The obesity epidemic in the UAE is taking a worse toll on our youth than ever before and is only rising. According to recent reports, close to 20 per cent of our children aged 5 to 10 years are either overweight or obese, whilst 40 per cent of children aged 11 to 18 years are overweight or obese*. Overall, this means that a shocking one third of all our children in the UAE are either currently overweight or obese!
Clearly there is no one factor that will explain the reasons for child obesity, however there appears to be a variety of elements at play.
– UAE Economic Growth: The UAE has witnessed an incredible period of economic growth that brought with it a tremendous abundance of food variety.
– Convenience Food Industry: This combined with easy access in terms of transportation and the convenience of delivery of cheap fast food items from restaurants or drive-through food outlets has contributed to a lifestyle of over indulgence and poor nutrional choices.
– Globalisation: Factor in globalisation of food markets and Western diet franchises and along with their accessibility and popularity, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to assume the majority are upsizing their meal portions.
– UAE Lifestyle: Many of the above mentioned factors can be negated to some extent with exercise. In the UAE many excuses can be whipped up as to why exercise is not common place. A quarter of the year is fairly hot so this leaves little room for outdoor activities beyond swimming.
– Technology Advances: To make matters worse the world of electronic games are so popular we are not able to effectively compete.
Whilst the statistics are disturbing, what most parents don’t think about are the avalanche of severe health problems that will plague overweight children and teens into their adult life. These never before seen conditions include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol levels. Sadly, research by the CDC shows that nearly 60 per cent of overweight children had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease and 25 per cent of them had two or more.
If we are going to win the fight against ‘globesity’, especially amongst our youth, a collaborative effort in awareness and education is required amongst parents, schools, health practitioners and the government.
As the UAE’s leading training and coaching company on everything relating to the ‘Mind, Body and Voice’, Inspired Results has spent several years developing a special program and book titled Eat-ology aimed to empower children, adolescents and their parents to find their own unique eating methodology and attain a healthy ‘food is for fuel’ attitude to life.
Both the workshop program and book seeks to give them the necessary tools to transform the way they eat, remove their potbelly and revolutionise the way they perceive food.
I am constantly telling each of our Eat-ology clients “dieting simply does not work in the long run. It’s unsustainable for children to eat in ways that is incompatible with their unique tastes, preferences and timings”. With our Eat-ology program we help children and their parents uncover and piece together the only sustainable diet out there for kids, their OWN unique diet. By doing so they will be on their way to getting to their ideal weight, staying there for life while avoiding a myriad of common digestive and future health issues.
In addition Eat-ology offers a system for finding their ideal fuel, for outsmarting marketers and media and touches on the importance of mindful eating, breaking food myths, and engaging in exercise in the journey of fighting obesity.