Shawarma: assessing the consequences for the body. Shawarma: harm and benefit, composition, cooking tips A popular remedy for preparing shawarma

Why is shawarma harmful?

Tell me, where did the misconception come from that there is a lot of fat in shawarma?

Based on the nutritional value of the products from which it is prepared, the result is a very pleasant figure for people losing weight:

vegetables + pita - less than 5% fat

grilled chicken - 10% fat - dietary meat

properly prepared sauce (mayonnaise, kefir, sour cream) - no more than 30%

They don’t add so much sauce that the dish becomes greasy... Tell me, what miracles happen at the moment of collecting the ingredients on pita bread/lavash, that they turn from harmless to very fatty?

Yes, a certain amount of fat penetrates into the meat at the time of chopping the chopped pieces, but do not forget that the fat leaked out of the same chicken during cooking. a little more may be absorbed than was lost, but this figure is unlikely to be critical

I'll be boring):

a comparison with a glass of vegetable oil, not even too exaggerated, but completely inappropriate.

vegetable oil - 100% fat

200g (glass) of fat - about 1800kcal.

in 100g of shawarma there are 200-260 calories, depending on the amount of sauce/meat, if you only season with mayonnaise, of course, the figure will be higher.

I agree that you need to buy in places where you are sure, somewhere, maybe, they add a glass of oil to the finished dish;) but if we talk about technologically correct preparation, then there is nothing wrong with shawarma, except that abuse can have an effect On the pancreas, after all, eating a lot of fried and spicy foods is not entirely healthy.

Shawarma is harmful because by buying it, you are financing terrorists (not directly, but indirectly).

As for the harm, I only agree about the high calorie content. What I ate was cooked before my eyes. Obviously, the meat is prepared according to all the rules and there are no unnecessary carcinogens. There is also no doubt about the freshness - a maximum of 2 days after the start of frying, the demand is great, they are eaten very quickly. But initially, stale meat is not used, it’s not for nothing that there are refrigerators there (to set up a mobile fast food station, you need to pass an inspection from the SES, but you won’t get through without a refrigerator).

Shawarma has a lot of fat. It’s not for nothing that they say that one shawarma eaten is equivalent to drinking a glass of vegetable oil. If you buy shawarma at a stall, know that it is made from meat that is not the freshest. And, as a rule, they fry in the same oil all day long, which means a huge amount of carcinogens for your body. Try making it at home. It's not that difficult, but it won't be that harmful.

It seems to me that good shawarma (properly prepared) is harmful due to its high calorie content, and that’s all. I have to dine on shawarma very often, but the real Arabic kind. In Italy we call it kebab. I tried it here in Ukraine, in Lvov. What I ate at home, in Lvov it’s scary to call it shawarma, a hot pancake, so to speak, and on top of everything, disgusting in content. In Italy it’s impossible to tear yourself away from shawarma and they make it in your home eyes. So I think the harmfulness also depends on the method of preparation. The quality of the products, the freshness and roasting of the meat - all this affects the quality of what we eat.

Many people consider shawarma to be a product that does not provide health benefits, and regular consumption of fast food can lead to problems with well-being. First of all, the gastrointestinal tract suffers; unhealthy food causes constipation and provokes gastritis.

Fatty, often overcooked, meat is added to shawarma. Sanitary standards for food preparation do not always meet accepted standards. Ketchup and mayonnaise are used, usually the cheapest and of low quality.

Many people, looking for quick and tasty food, buy shawarma. It is perhaps difficult to find a person who does not know what it is. There are a large number of recipes for its preparation. The classic version is as follows: pieces of fried chicken are combined with vegetables and spices and wrapped in pita bread. It very quickly satisfies hunger, gives strength and vigor. But is this food healthy for humans? This article talks about the benefits and harms of shawarma for the body.

There are hardly any people who have not tried oriental cuisine at least once. The list of the most popular of them looks something like this: pilaf, shish kebab, shurpa, khinkali and many others. In this series it is worth adding another very popular dish loved by many people - shawarma (the benefits and harms for humans are discussed in this article).

Interesting Facts:

1. Shawarma appeared more than a thousand years ago. According to some documents, it was first prepared in the city of Damascus.
2. To prepare it, you can use a variety of types of meat: lamb, beef, pork and others. In some countries they even use camel meat. However, chicken is considered the most popular. It is very tasty and less calorie.
3. In Germany, you can buy shawarma not only in street stalls or kiosks. It is also sold in luxury restaurants.
4. In Russia they first began to prepare it in the late eighties. This event took place in Moscow.
5. Shawarma is loved not only in Russia, but also in some European countries.
6. This dish has a huge number of other names. Some of them: shawarma, gyros, kebab and so on.

Compound

In order to find out what is harmful about shawarma, it is necessary to dwell in more detail on the components that are included in it. The composition of classic shawarma will look like this:

1. One of the most important ingredients, without which it is simply impossible to imagine this dish, is pita bread. This is an unsweetened thin flatbread. It is in this that all other ingredients are wrapped. Lavash is only fresh.
2. Chicken. It's best to take fillet.
3. White cabbage.
4. Cucumbers (it is better to take lightly salted ones, not fresh ones).
5. Sunflower oil - one tablespoon.
6. Tomatoes.
7. Lettuce or Chinese cabbage.
8. Mayonnaise and ketchup.
9. Salt and necessary spices. You can add pepper, cardamom, curry, turmeric, garlic, coriander and others.

Here, in principle, is the entire composition of classic shawarma (such products can only cause harm if taken in huge quantities).

Calorie content

Thanks to the composition of classic shawarma, this dish can also be dietary. Only in this case you need to take mayonnaise with a small percentage of fat content. If you do the opposite, the dish will have a very high calorie level. And it’s best to completely avoid mayonnaise. You should do the same with sunflower oil, replacing it with olive oil.

Those who really like shawarma, but are afraid of gaining weight, should prepare it themselves, adding only low-calorie foods. The product offered by street vendors is most often very fatty. Due to the fact that the dish is prepared in large portions, it can reach up to 600 kcal. Why not try homemade shawarma?

Classic recipe

If you want shawarma to bring you only benefits, learn how to cook it yourself. Moreover, it is not at all difficult and will not take up much of your time. Below is a classic recipe for making shawarma. The sequence of actions is as follows:

1. Prepare all the necessary products (the article above says which ones you will need).
2. If you want a more dietary option, you can boil the chicken fillet. When it has cooled, cut it into small pieces. But you can also fry the chicken fillet in a frying pan with olive oil.
3. Remember that it is best to marinate meat. In this case, it will turn out more tender and juicy. For this you will need onions, a small amount of sunflower oil and one teaspoon of mustard.
4. Take cucumbers and tomatoes, cut them into slices.
5. Wash the Chinese cabbage and cut into small strips.
6. Place lavash on the table. You can lightly grease it with mayonnaise and ketchup (you can also do without these products). Place pieces of meat, vegetables, cabbage or lettuce. Add salt and favorite spices if necessary. Wrap the pita bread. The dish is ready!

Shawarma: benefits and harms

How to be? Is it still worth buying this dish or not? You can have different attitudes towards shawarma, but you cannot ignore the fact that it brings not only harm, but also benefit. Among the advantages we can point out the following nuances:

1. Shawarma contains a large amount of protein, which is vital for the human body.
2. It can satisfy your hunger very quickly. In addition, the portions are always very large.
3. I am pleased with the affordability of prices for this food product.
4. You can always add some changes and additions to the shawarma recipe.
5. It has excellent taste properties.

But, unfortunately, the harm of shawarma is also very obvious. Among the negative aspects of constantly eating this dish are the following:

1. Some shawarma traders use cheap, low-quality products.
2. Sometimes the cooking process takes place in unsanitary conditions. Sellers do not bother to observe personal hygiene rules.
3. High fat content, which has an extremely negative effect on the body.
4. Shawarma contains a large number of spices, which are extremely harmful for people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and urolithiasis.
5. Constant consumption of this dish can lead to excess weight.

The effect of shawarma on the health of a nursing mother

Everyone knows perfectly well that it is necessary to take care of their health. If you do not do this, you can cause irreparable harm to your body. A nursing mother is obliged to take doubly care of her health. She must eat right and eat only the highest quality foods. This raises the question: “Is it possible for a nursing mother to buy shawarma?” There are several nuances here:

1. It is better not to buy this dish from street stalls for a nursing mother. After all, it is absolutely unknown what products it is made from.
2. If you decide to order shawarma in oriental restaurants, then first of all ask what ingredients are included in it. And only after that you can try it. But don't get carried away with too much.
3. And finally, as for shawarma, which is prepared at home. Here the answer to the above question will only be positive. Chicken meat with vegetables and salad will be useful not only for the mother, but also for her baby, whom she feeds.

To ensure that the harm from shawarma is minimal, try to adhere to the recommendations listed below:

1. Buy instant food only from trusted sellers.
2. If you definitely want to eat shawarma, it is best to do it in the first half of the day. A large number of calories that you receive will still have time to be consumed.
3. You should not add a large amount of mayonnaise to shawarma. And if you make it yourself, you can completely exclude this ingredient. It can be replaced with low-fat sour cream.
4. Instead of sunflower oil, in which ingredients are usually fried, use olive oil. It contains a large number of useful substances.

Shawarma, shawarma, shawarma, shawarma (doner kebab) is an oriental meat dish, which is a flatbread - pita, filled with specially fried minced meat with the addition of various spices, sauces and a salad of fresh vegetables.

How and what shawarma is made from: preparation and composition of shawarma

Shawarma meat is fried on special equipment - a grill, and this is done using special technology. Meat tenderloin is threaded onto a vertical rotating spit. Flameless gas burners are placed vertically along the spit. When frying meat, thin pieces are cut off using a long knife; these pieces are the basis for the filling in shawarma.

In Russia, there are several dozen recipes for making shawarma. To prepare it, use almost any meat - beef, lamb, pork, turkey or chicken. In Turkey, Libya and other Muslim countries, according to local traditions, only lamb or camel meat is added to shawarma; in Israel, chicken and turkey meat are preferred.

Before putting the meat on a skewer, it is cut into thin slices and marinated in a special sauce. In addition to pita bread, thin pita bread can also be used. As a salad they use: in winter - cabbage and Korean carrots, in summer - salad of cucumbers and tomatoes. Mayonnaise and ketchup are used as sauces in Russian shawarma; in some regions of the country, mayonnaise is replaced with sour cream or kefir with garlic and herbs. A lot of greens are put into this dish - dill, parsley, cilantro, and maybe green onions and garlic. In addition to greens, shawarma contains a variety of seasonings: turmeric, cumin, red and black pepper, since the dish, or rather its original version, should be fiery spicy.

Shawarma in Russia is made not only with meat, but also vegetarian, and also with the addition of various semi-finished meat products - sausages, sausages, etc. Some even manage to cook shawarma with canned fish.

Homemade shawarma. How to cook shawarma at home

Particularly popular among Russian housewives is quick chicken shawarma with pita bread, Korean carrots and raw white cabbage with mayonnaise and ketchup. You can prepare it at home and, as a rule, it is done in a hurry. To begin, the chicken fillet is cut into small pieces and fried in a preheated frying pan. Lavash is smeared with mayonnaise with garlic, fried chicken, Korean carrots, cabbage and greens are laid out on it in layers. On top, all this is again flavored with mayonnaise and garlic, and also, if desired, ketchup. Lavash with filling is wrapped in an “envelope” and heated in a frying pan (without oil). Of course, this recipe is far from the original national Arab dish, but it is also called shawarma.
Shawarma comes in pita bread, in pita bread or on plates. The “plate” version means that the entire contents of the pita bread - meat and vegetable filling - are laid out on a plate and served along with a warmed flatbread or bread.

The benefits and harms of shawarma. When should you eat shawarma?

Why is street shawarma dangerous and harmful?

Modern shawarma belongs to the so-called fast food, that is, fast hot food that is prepared within a maximum of ten minutes. It turns out that there is no particular benefit from it, only harm, but this is if you eat shawarma on the street, somewhere near a metro station or in the market. Such shawarma can cause stomach upset, indigestion, various infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and other “pleasures” that can occur if you decide to have a quick lunch in an unfamiliar place.

Store-bought shawarma contains almost 120 grams of fat, but the daily fat intake for a person should not exceed more than 70-80 grams. With regular consumption of this dish, you can get a significant weight gain. But this is not the only problem that street shawarma can bring. Regular consumption of shawarma increases the risk of acquiring cardiovascular diseases and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Despite the fact that “instant cooking” shawarma is a rather useless and often of little use product, going hungry is even more harmful. With a persistent feeling of hunger, the pancreas suffers, the stomach produces acid, which begins to corrode the mucous membrane, so you still need to eat something. When choosing between hamburgers, hot dogs and street shawarma, it is better to opt for the latter, since it contains a minimum amount of various preservatives and genetically modified products.

Healthy shawarma

Shawarma can be a completely normal, relatively healthy food if it is prepared correctly, from fresh dietary products and in compliance with all sanitary and hygienic standards. For example, meat cooked on the grill is much healthier than deep-fried in hot oil, although the bobbin of meat contains layers of fat, and in its original version they use a large piece of fat tail fat. Chicken, turkey and veal are generally considered dietary meat.

Please note that the shelf life of pita flatbread is twelve hours. When eating shawarma, you can replace high-calorie and unhealthy mayonnaise with kefir or sour cream sauces with garlic, and ketchup, as a rule, is replaced with freshly prepared tomato sauce.

By the way, in principle, mayonnaise and ketchup are not added to real shawarma; this innovation was invented by shawarma traders in Russian markets. By adding more various greens and fresh vegetables, you can make shawarma a very healthy and tasty product, which not only will not add extra calories, but will also strengthen the body’s immunity, replenish it with missing vitamins and microelements, and spices are generally natural antibiotics.

If you wish, you can not add meat to the shawarma, but make it vegetarian by using greens and vegetable salad as a filling or adding a small amount of cheese. After all, fresh food has never harmed a person, and if you do not overeat, then there will be neither obesity, nor the body’s tendency to have a heart attack, nor other cardiovascular diseases.

Lavash, lean meat, fresh vegetables and herbs - this is the real dietary food.

In order not to say that shawarma is harmful to the body, you need to eat it not on the street in a dirty tent, but in special establishments, or prepare this dish yourself at home, and most importantly, do not abuse it. In addition to shawarma, a person’s diet should include a large number of different fruits and vegetables, then periodic consumption of this dish will not harm the body.

Contraindications for eating shawarma

Properly prepared shawarma is healthy, like any other normal hot food, but there are still restrictions on the use of this dish for a number of medical reasons. It is not recommended to eat shawarma for those who have diseases of the gastrointestinal tract or a tendency to obesity. Shawarma intake should be limited to children under three years of age. In addition, the spices and garlic included in the dish limit its use to those who have liver problems, as well as to nursing mothers.

In street stalls, shawarma is prepared for about 10 minutes, which allows it to be classified as fast food. The street food contains about 120 grams of fat, which is almost twice the recommended daily intake. Frequent consumption of street shawarma contributes to significant weight gain and the development of cardiovascular diseases. When buying a dish at the nearest stall, you can get gastrointestinal upset, since cut meats and vegetables, being left in the open air for a long time, can become saturated with smoke or simply go bad.

But shawarma can be not only harmful, but also beneficial for the body. A product that is safe for health can be made in conditions where the entire process of preparing the dish will be under your control. Then shawarma will only bring benefits, saturating the body with essential vitamins and minerals and protecting it from diseases due to the antibacterial properties of spices.

To prepare classic homemade chicken shawarma, you will need 50 grams of chicken fillet, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, dry coriander, paprika, black pepper), salt, half a glass of mayonnaise, 3 medium pickles, 3 small tomatoes, 3-4 lettuce leaves, 3-4 tablespoons of fried potatoes, 3 tablespoons of kefir or natural yogurt, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 5 cloves of garlic, olive oil and thin pita bread.

Cut into thin slices and place the pieces in a deep bowl. Take 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, paprika and sprinkle over the meat. Pour into a bowl 3 tablespoons of kefir or yogurt, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 2 cloves of garlic, grated or crushed.

After 3 hours, when the meat has marinated, finely chop the tomatoes, pickles, lettuce and fried potatoes. Mix light mayonnaise with 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed in a press, add salt and lemon juice to taste. Cut thin pita bread into square pieces large enough to wrap the shawarma filling into.

Heat a frying pan and fry the meat until golden brown, without adding oil, since the chicken is already soaked in the oily sauce. After cooling the fried slices, place them on pita bread and spread mayonnaise on top. Place vegetables and potatoes on a layer of mayonnaise and wrap the pita bread in a roll around the filling. Coat the pita bread with olive oil and fry on both sides on the grill or frying pan until crispy.

For those who watch their diet, homemade dietary shawarma is suitable. To keep the number of calories in a dish to a minimum, instead of meat, add fresh vegetables, herbs and a little cheese to the product. Replace mayonnaise with low-fat yogurt or kefir.

Shawarma has long appeared in fast food outlets in our country and has firmly gained popularity among those who have no time to look for a canteen or do not have time for a full lunch.

Shawarma is a tasty and satisfying dish of oriental cuisine, which is fried chicken or beef with the addition of onions and vegetables, as well as ketchup or mayonnaise, wrapped in pita bread.

But I wonder - is it harmful to eat shawarma? Can it ruin our figure? Or not?

Let's find out the opinion of healthy eating experts.

The harm of shawarma

First, let's look at what shawarma actually consists of.

As mentioned above, this is pita bread in which fried meat with onions and vegetables is wrapped, sprinkled with sauce.

If meat itself, which is a protein food, cannot harm our body and our figure in particular, then pita bread can easily be deposited on our stomach, sides, thighs and buttocks in the form of a layer of subcutaneous fat.

Many people mistakenly believe that lavash made from yeast-free dough is completely harmless to our figure and cannot lead to the deposition of subcutaneous fat. But this is completely wrong.

This is due to the fact that lavash is a product consisting of almost 90% carbohydrates (flour), which, during the process of breakdown in the body, are converted into sugar (glucose).

In addition to flour, shawarma contains salt, which is also not beneficial for the body, causes fluid retention in cells and leads to swelling.

What happens when we eat shawarma?

As a result of a large amount of “fast” carbohydrates entering the body, blood sugar rises sharply, which is a deviation from the norm and causes the release of insulin from the pancreas, which should reduce this level.

As a result, sugar is converted into fat, which is safely deposited in the form of subcutaneous layers. Our sides and belly begin to grow, fat appears on our hips, buttocks, and our figure changes not at all for the better.

And obesity, as is known, contributes to the development of coronary heart disease, disruption of the circulatory system, diabetes and other deadly diseases.

What to do? Is it possible to make shawarma harmless or even healthy?

How to reduce harm from shawarma

Of course, you can reduce the risk of subcutaneous fat by simply replacing some of the ingredients in the shawarma.

To ensure that shawarma does not cause the body reactions described above, you need to replace the pita bread with lettuce.

This will immediately make shawarma much less dangerous for our figure. Despite the fact that green salad leaves are also, in principle, carbohydrates, they are so-called “slow carbohydrates”, which, thanks to the dietary fiber of the salad, are absorbed over a long period of time and do not lead to spikes in blood sugar.

The glycemic index of salad does not exceed 15%, while the glycemic index of pita bread is approximately 70%.

To prevent the lettuce leaves from unfurling, you can tie them on top with green onion feathers.

As a filling, it is best to use boiled chicken breast meat rather than fried meat.

Instead of ketchup and mayonnaise it is best