From metabolic health to hormones, clinicians say the region’s shift towards packaged convenience is showing up first in women’s bodies.
Over the past decade, diets across the Middle East – particularly in the Gulf – have shifted rapidly, moving away from home-cooked meals towards fast and processed food, and packaged convenience. Urbanisation, longer workdays and aggressive marketing of ready-to-eat products have all contributed to making ultra-processed food the default.
The consequences of this change are now apparent in the general health of adults in the region. Across MENA, the increasing consumption of foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt has been linked to a surge in noncommunicable diseases. Research has also associated Western dietary patterns with increased risks of heart diseases and strokes.
Women, clinicians say, are particularly vulnerable to the ill effects of packaged foods. As more women enter the workforce and juggle competing demands, reliance on quick, high-calorie, low-nutrient foods has grown – and so have the inevitable metabolic and hormonal issues.
The Lure of Ready-to-Eat Meals
Lulwa Alarmali, a functional medicine practitioner and founder of Kuwait-based Stem: The Functional Clinic, also points to a concerning trend. Such mass-produced, on-the-go packaged foods so easily available in the GCC, she says, are often marketed as “healthy”.
To meet demand for convenience and “better for you” options, companies increasingly rebrand ultra-processed snacks as being “protein-rich” – including bars, cookies and crisps – which in reality are made with processed oils, skimmed-milk powder, fillers and additives. That this kind of food has takers is, Alarmali says, also in part due to social habits. In the Gulf, she says, weekly gatherings often centre on tasty, nutrient-poor diets.
Dana Malli, a functional dietician at the Seed Health and Wellness Center, Qatar’s first functional medicine clinic, says many women rely on ultra-processed foods without realising how heavily engineered they are. She notes that these products often contain emulsifiers, flavourings and preservatives that aren’t immediately obvious to consumers. “Many fall for this marketing. Ingredients are typically hidden under terms most won’t understand, and they don’t realise the long-term harm they can cause,” she says.
Dr Lemia Shaban, also a functional medicine practitioner and associate professor at Kuwait University, says many women, exhausted from juggling multiple roles, default to quick, easy meals. Over time, these choices lead to the body transmitting early warning signs in the form of fatigue, acne, hormonal fluctuations, mood changes, poor sleep and gradual weight gain.
The Story in Numbers
The rising health problems in which poor food choices appear to be a contributing factor is reflected in numbers. The Middle East has the highest prevalence of diabetes globally, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar among the world’s top 10 and projected to remain so through 2035. The region also has some of the highest rates of overweight people in the world, with Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the top 15 countries for obesity, particularly among women. The percentage exceeds 40% in many countries, including Kuwait, which stands at 43%, Qatar at 46% and nearly half the adult women in Egypt, based on WHO figures.
Along with low-nutrition diets, lack of exercise combined with a rising reliance on ultra-processed foods has contributed to these increasing problems.
That Female Problem
While all adults, men and women, are impacted by such lifestyle choices that implicate long-term health, women clearly seem to have got the shorter end of the stick. And this manifests in the range of problems they might encounter.
Alarmali points to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), metabolic syndrome and thyroid dysfunction as common conditions in the GCC area. What exacerbates the effects of industrial foods, she notes, is the light and noise pollution, which she calls “two major cellular toxins” that disrupt the body’s self-regulating balance.
This in turn affects sleep, raises cortisol, increases blood sugar, among other ill effects. “Women’s hormones are very sensitive to diet, and unstable blood sugar can disrupt ovulation and menstrual cycles,” Shaban tells WIRED Middle East, alluding to the rapid blood sugar spikes and drops caused by industrial foods.
“Many [women] have disrupted biological clocks while managing packed schedules, late nights, artificial light to compensate for limited sun exposure, constant noise and lack of sleep,” she adds. To compound the problem is the higher risk of developing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) because of consuming processed food. And IBS, she notes, is not a possibility sometime in the future; among the Gulf’s female population, it is already here.
What does make matters worse, Shaban remarks, is not paying attention to those warning signals your body sends before the onset of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and certain gynaecological conditions.
“The damage to health is gradual,” Malli states, outlining the effects seen in her mostly female clients: “It often starts with low energy, fatigue and poor sleep, then moves into mood changes, weight gain, gut issues and ultimately hormonal and fertility problems.” The main culprits, she explains, are additives such as xenoestrogens, microplastics and heavy metals. They disrupt the gut microbiome, which in turns plays havoc with metabolic health and hormones, leading to heavy periods, cramps, irregular cycles and reduced fertility.
Ironically, it is the sleep deprivation and shortage of time post childbirth that often push women towards ready-made foods, which comes at the cost of their own health. “Many women feel tired and stressed due to low vitamin and mineral levels, and seek temporary comfort in biscuits, chocolate or crisps, which only lowers their overall nutritional intake,” Malli states.
So what’s the way out of this self-perpetuating cycle where quick meals represent effective time saved – even at the cost of ignoring long-term consequences? Shaban says that returning even partially to traditional Middle Eastern diets would be highly effective. Many of her female clients are “shocked” by improvements in energy, digestion, metabolism, hormones and overall wellbeing with modest cuts in fast food.
After all, as she says, “food in our region has always been about family, tradition – and real meals”.
Originally published in Wired Middle East