From soft, buttery cheddar to crumbly caerphilly, here’s our pick of cheeses that will benefit you, the animal and the environment

The fruity tang of a strong cheddar; the creamy ooze of a brie; the honk of a blue so ripe it threatens to walk off the board. To cheese lovers, these are as much a part of this season’s sensory joys as mince pies and a Christmas tree glowing with lights.

Yet they can come at an environmental price. Sustainability is frustratingly complicated for those of us who want to lay on a cheeseboard without guilt this Christmas. Most of us now know about livestock emissions, global deforestation in the name of producing feed, and the pollution – via agricultural runoff – of local waterways. A few years ago, we were told being sustainable meant avoiding dairy completely; then we learned about the benefits ruminants can bring to the soil when farmed regeneratively .

The cheddar:
Hafod
_{From £7.75 at the Courtyard Dairy}

The wensleydale:
Stonebeck
_{From £17 at Paxton & Whitfield}

The ‘camembert’:
Corscombe
_{£15.15 at Neal’s Yard Dairy}

The goat’s:
Sinodun Hill and Polmarkyn Dairy
_{£14.95 at Paxton & Whitfield
£6.20 at Hanson Fine Foods}

The ‘manchego’ :
Corra Linn
_{From £10.65 at the Courtyard Dairy}

The blue:
Lanark blue
_{£9.95 at Pong Cheese}

The caerphilly:
Duckett’s caerphilly
_{£5.25 at the Newt}

The reblochon:
Rollright
_{£10.95 at the Newt}

Simple but impressive, these laidback versions of classic desserts provide the final flourish to dinner

Today’s silky dessert takes the idea of a classic English custard tart and turns it into a simple but impressive plated dessert. The custard is pretty traditional, made with vanilla and plenty of grated nutmeg, but the pastry is replaced with a hazelnut streusel, and the two are then tied together by boozy, rum-soaked raisins. Meanwhile, no Christmas is complete, at least for my family, without an old-school sherry trifle, and this is my simplified version for when I want those flavours but in a more laid-back style.

Join Grace for a twinkly helping of festive Comfort Eating, where she is joined by Matt Goss, one third of Bros. One of the biggest boy bands of the 20th century, it was a tabloid sensation when the band split. Since then, Matt has broken the US and holds the record as the longest-running British resident artist in Las Vegas. Grace and Matt discuss the Christmases of his childhood, headlining a sell-out Wembley aged 17, and what you do when you get a call from Reggie Kray asking for a chat.

If you liked this episode then have a listen to our other Christmas episode with Craig David , Gregory Porter , and Michael Ball and Alfie Boe .

New episodes of Comfort Eating with Grace Dent will be released every Tuesday

Misinformation about health, nutrition and food are rampant on social media. For people prone to eating disorders, this can lead down a dangerous path

Weeks after giving birth to my son in early 2022, I found a lump in my breast. After an ultrasound, it was deemed suspicious and required a biopsy. The two-week wait for results was terrifying, not least because I have a family history of breast cancer. The chronic eczema I have always suffered from flared up, thanks to stress, sleep deprivation and the upheaval of early parenthood.

The lump turned out to be benign, but the experience brought my mortality into sharp relief and my anxiety levels to new highs. After treating my skin with round after round of prescription medication, to little avail, I became committed to “naturally” curing the eczema, staving off disease and perfecting my already cautious diet.

With packaging as delicious as the contents, these sweet and savoury stocking fillers cater to all tastes

Food gifts are perfect for anyone who doesn’t want more “stuff”. From brownies to scoff in one sitting to store cupboard upgrades, these gifts will brighten the dark winter days.

Who doesn’t need a delivery of luxury biscuits or gourmet olive oil they’d hesitate to drop into their regular grocery basket? From Michelin-starred chutney to croissant butter, they’ll thank you for the gift that will keep on giving throughout January.

A bread-and-butter pudding made with leftover Christmas pud and a boozy apple topped with crumble, ice-cream and a thick whisky caramel

The perennial problem with traditional Christmas pudding is that most sensible people are already stuffed to the gills with smoked salmon, turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts and all the rest by the time dessert comes around. And in those circumstances – which somehow recur every year without fail (no, I have no idea how, either!) – the last thing we want to be faced with is heavy stodge for afters. So here are two ideas that are a little lighter than that daunting black orb of flaming pudding, but no less celebratory and festive for it.

By rejecting traditional grazing and maintaining trees and wildlife habitats alongside pasture, farmers are turning their land carbon positive. But will it be enough?

On a humid dawn in Colombia ’s livestock capital, Michael Robbin rides across one of his farm’s pastures, where tall green stalks brush his horse’s belly. When he bought the land outside Montería in 2020 he divided it into 125 smaller fields. His neighbours called him crazy at first.

“That’s not how it’s done in this area,” he acknowledges. “Everybody was looking at me like I was from outer space.”

A bejewelled and honey-basted fruit cake that makes a lovely Christmas centrepiece and celebrates the life of late writer Gillian Riley

The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by the food historian Gillian Riley is never far from and very often on my desk. It was on my desk and open, as was her book Food in Art , when I received a message that Gillian had passed away in her sleep. She was 90, and had been working on her next book .

I knew Gillian only a little, which felt like a great amount. It was thanks to Russell Norman that we first began corresponding, about lard, in 2015. As well as possessing enormous knowledge and a great intellect, she was also generous, funny and curious, and it was in Russell’s Polpetto in London that we first met for lunch. One of the last times I saw her was with Owen Barrett at his former deli, Monty’s , and the three of us ate salt beef sandwiches while chatting about sausages.

The general population needs far less protein than is often made out by influencers. Don’t miss out on other important aspects of your diet

This is a myth, says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist from Loughborough University. She says that while the protein macromolecules – which are most abundant in meat, dairy and some legumes – are an important nutrient for repairing and maintaining muscle, the general population needs far less than is often made out by fitness influencers pushing high-protein recipes.

For the average person, the recommended daily allowance is 0.75g of protein for every kg of body weight. For a 65kg (143lb) person that might mean eating a chicken breast, 200g (7oz) of Greek yoghurt and an egg (57g of protein). That figure rises slightly if you work out. “The average couch-to-5K runner might need 1.2g per kg,” she says. If you are trying to build muscle then that could rise to 1.8-2.0g per kg.