BEHIND THE CATCHY commercial name and flashy façade, a genuine idea lies behind Dr. Diet, the new diet center in Dokki. The basic idea is that if people cannot learn how to eat right, give them the tasty food they crave minus the health hazards and extra calories, that is.

Dr. Hossam Bekhit, co-founder and mastermind behind the Dr. Diet concept, is quick to point out that the idea is not an entirely new one. Diet centers supplying ready-made health meals have indeed existed in the past (the Diet Center has since closed down, though).

The difference is that Dr. Diet is a complete system, not just a ‘healthy chef’, says Bekhit.

“A considerable number of places around the Arab world have tried to start businesses based on the HBNS [the Canadian Healthy Balanced Nutrition System], but always end up achieving only about 25 or 50 percent of the idea. What we’re trying to do here is give clients the complete package, from the moment she or he decides to eat healthy, to the moment they reach their targets,” he says.

The program is tailored to suit the needs of every individual, depending on his or her respective needs: weight loss, weight gain, sports nutrition, lifestyle nutrition and health problems (such as diabetes and hypertension) and finally special needs (during pregnancy, for example).

“Before setting up Dr. Diet a little under one year ago, we carried out a survey of 1,700+ persons in Egypt. What we were trying to find out was why people never stick to their diets, why they keep going on and off them. People’s answers varied. Some said diet food doesn’t taste good, others complained that the portions aren’t satisfying, and some said they just disliked being forbidden to eat certain foods. Some people pointed out that diets don’t often suit people’s lifestyles, while others complained about chemical diets and diet pills,” Bekhit says.

What Dr. Diet does, he explains, is to provide solutions that function at the root of every client’s individual problems.

“We try to adopt more than one point of view. The first is the medical point of view; clients are checked by physicians who have completed studies on nutrition. Later, we carry out complete lab tests to find out all we need about cholesterol levels, in addition to a number of other variants such as the levels of iron and calcium in the body. We also check liver and kidney functions,” Bekhit says.

The client then sits with a nutritionist, who tries to find out his eating habits and lifestyle in general. The next step is to have the client’s nutritional map analyzed using a state-of-the-art composition analyzer, which Bekhit claims is the only one of its kind in the Middle East.

“All the client needs to do is take off his or her shoes and socks and step on it. In seconds we are able to gather 8-9 (pieces of) data, most importantly the fat percentage of the body, the water percentage and the relationship of both to muscle mass,” he says.

The series of tests the client undergoes makes it possible for experts at the center to find out what the bodily needs are in terms of number of calories, deficient nutrients, and how to deal with the various health problems from which the client may suffer.

“All of the owners are physicians. We are not an outlet selling pre-packed meals. We tailor diets to suit people’s requirements,” Bekhit emphasizes.

Moving on to the next step, Bekhit further explains. “The most important factor for clients is that they get to follow diets that imppose no deprivation, no restrictions and no complexities. People on this diet do not need to eat at certain times during the day and are not restricted to certain foods. Since we now know the makeup of the clients’ body, we present them with a menu that includes 1300 items from all over the world. You can find Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Lebanese, even Brazilian and Vietnamese dishes on this menu,” he says.

According to Bekhit, clients are invited to choose foods they love and crave, regardless of their health status.

“We tailor the content of the food to suit the demands of the diet,” he says. The trick is to use replacements that allow clients to get the taste they want, minus the cholesterol, calories, sugar or carbohydrates. Importing these replacements, and using special equipment from 17 countries, the chefs at Dr. Diet are able to control the content of the food without impacting with the nutrients it carries, or so they claim.

“Meat, for example has some cholesterol, and rice is rich in carbohydrates. We teach the chefs, through complicated processes, to get rid of the cholesterol, or the high carbohydrate content. The substitutes, techniques and know-how are what constitute the difference between a plate of pasta going to you, and another going to someone with different nutritional needs and a different nutritional map,” he says.

Clients, the doctor explains, are only able to see, or rather taste, the end product, without knowing how much work has gone into the piece of fried chicken they are holding. “I am really proud of the fact that diabetics are allowed to eat desserts everyday if they want to,” he says.

After hiring a number of qualified five-star chefs, the team at Dr. Diet gave them a full year of training so they would be able to use the imported substitutes. The chefs constantly work under the supervision of both a dietitian and physician, Bekhit explains.

“Every week, the client lets us know the menu he or she would like to follow. According to the HBNS, people should have five meals [breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner] per day. The client’s requirements are checked on a screen and we use special software to deal with our system, otherwise it would have been impossible to follow all the different data and diet recommendations,” he says.

Every day at mid-morning, clients receive the day’s lunch, snack and dinner, in addition to the next day’s breakfast and snack. Every week, the clients visit the center, where their body composition is analyzed.

“You constantly monitor how your body is doing. A scale is an instrument of deception. You may go on a scale and discover that you have lost no weight, when in fact you have gained a kilogram in water and lost a kilogram of fat,” Bekhit says. Losing water, the basis of some current diet fads, may lead to weightloss that can be seen on a scale, but according to Bekhit, this is extremely dangerous.

“Our bodies are made up of 60 percent water, which is the medium all the essential body processes are carried out in. Lose the water and the body suffers,” he says.

The center provides a number of flexible programs clients can follow. Surprisingly, the prices are not as exorbitant as would have been expected.

“My aim during the first two years is to build a client base, and to cover my costs. Once the number of clients increases, I can bring the prices down and start making profit. This is why we have resorted to mass production. To keep prices within reach. Our meals cost almost as much as a fast food meal, minus the health hazards,” he claims.

Do clients often come to him with certain diets they want to follow, such as Atkins or South Beach?

“Oh, yes. They do. You would be surprised. We try to explain to them the dangers of cutting out carbohydrates or fats completely. If you do not take fats, the body will not be able to absorb vitamins, and thus the calcium in the food is lost to the body. The HBNS is the only diet system approved by the WHO [World Health Organization]. The body needs all the nutrients that God created, but in moderation. We keep educating our clients and we also encourage them to adopt balanced lifestyles,” Bekhit says. et