meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The Food Chain

How to eat well in the cold

The Food Chain

BBC

Arts, Society & Culture, Food

4.7545 Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you eat well in freezing the cold? When you live in some of the coldest places on earth, what you eat, and how much, really matters.

Ruth Alexander hears advice from a scientist, who goes on expeditions to study the body’s reaction to sub-zero temperatures, and talks to people living in the Arctic circle.

What do they cook, and what is their favourite food and drink to keep them warm in the winter? She hears how they find fresh ingredients when all around the ground is frozen – and how freezing temperatures can spark culinary creativity.

Producer: Julia Paul and Lexy O'Connor Sound engineer: Hal Haines

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.

0:05.6

Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about

0:09.4

You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC

0:13.9

and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry.

0:17.9

Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time,

0:23.2

your dead to me is available first

0:24.9

on BBC Sounds, a whole

0:26.8

month earlier than anywhere else, in fact.

0:29.2

So if you can't wait another day

0:30.8

to hear the very latest in history

0:32.6

and loads of other good stuff, then listen

0:34.8

first on BBC Sounds.

0:41.8

Thank you. loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. When you live in one of the coldest places on earth, what you eat mutters.

0:47.6

A lot of soups and a lot of stews, a lot of comfort food, a lot of hearty dishes.

0:54.9

Food and its preparation are very carefully thought through, shaped by generations.

1:01.0

Knowing what foods to eat, when to eat, because it can have long-lasting effect on your health and well-being.

1:08.7

This is the food chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander, and this

1:14.3

week it's all about how to eat well in the cold.

1:17.7

We're going to be hearing about your freezing weather favourites and finding out how people

1:22.8

who live through the bitterest of winters can still find flavour in the most inhospitable landscapes.

1:30.6

So you would take off the top layer of the snow and underneath it would almost look like sugar, the snow.

1:37.7

And we would pack it and we would boil it down and we would use that water for tea.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.