Photos by Salim Matramkot
In a new trend, some restaurants in Doha have started offering healthier items on menus and giving customers a better choice. They promote healthy food options to customers by eliminating unhealthy food items and drinks as well as better cooking methods.
Some restaurants The Peninsula spoke to, said that they took the initiative voluntarily but have received a overwhelming reception from the customers.
“As part of our commitment to serve naturally healthy food than artificially added ones to our guests, we have included verities of natural healthy drinks in the menu as alternatives for carbonated soft drinks. We made this decision to give guests a healthy choice and it is well received,” said Vinodan Mangottil, General Manager, Indian Coffee House.
“We have not limited our healthy offerings to drinks, but we adopt it in cooking methods as well. Our experienced chefs know the techniques how to reduce oil consumption in fried items, we have limited using seasoning products and include healthy ingredients,” said Mangottil.
The restaurant with the motto ‘Eat Healthy, Live Healthy,’ has stopped selling carbonated sweetened soft drinks since Qatar National Sport day 2017. Many have appreciated the initiative on social media by saying “good initiative”, “appreciate your efforts in promoting healthy life”, and “highly commendable initiative.”
Tuan Hajireen Hassim, a long-time resident in Qatar, said, “I have health problems and mostly stick to homemade food, but we would like to go dining at restaurants with the family. It’s good that some restaurants are taking steps to serve healthy food not just by modifying their menus but also by adopting healthy cooking methods.”
Panini café is another casual fine dining restaurant which includes a high percentage of healthy and organic products.
“Healthy food make guests feel better than unhealthy food, and we notice them being more satisfied with a healthy menu than with regular ones,” said Sanjeewa Wijetunga, Restaurant Manager, Panini Café.
The restaurant takes an extra step to bring in items such as Eleusine coracana, or finger millet, a cereal type as well as to use fresh vegetables and fruits instead of the preserved ones.
“We bring vegetables grown in our own farms in Sri Lanka without any chemicals. We completely avoid using processed fruits and vegetables,” said Wijetunga.
“At present we are taking steps to stop using any artificial food preservation items, to minimise the use of sodium based products and to bake some of the pastry items instead of frying. However even now we fry items in a proper level of temperature to reduce the bad effects of oil,” he added.
Also health authorities have taken several steps to create awareness about the importance of adopting food habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce the risk of developing diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
Dr Sheikha Al Anoud bint Mohammed Al Thani , Director of Health Promotion and Non-Communicable Diseases at Ministry of Public Health, speaking at a recent press conference said, “We can’t force or put a rule asking people to sell only healthy food. It’s the same that we can’t force people to buy only healthy food, but we create awareness about the importance of having such food. Now there is considerable awareness among people and we see them making the correct choices. Its remarkable if restaurants voluntarily take steps to make their food healthy.”
