• Question: how unhealthy is kebabs?

    Asked by caeyajanexx to Daniel, Derek, Ian on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Derek Mann

      Derek Mann answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      There are healthy and unhealthy kebabs. A nice grilled chicken kebab is healthy providing it is not covered in fatty sauces. But the kebab you get from the big lump of rolled up lamb meat that we traditionally consider as kebab meat is very fatty and salty, so this is not healthy. Lots of fatty and salty food over time can lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and maybe even cancers.

    • Photo: Daniel Mietchen

      Daniel Mietchen answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      In principle, not any more than any other kind of grilled meat. Details would depend on the exact preparation. The most common one here in Germany: Döner Kebap, which usually contains either lamb or chicken and is put into some freshly baked or toasted white bread, together with a souce, raw vegetables, and spices.

      None of these seem to be particularly problematic to me, though the amount of fat (and salt) quite possibly is, and these kinds of white bread generally contain low amounts of the healthy fibres.

      The biggest problem I am aware of with this kind of kebab are the hygienic conditions (which sometimes includes using meat nominally too old to be sold), and by way of the mass media, I am aware of multiple cases where these have led to hospitalization of customers and prosecution of vendors.

      Having said that, the biggest problem I see with fast food is that it is not very varied, and if it replaces regular meals of varied composition, this quickly becomes unhealthy, especially in combination with a lack of exercise.

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