Cooking Ramadan treats with an airfryer could "save you from having a heart attack".
The holiest month in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan involves abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours before breaking fast by sharing a meal with friends and family in the evening. Fasting can reduce the risk of developing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, according to health expert Jim Finley, CEO of My Cleanse Plan.
This is because abstaining from food and drink during the day forces the body to burn fat stored for energy, which can lead to weight loss, and because it has a positive impact on blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
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But the health benefits of Ramadan partly depend on the food eaten to break fast. Samosas are one popular snack eaten when the sun goes down. Often, they're deep or shallow fried in oil, which can fuel heart problems.
The Al-Ghazali Multicultural Centre on Earle Road, Picton, runs health sessions raising awareness of diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure among Muslim women. These promote exercise and changes to diet, including cooking samosas in an oven or air fryer.
Leyla Mashjari, its assistant executive manager, told the ECHO: "We make a lot of samosas during Ramadan and we used to fry them all. But in the past couple of years, we've started to to air fry them. You just rub them with a bit of olive oil and then put them in the air fryer. They're not as crunchy, but you know what? They're still nice and it saves you from having a heart attack."
She added: "It's about not making people change everything all together, because that's just their culture that's what they eat. It's about how you use what you do know to make a little bit of a change to become a bit healthier."
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