The revolution has begun – over one million families have already switched to a healthy way of cooking. Tefal the number one name in small domestic equipments, operating in over 120 countries worldwide announced the sale of over one million units of their revolutionary new product Tefal Actifry which uses one teaspoon of oil to cook 1 KG of French fries.
“French fries cooked using Tefal’s Actifry contain fat content as low as 3% i.e. less than a quarter of the fat content in regular fries, that is lower than any deep fat fryer, making Actifry the healthiest way to cook & enjoy great tasting fries,” stated Shonila Misra, Product Manager MEA, Indian Subcontinent & French Overseas Territories.
Currently, families in the GCC either use a traditional pan for frying food or a deep fat fryer. Chips and fried food are popular among the dietary habits of both Arab and expat families in the region.
Fried foods are among one of the major causes of cardio vascular diseases in the Gulf. Currently, 15.3 million people are estimated to die from cardiovascular diseases every year; that figure represents one-third of all global deaths from all causes. Incidence of death due to cardiovascular diseases in the Gulf is as high as 25% making it the number one cause of death followed by diabetes, obesity and road accidents.
More than 70 percent of women and 50 percent of men living in the oil-rich Gulf Arab states are reported to be overweight or obese, according to an industry report released at a medical seminar recently. Obesity occurs much more often in women in Gulf states where it affects 50 to 70 percent of married women and 30 to 50 percent of married men according to the report.
Five to ten percent of pre-school children are affected by obesity while 10 to 15 percent of primary school children and higher from 20 to 40 percent for secondary school children suffer from obesity. These obesity rates are much higher than in developed countries and have been termed the Illness of the Century by medical experts in the region.
With these astounding statistics, it is imperative that the consumers make the switch to healthier ways of cooking. It is true, that it is difficult to give up good tasting foods, but the importance of cooking healthy cannot be ignored. Tefal Actifry is a versatile product that can be used to cook a variety of fried foods and can lower the fat content significantly while retaining the same delicious taste of fried food. Actifry is well adapted for local recipes as well.
In the case of Gulf women, obesity was in part due to repeated pregnancies without a reasonable interval of time. However, in the case of men in general, obesity is undoubtedly due to poor nutritional habits and lack of exercise by Gulf residents.
According to WHO, Saudi Arabia has the world's third highest rate of obesity with a huge 35.6% of its population categorised as overweight, the UAE comes fourth with 33.7%, followed in sixth place by Bahrain (28.9%) and Kuwait in seventh place (28.8%).
The UAE (19.5%) pips Saudi Arabia (16.7%) into second place in the list of countries with the highest rates of diabetes, with Bahrain in third (15.2%), Kuwait in fourth (14.4%) and Oman in fifth (13.1%), according to WHO.
