Kaltoum Ben Cheqroun loves to cook Moroccan dishes, but rarely eats her meticulously prepared meals. She only nibbled at her home-made Sunday feast of salads, boiled sweet potatoes, sautéed chicken and fresh bread.
“You know when she wants to taste something [sweet], we always tell her it’s bad, it’s bad, it’s bad,” said her 20 year-old daughter Fatimzzohra. “But, you know, sometimes she wants to. She takes a little bit.”
Ben Cheqroun, 60, has Type 2 diabetes, which prevents her from eating her savory meals. Diabetes affects 8.3 percent of Moroccans and is now endemic in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the International Diabetes Foundation.
