has never been one universal way to organise dinner.

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield
Sound engineer: Hal Haines
Picture: Getty (plate of food indicating the time)

Listener Melanie wrote into The Food Chain to ask us to make a programme about the rising numbers of people who eat alone. She told us she often dines solo and sometimes finds the experience daunting. So today Ruth Alexander hears from Melanie and from other solo diners – some who find peace and joy in a table for one, and others who would much rather not be alone.

With the help of Sociologist Professor Eric Klinenberg from New York University, Ruth looks at what’s behind the global rise in single-person households.

And she hears how another Food Chain listener, Malvina from California, brought her friends together around the table, over a video call and how Nishi Singh, determined to enjoy a solo dining experience in Delhi, has turned it into a social media phenomenon.

(Photo: A woman holds a spoon up to her mouth as she eats from a bowl. She is sitting at a sunlit table next to a window, with large, leafy indoor plants behind her. She has long brown hair and wears a blue, ribbed, jumper and a silver necklace. Credit: Getty Images)

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Lexy O'Connor
Sound engineer: Andrew Mills

Elite footballers are among the world's most finely tuned athletes. Every meal is carefully planned to fuel training, maximise recovery and prepare for the next match. But it wasn't always this way.

In this episode of The Food Chain, Ruth Alexander explores how football's relationship with food has changed, from the days of steak and beef before a game to today's highly personalised nutrition plans.

Sports historian Professor Matthew Taylor traces the evolution of football's food culture, explaining why clubs once left players to fend for themselves and how attitudes began to shift.

Former Denmark international goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel reflects on how nutrition changed during his own career, and what modern players understand about food that previous generations didn't.

Mona Nemmer, former Head of Nutrition at Liverpool FC and a nutritionist with the German national team, explains what elite footballers actually eat before, during and after matches, how meals are tailored to individual players, and why feeding a squad is about far more than calories alone.

At major tournaments, those carefully designed nutrition plans have to work on the move. Giulio Caccamo, who was chef for the US Men's National Team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, takes us behind the scenes of feeding an international squad. From planning menus months in advance to serving players in hotels, training grounds and on flights, he reveals the logistical operation behind every meal, and why food can be as important for morale as it is for performance.

From pre-match pasta to post-match burgers, from sports science to supply chains, this episode explores what it really takes to feed footballers at the highest level.

(Photo: Erling Haaland looks up as eats a snack. His blonde hair is tied back. Credit: Getty Images)

If you'd like to get in touch with the programme, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

Producer: Izzy Greenfield
Sound engineer: Jack Wilfan