How to be the best

This is the food manual for everybody that wants that “edge”, whether it be mental or physical. In How to be the best we explore which foods to eat if you want to be faster, stronger, and smarter.

Read about the studies and watch the films in our interactive player. You can also get some Takeaway Tips to put yourself ahead of the competition.

Grazing Vs Bingeing

Is there a way to eat your food so you can perform better? Could eating little and often be better than having three square meals?

Caffeine and the brain

We look into the effects of the most popular drug to see how caffeine addicts function when you deny them their eight cups a day habit.

Fish stress buster

Can eating oily fish help relieve your stress? We enlist a group of London cab drivers to helps us find out.

Meat to Beat?

We convinced six staunch vegetarians to embrace the carnivore way for eight weeks to test whether they would become stronger athletes by eating meat. Did it work?

Carb Power

Two genetically identical teams battle it out to see what’s better for long endurance activities – a diet high in carbohydrates or a diet packed full of protein and fat.

How to stay young and beautiful

How to be young and beautiful looks at the everyday foods and drinks we consume and how they can help fight the ageing process, from the inside and out.

Read about the studies and watch the films in our interactive player. You can also take a look at some Takeaway Tips on how to stay young and beautiful.

The Detox Diet

We've all done them. Some people swear by them. But what do they do exactly? We enlisted the help of a group of fun loving girls to ask does Detox really work?

Spinach and Eyesight

If you knew you might be able to protect yourself from age-related eyesight loss simply by eating 50g of spinach every day, would it make a difference to your eyesight?

Tomatoes and Skin Protection

Is there is there something we can do all year round to give added protection to our skin from harmful UV rays?

Water and Skin

Four glasses? Two litres? Three bottles of pure spring water distilled by Tibetan monks? Just how much water should we be drinking every day to keep fresh and beautiful?

The Wine test

Red wine benefits your heart. Does it? Doesn't it? There are so many conflicting reports out there that it's hard to tell. We tried to find out the real truth about red wine and the best way to drink it.

Berries and Memory

With an increasingly ageing population cognitive impairment caused by ageing is something scientists are eager to reverse. Could the humble berry hold the key?

How to be slim

Ours is a world where it seems everyone is on, just finished, or about to start, a diet. The only really successful way to become slim is to change our lifestyle: to do more exercise and eat well. We explored some of the biggest dieting myths.

Read about the studies and watch the films in our interactive player and take a look at some Takeaway Tips on how to be slim.

Metabolism and Weight

We all think a slow metabolism inhibits us from losing weight. But where does the myth come from and can metabolism really be to blame for weight gain?

The Dairy Diet

We investigate into the enemy of all good dieters to ask, does eating cheese really makes us pile on the pounds?

Watch What You Eat

We enlist some ravenous re-enactors to see if clearing away the evidence of what we are eating makes it is easier to override our satiety signals.

Andrea Oliver’s Diet

Not satisfied with just demonstrating these dieting tips individually we brought in radio DJ Andrea Oliver to see if sticking to our top tips really can make you lose weight, healthily and permanently.

Supersizing

We delve into some food psychology to uncover why supersized products make us eat more than our appetites tell us to.

Filling Foods

We examine the biggest current trend in dieting, satiety, and ask which are the best foods for making us fuelled for longer?

The Soup Diet

It's the secret of every dieter - drink a glass of water before every meal and you will feel fuller quicker. But does it really work and if so what's the best way of making sure?

How to feed your kids

What is the truth about the foods our children eat? As they grow, how does what they put into their mouths affect their bodies, minds and behaviour or the habits formed as an adult?

Read about the studies and watch the films in our interactive player. You can also get some Takeaway Tips to about how to feed your kids.

Forbidding Foods

Is restricting or banning snacks really the best way to keep children healthy, or might hiding the cookie jar lead to even worse eating habits?

Learning to Love Veg

It's healthy to have at least five portions of fruit and veg every day. But what if your child won't eat it? With the help of some very cool child actors we did a test to see if we could persuade them.

Portion Size

By the time we are adults we have already learnt to override our "I'm full" signals and carry on regardless. But do children do this as well?

Sugar and Hyperactivity

Everyone knows that feeding a child too much sugar is a recipe for disaster. They will become hyperactive and chaos will ensue. Or will it?

TV Dinners

It seems the more television we watch the less exercise we do and the fatter we become. But this correlation has yet to be proved. Could there be another reason why watching TV might lead to obesity?

The Best Breakfast

What is the best way to start a kid's day? We examined a British and American breakfast to find out.

How to be sexy

We explore the intimate connections between food and sex and unearth the truth behind the many food/sex myths deep-rooted in our culture.

Read about the studies and watch the films in our interactive player. You can also have a look at some sexy Takeaway Tips.

The Sperm Race

Over a six month period we followed a group of subfertile men on a specially designed diet to see whether a change in health and lifestyle could improve their sperm.

The Semen Taste Test

We recruited some brave volunteers to help us find out if you can detect what a man's been eating simply by tasting his semen. This may offend some people.

Eating on a Date

We replicate a study from the 80s to discover whether a woman in the noughties still leaves food on her plate if she fancies her date.

Premenstrual Syndrome

With a team of specialists we investigate into claims that increasing the amount of calcium and vitamin D in a woman's diet can help reduce the symptoms of PMS.

The Power of Smell

We conducted some cross-cultural tests to discover whether the smell of certain foods can sexually excite a man's penile blood flow.

Aphrodisiacs

Folklore has it that there exist magical foods which can entice the senses and arouse our libido. We tested the myth to see if aphrodisiacs really work.

How To Be Health

How to be healthy

In How to be Healthy we investigated the health tips and diets that claim to offer protection against disease and uncover what you should be feeding your body in the fight against infection.

Read about the studies and watch the films in our interactive player. You can also get some Takeaway Tips to help your body fight disease.

The Evolution Diet

We travel back in time and investigate the 'Evo Diet' to discover if what our primitive ancestors ate holds the secret to combating the diseases of western civilisation.

Fart Pants

With an unusual choice of underwear we uncover just how much gas a person produces and what bacteria has to do with it.

Garlic and Erectile Dysfunction

Testing one of many well known claims made on behalf of this wonder plant we ask can eating garlic help men get their erections back and minimise the risk of heart failure?

The High Fibre Diet

Can a high fibre diet sort out internal congestion problems and potentially reduce the risks of bowel cancer?

Prebiotics Vs Probiotics

With the help of a team of ranchers we investigate into the benefits of probiotics and prebiotics and the benefits of 'friendly bacteria'.

Interactive video player

Use our interactive video player to watch all of the tests and studies in the series tailored to your own tastes.

The Truth About Food

The Truth About Food - tailor it to your taste

Watch the tests and studies conducted in The Truth About Food series using our broadband Flash video player. You can tailor the experience to suit you and watch the videos in a unique way and only get the films that matter to you.

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