How unhealthy is a doner kebab?
WHO, WHAT, WHY? The Magazine answers… The doner is a post-pub favourite – grease and salt being the main food groups craved by the squiffy. Yet it also offers vegetables, protein and carbohydrates. Is the pitta pocket a wise dietary choice? After a few refreshing ales, the populace of this fair isle like to repair to the nearest purveyor of Mediterranean cuisine and partake of a traditional favourite – the doner kebab. The doner – whose inventor Mahmut Aygun has passed away at the ripe old age of 87 – has had much bad press of late, with reports of questionable meat and hygiene practices, and stratospheric salt and fat levels. Yet on the face of it, the doner could seem to be a healthier choice of takeaway, says Simon Langley-Evans, a professor of human nutrition at Nottingham University. “As a meal it brings together lean meat, wholemeal pitta bread, and it brings in vegetables in the form of salad. But doner kebabs tend to come smothered in dressings, which bring in a lot of fat an
