Swapping kabsa for kale in Saudi Arabia

A restaurant staff member preparing a diet meal for a customer in Riyadh. Photos: AFP

Long partial to heavy lunchtime platters of meat and rice, Asim al-Shammari has recently turned to lighter fare from a self-described diet restaurant, swayed by Saudi Arabia’s anti-obesity push.

Roughly one in five Saudi adults is obese, according to an in-depth study published by the World Bank last year that described the problem as “alarming”.