A group of Omani social media activists have taken an oath to stop consuming sugar in 2017 in a bid to curb the rising cases of diabetes in the Sultanate.

They launched a campaign on January 1st, encouraging people to apply brakes on their insatiable sugar cravings and urging authorities to impose tax on refined sugar products. 

At least 60 people, including medics joined the battle against sweet stuff, according to a survey released by the activists. “Majority of people agree that sugar is a silent killer as 1.5 million deaths are directly caused by diabetes every year” said Bassam, one of the brains behind the campaign.

The disease runs in his family. “My mother, uncle, aunt and three cousins have got diabetes,” he said.

Twitter users in GCC had a similar challenge last Ramadan, only it lasted for one month.

“57 per cent of the participants said they witnessed change in their health and body during the sugar-less month,” Bassam added.

Omani photographer Rashad Al Wahebi also pledged to boycott refined sugar for the entire year.

“I stopped eating cornflakes, refined juices and pastries with added sugar,” Al Wahebi said, explaining that he has started to check the ingredients of all products when he goes shopping.

He is compensating his body with natural sugar found in fresh fruits and vegetables.

Alike Bassam, Al Wahebi’s family also has its share of non-communicable diseases (NCD).

“Europe began discussing to impose tax on unhealthy products that contain sugar as they have seen how it contributes to obesity,” he said, adding that Oman has to follow the same step.

“It is good to see hypermarkets in Oman allocating spots for organic food,” he noted.

News anchor Ahmed Al Kindi showed his support to the social media based drive.

“I was myself overweight four years ago and I started facing difficulties with breathing. That was when I decided to change my diet and lifestyle,” he said, adding that he lost 25 kilograms in a matter of three months only.

“So I decided to support the campaign to encourage more people to reduce their consumption of refined sugar,” he said.

Al Kindi is keen to walk every morning whenever he gets the time.

But studies showed that 37 per cent of Omanis do not exercise enough, which contributes to a rise in NCDs in the country.

Oman records some 5,000 new cases of diabetes each year.

Recently, the Ministry of Health (MoH) kick started a campaign to encourage people to exercise.

During the event, Dr Ahmed Al Busaidi , head of the national committee for combating chronic NCDs said that there are at least 82,000 cases of diabetes in the MoH medical centres.

He mentioned that almost half of Omani inpatients and the ones visiting health care centres suffered from at least one NCD in 2015.

Source:Times Of Oman