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MEASURING UP: Traineee dietician Filza Bhatti, centre, has been helping Rubina Jabbar, left, and her mother, Shaheen, get their weight and cuisine under control. Picture: Colin Mearns

When Filza Bhatti began studying to be a dietician three years ago, she didn't imagine that one of her first tasks would be trying to persuade her own Pakistani community in Scotland to cut back on their favourite calorie-laden foods.

But dishes that were the mainstay of the Pakistani diet - such as rich lamb curries, naan bread and deep-fried samosas and pakoras - were piling on the pounds.

It's no surprise that these dishes have also become firm favourites in the wider population because of their great taste, yet Bhatti says even the humble meat-filled samosa has a staggering 20g of fat. And just three or four of these tiny morsels will nudge your daily recommended intake of fat to the limit.

As part of a close-knit Pakistani community in Stirlingshire, many of whom have lived there for more than 30 years, Bhatti knew that, while the Asian diet may have been ideal back in Pakistan, it was creating a major health risk here.

"We use a lot of oil in our cooking, and salt. But there were other issues as well, such as portion size being too big. We tend to put a whole dish in the middle of the table when we have a meal, with everyone helping themselves, so it's difficult to tell how much you're eating. And we eat a lot of meat. In Pakistan, people eat a lot more vegetables than we do and that's probably a big difference between us," she says.

More than just a fat-fighting issue, the problem with the Asian diet is more serious, as this community is 50% more likely to develop heart disease than the general population. Also, around 20% of Asians in the UK aged 40 to 69 have Type 2 diabetes, compared with 3% in the wider population. Obesity is one of the main contributing factors in diabetes.

Bhatti, 22, is in her last year at Glasgow Caledonian University, studying for a degree in human nutrition and dietetics. She says the generation of Pakistanis like herself, born in Scotland, tend not to eat Asian food every day but favour a more international diet, and struggle less with their weight.

While she had been aware of the community's problem for some time, it was a chance meeting with a manager from NHS Forth Valley that gave rise to the idea of starting a weight-management programme especially for Asians, and Bhatti volunteered her services as a way of gaining practical experience and also to help her own community.

During an open-day event at the Stirling Islamic Centre, Bhatti met Helena Buckley, quality manager at NHS Forth Valley, who had been involved with community health needs in the region and was there to talk about some of these issues. Buckley had spoken with a group of women that day who said they were concerned about their weight and related health issues, and she decided to enlist Bhatti's help in devising the innovative weight programme. Bhatti created an eight-week programme for Asian women, with realistic food choices based on their own cuisine.

The first course has just finished and was so successful that another is planned for early this year.

"The women knew what they had to do to eat more healthily but they just needed the support and motivation to keep doing it and they needed more exercise. I wasn't looking for dramatic weight-loss.

I just wanted to advise them so they can do it for themselves," says Bhatti.

One of the first people to sign up to the programme was Bhatti's mother, Shaheen. Shaheen came to Britain with her husband, with whom she runs a successful tailoring business in Stirling, over 30 years ago.

Shaheen says she was anxious to reduce her weight since heart disease runs in her family.

"My parents both had heart problems, and my mother and sister both had a heart bypass. I am overweight and have a high risk of having heart disease," she says. "I've started to cut down on oil and salt. With things like naan bread and chapattis, it's what you have with them that makes them fattening."

Mother-of-three Rubina Jabbar also joined up for the course because she was keen to lose weight and increase her fitness as she also had some family history of heart disease.

Married to a consultant in general surgery at Stirling Royal Infirmary, Jabbar came to Britain in the 1980s and agrees there are aspects of diet and lifestyle the community needs to keep a tight rein on.

"Traditionally we have used ghee (clarified butter) in our cooking but even in Pakistan people have now stopped using it and are using vegetable oil instead.

That's the way my mother used to cook, but I've changed and I use cooking oil, but I also try not to use too much.

"Our community eats a lot of meat, especially lamb. We blame our food for making us unhealthy but it's not that. Our food is very healthy and spices such as garlic, ginger and chilli are good for you, but it's what we add to the food that makes it unhealthy.

We tend to go too much for taste, adding oil and salt. We do like our food a lot, that's the problem."

Both women also agreed that the other issue with their diet was cultural and, in a close-knit, sociable community, food played an important role at many get-togethers. During the religious observance of Ramadan, which involves fasting from sunrise to sunset for 30 days, families will gather together in the evening to eat a meal called the iftar that can sometimes be quite elaborate, to make up for the day of abstinence.

But Shaheen says that, despite the feasting, just being able to go on a long fast is a positive thing. "If we can discipline ourselves during Ramadan when we are not even allowed to drink water during our fast, then we can cut down on things for the rest of the year that make our food unhealthy.

Anyway, in Islam we believe that we shouldn't over eat."

Dr Ismael Miller, who works with the Muslim community in Stirlingshire, says the Asian diet often becomes more unhealthy when people leave their homelands. "Intrinsically, the diet is good but it changes when people come here. It becomes richer and more calorie-laden, with more saturated fats.

"People from India and Pakistan have a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes in their own countries but it increases when they come here, partly because of the diet, but there may also be a genetic predisposition for people from this community to get these problems and there may be some environmental factors that switch these genes on when they come to the UK."

Bhatti agrees, saying: "There is a lot of stress here for the Asian community and we don't always take care of ourselves."

However, she believes that small changes in the way Asian food is cooked (which is just as relevant for other Scots with a passion for Asian food) can offer big health benefits. She recommends cutting down on oil, salt and sugar, and using wholemeal flour for chapattis and naan bread.

By MARJORY McGINN

10:36am Tuesday 19th February 2008

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