The Dish: Chicken shawarma too much of a good thing
October 14, 2010
Comments on this story
(0)
Megan Ogilvie
HEALTH REPORTER
When Raquel Teixeira goes shopping, she’s looking for shoes and shawarma.
While she shops around for the perfect high heels, her favourite place for the marinated, grilled meat is Villa Madina.
“I always have one when I go shopping with friends,” she says, noting she almost always chooses the chicken shawarma sandwich. “I love the flavour. The seasoned meat and pickles, it tastes nothing like what I normally eat.”
Villa Madina, a food-court staple in Toronto’s shopping malls, cooks up a range of Lebanese cuisine, which, according to the restaurant, “offers the perfect healthy and nourishing alternative to traditional fast food.”
Nourishing, maybe, but calorie-wise, Villa Madina’s chicken shawarma packs more of a punch than a Big Mac and large fries.
The Dish chose to test the chicken shawarma plate, which comes with a pile of chicken, plus rice and lentils, garlic potatoes, coleslaw, garlic paste, hummus, pickled beets, jalapenos, a pita and several generous squirts of sesame sauce.
The friendly man behind the counter at the Sherway Gardens location said the shawarma plate is a lunchtime bestseller. And, while Raquel was one of the first readers to request a reality check on chicken shawarma (in her case the sandwich version), some two dozen other readers wanted to know what they were getting when eating the Mediterranean favourite, in a sandwich or on a plate.
“I’m shocked,” says registered dietitian Zannat Reza. “I love shawarma. I thought this would be about 800 or 900 calories. That’s still pretty high. But 1,307 calories is over the top.” (A Big Mac and large fries has 1,090 calories.)
The 64 grams of fat and 2,369 mg of sodium are also eye-buggingly high.
“This plate maxes out your fat and sodium allowance for the day,” Reza says. “For the average woman, 65 grams of fat is the recommended daily allowance. And for both men and women, the maximum recommended daily sodium intake is 2,300 mg.”
Much of the fat is likely coming from the fried potatoes, while the sodium is lurking in the seasoned chicken and the condiments.
Reza says there is only one way to make this plate a reasonable meal: split it. “That’s still 650 calories, more than enough food to make you full.”
And she suggests picking one of the starches, the pita, the potatoes or the rice, and just one of the condiments. “Pick your favourite sauce. A few squirts here and there of all the choices can really add up.”
Raquel gasped when she heard the nutrition numbers. But she took some comfort in the fact that the sandwich version, which omits the rice and potatoes, is likely a lighter option.
Her next shopping trip will still include a stop for shawarma. “I never would consider it an everyday food. One of these every once in a while is okay.”
VERDICT: Way, way too much of a good thing. You’ve gotta split this one.
Find out how other popular take-out meals stack up:
Chicken quesadilla
Dangerous Dan's burger
Deli chicken
Fit for Life salad
Roasted vegetable Bagellini
Ikea cinnamon bun
Cora's breakfast
Meat-lovers' pizza
Vendor hot dog
Lemon Tart
Veggie Samosas
Tim Hortons Hot Breakfast Sausage Sandwich
Spicy Salmon Sushi Roll
Pad Thai
Veal Parmigiano
Peameal Bacon Breakfast Sandwich
Featured Sponsored Listings