Times 2 - UK (2020-08-20)

the times | Thursday August 20 2020 1GT 3

times

Here comes the Gloria biopic.

Which Gloria?

2020’s favourite: Steinem.

You must have been living under a

rock — we’ve already had that.

Mrs America is old news now. It

starred Rose Byrne as Steinem, was

a huge hit and caused a run on

clear aviators.

Aha! But it’s not Mrs America of

which I speak. It’s another Steinem

story and it is a film — not a TV

series. The Glorias is based on

the feminist icon’s autobiography

My Life on the Road and will be

shown on Amazon Prime from

September 30. It follows her

through childhood, the Sixties,

Seventies and beyond.

Gosh, that’ll be a long film. But,

great! Does Rose Byrne play

her throughout?

No, I told you — this is not

Mrs America. Besides, how

could she play a child?

I don’t know. You saw Robert De

Niro in The Irishman didn’t you?

Hollywood can do anything —

even when it’s wrong.

Only Martin Scorsese gets budgets

for that sort of creepy special-

effects wizardry. Instead, the

Glorias have cast four, er, Glorias:

one child, one teenager, then

Alicia Vikander for Sixties

journalist Gloria and Julianne

Moore as Seventies key women’s

libber Gloria.

That’s a lot of glam Glorias. Are

there enough aviators to go around?

Who knows — there’ll be more

yet. That’s not even counting

how many there will be at your

Hallowe’en party this year.

Of course! But wait — party? Don’t

you mean a small gathering of six?

Yes, exactly. Six socially

distanced Glorias.

Hannah Rogers

The lowdown

Gloria Steinem

Mine’s homemade:

A-list beekeepers

GETTY IMAGES; INSTAGRAM/JMIDY; DAN MCFADDEN

David Beckham

He built a beehive in the

garden of his £6 million

Cotswolds home in June.

A recent video posted by his

wife, Victoria, features the

former footballer, below, in his

beekeeping suit holding up

a hive frame. “We’ll be very

happy when we’ve got our

own honey,” he said.

James Middleton

Since receiving a beehive

nine years ago as a birthday

present from his sister the

Duchess of Cambridge and

other family members, James

Middleton, above right,

hasn’t looked back. “On

a warm summer’s day

there are few places on

earth I’d rather be than

tending my bees,” he has

said. He keeps almost

half a million bees

in eight hives at his

parents’ home,

Bucklebury Manor

in Berkshire.

Michelle Obama

While serving as

first lady, Michelle

Obama installed the

White House’s first

beehive in 2009.

About 35,000 bees

produced honey, which

Obama said tasted “like

sunshine”. As well as

being the star ingredient

in the White House

from Malaysia, are more potent than

others. “Manuka honey is labelled

with a Unique Manuka Factor that

defines it from other honey and relates

to its methylglyoxal [MGO] content,

which has antibacterial properties,”

Thornton-Wood says. “The higher the

number, the better the antibacterial

properties, not only when eating

manuka, but also when putting it

on wounds. However, most honey

contains some antibacterial strength.”

... but some manuka might be
a waste of money
It can cost up to £100 a jar, but
manuka honey may not always live up
to its billing as a bug-fighter, especially
if it has been exposed to heat or left
sitting around for too long in storage.
In research last year by Professor
Merilyn Manley-Harris, a chemist at
the University of Waikato in New
Zealand, jars of manuka honey
shipped around the world were
found to have lower levels of MGO,
suggesting its antibacterial levels were
reduced. “If you’re buying honey that
has been shipped, buy one which has
also been tested when it arrives,”
Manley-Harris wrote.

Some people should never eat honey

As natural as it is, honey is not safe for

everyone to eat. “It’s not uncommon

for honey to cause digestive

symptoms,” Thornton-Wood says. “It

contains fructose, a sugar that people

with IBS cannot tolerate in any

quantity.” Likewise it should never be

given to children under the age of one.

“There are bacterial spores present in

honey that can cause botulism in

babies, so the Department of Health

guidance is not to give it to infants,”

Thornton-Wood says.

It can soothe a child’s night cough

A Cochrane Review in 2018 analysed

the results of six trials involving 899

children aged 12 months to 18 years

(conducted in Iran, Israel, the US,

Brazil and Kenya) and concluded that

“honey probably reduces cough

symptoms more than a placebo and

salbutamol [a drug that opens lung

airways] when given for up to three

days”. The report found honey offered

similar benefits to dextromethorphan

(an ingredient in over-the-counter

cough remedies) and also to be better

than diphenhydramine (an

antihistamine) at relieving and

reducing night-time coughs. Ron

Eccles, emeritus professor in the

school of biosciences at Cardiff

University, recommends a warm

honey and lemon drink for adults.

“The liquid encourages mucus

secretion to soothe and the honey

lubricates your throat,” he says.

It won’t do much for gut health

Honey contains oligosaccharides,

a form of carbohydrate that has a

prebiotic effect and is good for gut

health. But the amounts are too small

to make much of a difference, says

Dr Megan Rossi, a gut health expert

and research fellow at King’s College

London. “It is true that honey does

contain more gut-friendly

micronutrients and plant-chemicals

such as flavonoids than table sugar,”

she says. “However, in a standard

serve the difference is tiny and if

you’re after a micronutrient and

flavonoid boost to your diet you are

better off eating a piece of fruit to

sweeten your food, which would

deliver up to 1,000 per cent more of

these beneficial nutrients.”

Nutrition Laboratory showed honey

“can improve performance by

enhancing carbohydrate availability

and work output”. In trials on cyclists

(which were funded by the National

Honey Board in the US), the scientists

found that taking 15g of honey with

250ml of water before a workout

and every ten miles of hard cycling

matched the same amount of a

sports gel for performance-boosting

benefits. Athletes were able to cycle

“significantly faster” when consuming

the honey compared with a placebo.

It’s no better than sugar for waistlines

Honey tastes sweeter than sugar so

you might use less, but even so don’t

overdo it. “Regardless of the reputed

health benefits of honey, it is still

classified nutritionally as a ‘free’ sugar

— the type that we should be cutting

down for the sake of our teeth and

waistlines,” says Helen Bond, a

dietician and spokeswoman for the

British Dietetic Association (BDA).

“An 8g [level] teaspoon of honey

supplies 26 kcals and 6.4g sugar —

that’s 21 per cent of our daily free

sugar allowance. A heaped teaspoon

[17g] of honey supplies 56 kcals — 14g

sugar, which is half of the upper daily

limit.” And although it has a lower

glycaemic index than sugar — which

means it won’t send your blood sugar

soaring quite as sharply — “it does

nevertheless raise blood sugar”, says

the dietician Clare Thornton-Wood,

another BDA spokeswoman. “As with

any form of sugar, the advice is don’t

overdo it.”

Honey has antimicrobial properties...

Honey’s antibacterial properties are

the result of bees depositing hydrogen

peroxide as they synthesise flower

pollen, and lab studies have shown

that, as a consequence, honey can kill

dozens of strains of bacteria. Some

varieties, including manuka honey

from New Zealand and tualang honey

home-brewed beer, Obama

used it instead of sugar in

her tea.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Introduced to the hobby by

his stepfather in 2016,

Leonardo DiCaprio

soon found

beekeeping to be

the ultimate stress

reliever, especially

in the lead-up to

awards season.

He has a few

hives in his Los

Angeles garden.

Scarlett Johansson

The A-list actress

took up beekeeping

in 2009 when

Samuel L Jackson

gave her a beehive

as a wedding present.

Elisabeth Perlman