Health Minister Khalid Al-Falih’s decision to ban the sale of soft drinks, candies and all kinds of junk food in hospitals across the Kingdom has won praise from the GCC Health Ministers Council.
The Saudi minister’s decision is commendable and will help in promoting a culture of preventing diseases and their causes as well as reducing risks in society, Dr. Tawfiq bin Ahmad Khojah, director-general of the executive board of the council, said in a letter to the Health Ministry.
He also hailed the ministry’s efforts to activate risk reduction factors and interventions prescribed by the World Health Organization on control of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, obesity, blood pressure, high blood lipids and cardiovascular diseases.
The official said the issue was recently discussed during the latest meeting of the GCC Nutrition Committee in Qatar. The meeting took up the obesity rates in adults, adolescents and children in the Gulf states. It covered the GCC’s nutrition plan to control overweight in the area. The plan suggested a number of goals including the development of a monitoring framework for children, adolescents, adults and the elderly nutrition according to the needs of each state.
It emphasized on adopting standardized measurements such as height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference to activate monitoring and data collection and to assess the GCC-tailored changes which are needed to meet the regional requirements. In addition, it suggested the development of a food consumption survey program for the GCC states in order to provide valuable data for nutrition intervention programs, and to unify efforts and goals set for improving the nutritional health in the Gulf area.
Moreover, it included nutrition education programs on obesity and overweight problems in children and adolescents via TV shows and training health educators and intellectuals on delivering health nutrition messages and managing anti-obesity campaigns. The suggested campaigns will aim at reducing consumption of bad fats and sugar, improving nutritional choices and monitoring the BMI: (Beware of Obesity) and (Keep Obesity Away).
The GCC health official cited scientific studies warning that soft drinks are responsible for doubling the number of obesity cases among different age groups, particularly children and adolescents, over the last decade. Consumption of soft drinks by children in the United States jumped from 375 ml to 570 ml during this period, he said.
Source :Arab News