Why electric cars might be about to get more expensive

The price, size and variety of eggs differ

But which is the best value
for money and taste?

Food Editor Sophie Morris
tested 15 supermarket packs, scrambled and fried.

Her findings? The most expensive wasn’t the best.

Taste the Difference

These Sainsbury’s eggs taste as good as they look with gorgeous orange middles and a rich flavour. 4/5

Savers Small Eggs

Morrisons Savers eggs are great for the price (£1.10) but not rich in flavour. 3/5

• 7Tesco Finest Bluebell Aruacana
  The pale blue shells won me over but the insides are just as rewarding with a rich flavour.
  4/5
• 8Waitrose Duchy Organic Eggs
  Their sunny yellow middle scrambles beautifully into light, fluffy folds.
  4/5
• 9Lidl Deluxe Golden Yolk Eggs
  They’re a great deal and the yolk is a lovely bright orange and the taste is rich and eggy.
  3.5/5 

M&S British Free Range Eggs

Large eggs with brown shells and a light orange yolk and they’re a great price for high-welfare large eggs. 4/5

Waitrose No.1 Longstock Gold Eggs

They are delicious: meltingly rich, they scramble into fat folds. They have beautiful green shells, almost too pretty to eat. 4/5

Canned essentials

Morris keeps tomatoes, beans, pulses, chickpeas, lentils and fish in her cupboard.

Dried goods

A base of dry goods, like rice, pasta, oats and flour, are the backbone of a reliable pantry. Make sure bags are stored correctly and replace them when they go out of date.

Practise a musical instrument

A study of 108 amateur musicians in the journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences found those with more musical experience had better attention control.

Join a knitting group

Knitting improves coordination and working memory – your brain’s ability to store and use information according to the British Journal of Occupational Therapy.

Why crossing your legs could be bad your health…

It’s one of those every day moves that we rarely think twice about – especially when sitting for longer periods – but it could be inadvertently contributing to your back pain, high blood pressure or even issues like infertility.

The fact it’s comfortable doesn’t mean it’s good for us

62%

of people prefer to cross their right over their left leg.

While 26 per cent cross their left over the right and 12 per cent have no preference.

S shape

The natural shape of the spine when stood up is an S-shaped curve.

But when we sit in a chair with our feet flat on the ground our pelvis is rocked backwards creating a C shape.

We’re restricting venous return of blood from peripheral tissues like the foot going back to the heart.

Says Adam Taylor, Professor and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre, at Lancaster University.

Although your blood pressure should drop once you move from the position, it can have longer term impacts if you have pre-existing conditions like diabetes.

In extreme it can
lead to a phenomenon
called foot drop.

Over the short term crossing can give you pins and needles. If you leave it there for half an hour, an hour, or longer, you can actually interfere with the muscular function of the muscles, says Taylor.

Sam Bhide, advanced physiotherapy practitioner, believes the main impact of sitting cross-legged is gluteal tendonitis, resulting in moderate to severe hip pain.

One study found that sitting cross-legged leads to a bent and asymmetrical posture and other research shows it increasing the misalignment of the hips.

Microbreaks

Take time off from sitting, and put your musculoskeletal system through a normal range of motion.

Ready whole grains

Dietitian Lucy Upton recommends brown rice, quinoa and barley which are low in salt.

Nuts and seeds

They boast unsaturated fats, fibre, plant protein, vitamins and minerals. Raw or dry roasted should have no additives, like salt. Dr Shafqat recommends brands like Meridian, Pip & Nut and Whole Earth.

It surprises many people that dark chocolate contains fibre.

It counts as a health food thanks to its high polyphenol count. 

To really optimise the health benefits, choose chocolate that is 70 per cent cocoa as it has fewer ingredients and a higher polyphenol content.

Lindt 70 to 85 per cent, Green & Black’s, Divine Fairtrade, Aldi’s Moser Roth (70 per cent) and Lidl’s own brand (85 per cent) are great, accessible options.

Oats

Plain oats are a cheap, accessible and nutritious food that provide beta-glucan, a type of soluble fibre which helps to manage cholesterol levels.

While much of the world is set to grow hotter as a result of the climate crisis, the UK could soon face a different fate.

Climate scientists fear a ‘cold blob’ in the Atlantic Ocean may bring Arctic conditions instead of a tropical future.

Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London (UCL), is one of them.

Here he shares why cold temperatures could be our reality in a few decades.

“All countries need to ensure that infrastructure, food security, services
and public engagement are robust,”
says Professor McGuire.

Paul Afshar felt a sense of pride when
he purchased 25 per cent of a new home in East London – as a way to get on the property ladder without huge financial backing.

But years on, Afshar has discovered the drawbacks of the scheme, including the rising costs and difficulty moving on.

A 25 per cent of a one-bedroom flat in London.

• In 2007 Afshar put a five per cent deposit (£2,500) on his share of the flat and entered a 35-year mortgage on a standard variable rate. 
• Although he only owns a quarter of his flat in Hackney but is eligible for 100 per cent of the maintenance costs.
• Between 2007 and 2024 his mortgage rose 48 per cent from £268.65 to £400.28. He also pays £865.48 on rent (shared ownership requires paying rent to the organisation who owns the rest) and a service charge.
• Fixing unsafe cladding on his block of will also cost in excess
  of £50,000, as it isn’t eligible for government funding.

Afshar couldn’t sell his flat but didn’t feel safe to live in it – because of the cladding. So he lived with his partner for three years, still paying the mortgage and charges.

I got into something I didn’t fully understand. I was sold a dream of homeownership and it’s come back to bite me years later. It’s heartbreaking.

Looking back Afshar wishes he’d have looked into the service charge, mortgage rate and selling protocols sooner.

Thinking of getting
a divorce?

It’s not always the solution, says psychotherapist and author Philippa Perry, who has been married for 32 years.

Here are the five things she recommends asking yourself before dishing
out the divorce papers.

Is it a you problem?

It’s not a good idea to get divorced when you’re just depressed and stressed. You’re naturally irritated by everything and everybody. It’s too easy to take that out on your partner and think they’re the problem. 

We cherry-pick the evidence against our partner until we’re so set on them being the enemy…

It feels almost like tying up loose ends. But it won’t really solve the problem. It just makes it much worse. It’s okay to be wrong. Good relationships are full of ruptures and repairs.

It is a mixmatch of
conflict styles?

• When we’re under stress, we have our preferred way of coping.
• You want a partner who’s on the same page as you, so that you have moments of connection.
• Some people think a lot, other people want to go straight to action.
• If you’re a thinker, and you’re married to a do-er, it’s important to remind them that they don’t have to fix every problem. If you are a doer, you have to say something like, explain your process and thoughts a little more.