Mmmmm ... meat. Photograph: Frank
Baron
In its latest searing investigative exposé (ahem), ITV's Tonight with Trevor MacDonald reveals that kebabs are unhealthy. Yes, that's right, eating greasy burned lumps of offal is bad for you, who'd have thought it. As Bint magazine says, the kebab is "a clever marketing ploy to shift animal parts otherwise unlikely to sell as 'food' on their own merits".
In fact, the programme does have a serious point, highlighting how kebabs contain far more 'killer' trans fats, which increase the risk of heart disease, than other takeaways. One kebab tested contained 5.8g of trans fats - six times more than a Big Mac and fries (0.87g) and 20 times more than a portion of sweet and sour chicken with rice (0.27g). Tom Sanders, professor of nutrition at King's College, London, told the programme a doner kebab was probably the worst thing you could eat.
Trans fats, found in foods including biscuits, cakes and takeaways, are the latest target of health campaigners. They are used to alter the texture of foods and extend the shelf life of some products, and have no known nutritional benefit. The US health secretary, Tommy G Thompson, last year advised people not to consume any more than 2g of trans fats per day.
So will Tonight's research prove be the death knell for kebabs? Probably not. As the Chilli Source guide to kebab shops notes, it's something only eaten late at night when you're drunk - and unlikely to be worrying about your intake of trans fats. The National Association of Kebab Shops (no, its acronym doesn't refer to ingredients) will also be glad to know that you can't catch bird flu from their spit-roasted treats.
