A new study suggests coffee could prevent bowel cancer reoccurring – but claims for its healing properties have abounded since the 15th century

Last week a study was published showing that people with bowel cancer who drink coffee – quite a lot of coffee, two to four cups a day – were less likely to suffer a return of the disease. Experts have said that if the results hold in further studies, coffee could be prescribed to cancer patients on the NHS. That coffee does have an effect on human function is beyond dispute – but whether that impact is beneficial or detrimental has been the subject of contention since Sufi mystics began consuming the beverage some time in the mid-15th century.

The Indigenous peoples of the forests of Kaffa in south-west Ethiopia foraged berries from wild coffee plants that were shipped across the Red Sea to prepare the decoction known as qahwa, which Yemeni Sufis incorporated into their night-time religious ceremonies to reduce their desire for sleep. Once mainstream Islamic courts ruled coffee was not intoxicating, consumption became widespread among the Muslim populations in the Middle East and the Ottoman empire.

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She’s the ex-hairdresser who turned Bowie into Ziggy Stardust, then set off around the world in his entourage. Ronson relives those wild days – and recalls seeing a darker side of David

One Saturday morning early in the summer of 1971, Suzi Ronson was busy at work at the Evelyn Paget hair salon on Beckenham High Street when a couple walked past pushing a pram. The woman was wearing black jeans and a furry jacket, the man was in a flowing gold midi dress. “Everybody rushed out to have a look,” recalls Ronson, who then went by her maiden name Fussey. “Everyone was like nudging, poking each other, asking, ‘Who’s that?’ Then someone whispered, ‘It’s David Bowie.’”

Ronson had vaguely heard of Bowie: the success of his Space Oddity single had made him a local celebrity and the singer’s mother was a client. But she recalls: “He was in an arty clique, not my world.” However Ronson would end up becoming part of Bowie’s world, the only working woman in his touring party – as her new memoir Me and Mr Jones relates.

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Lulu has revealed that, when she’s performing, she doesn’t speak before noon. It might sound tricky – but could have benefits

Name: Speech fasting.

Age: Ancient.

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A majority of people imagine they’re far fresher-faced than they actually are. So should we be battling our internalised ageism and embracing the ravages of time?

Sit your old bones down, because I’ve got bad news: you probably look older than you think you do. Don’t shoot the messenger – blame science. A recent study published in the journal Psychology and Aging found that 59% of US adults aged 50 to 80 believe they look younger than other people their age. Women and people with higher incomes were slightly more likely to say they thought they looked fresher than their peers; and only 6% of adults in the bracket thought (or realised) they looked older than others their age. In short, most of us are delusional.

While the survey only included people over 50, I reckon they would have got the same results if they polled anyone over 30. Our brains have inbuilt denial mechanisms that stop us confronting our own mortality. Many people’s biological age tends to differ from their “ subjective age ” (or how old they feel ). Mine certainly does: according to my passport I’m 40, but in my head I’m still a sprightly 29.

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First bikes will be collected in the Netherlands and Germany in mid-April, with other countries following afterwards

Dutch cargo bike firm Babboe is recalling 22,000 of its popular cycles over safety fears, around one-third of its bikes on the road.

Babboe had already announced a recall of two models in February but said five more models were now a concern.

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Fertility rate in England and Wales has fallen to lowest rate since records began in 1939

Elizabeth, 29, a sales executive from Surrey, would very much like to have children, but feels she is unable to do so for the time being.

“Simply – it’s money,” Elizabeth says. “I’ve been with my husband for 10 years, and we would have children already but for the cost of living.”

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Europe’s weights system is baffling for American cooks used to volumes and cups, but will metric’s accuracy eventually tip the scales?

Like most Americans, Samin Nosrat grew up in a home with cup measures in the kitchen. That said, they didn’t always get used. “My mom taught me in a more ‘old world’ way,” she says – measuring the water to cover rice with one of her knuckles, for instance. Nosrat, the author of cookbook Salt Fat Acid Heat and presenter of the Netflix show with the same name, has built a career on what she calls “sensory-guided cooking” – helping home cooks to build culinary instincts by understanding how ingredients behave – and so admits to having “a somewhat tortured relationship with measurements”. But as a recipe writer, she describes herself as “neurotic”. “If I’m going to write recipes which are clear and which work,” says Nosrat, “it just makes sense to use scales. I have three sets.”

There is a chasm between Europe and America’s kitchen cultures. The fundamental difference is that Americans use volume, not weight, to make measurements in their kitchens. Cooking with cups is volume-based and relies heavily on visual cues – everyone knows what a cup of granulated sugar looks like; less so 200g or 7.1oz – while the metric system is weight-based. “The issue isn’t that Americans weigh things differently,” says Sarah Chamberlain, a writer who Americanises British cookbooks for the US market. “It’s that most of them don’t weigh things at all.”

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A light midweek supper with soft textures and flavours

Bring a deep saucepan of water to the boil and salt it lightly. Meanwhile, make a dressing. Pick 15g of basil leaves and put them into a blender with 60ml of olive oil . Grind in a little pepper and salt , then pour in 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar . Process to a smooth, thick green dressing. You need be able to pour it. If it is too thick, add a little warm water. Taste for seasoning, and adjust if necessary.

Trim 100g of greens ( cima di rapa , or spinach ) removing any coarse or stringy stalks or less than perfect leaves. Wash the leaves, then, when the pan of water is boiling, dunk the leaves and stems into the water and leave for a minute – two if the stalks are thicker.

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The Colombian pop star – and mother of two boys – disliked the global blockbuster, saying its message robs men of chance to ‘protect and provide’

In an unlikely dissension from what has become a critical and commercial consensus, Colombian musician Shakira has said that the Barbie movie is “emasculating” and suggested that it “rob[s] men of their possibility to be men”.

In an interview with Allure magazine that focused on the “she-wolf feminism” behind her work, Shakira said she had watched the Greta Gerwig-directed satire and said: “My sons absolutely hated it. They felt that it was emasculating. And I agree, to a certain extent.”

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