UAE mulls banning fast food facilities near schools
The Abu Dhabi Childhood Obesity Forum comprising of international experts has revealed their latest research findings on how to combat obesity, which is growing rapidly into becoming a world wide epidemic.
A special childhood obesity taskforce has undertaken the ambitious work on reducing average body mass index by 15% whilst simultaneously increasing physical activity along the same percentage by the year 2020.
The rising tide of obesity problems is a grave concern to the forum and the restrictions on fast food restaurants near schools was one option being considered. The advice is based on the success of a similar scheme in the United Kingdom.
Meanwhile, further restrictions on junk food advertisements targeting children and a traffic light system labeling contents of nutritional content of food with red signaling foods high in fat, salt and sugar are also being considered by the authorities.
According to Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohamed Al Hamed, chairman of the Department of Health, Abu Dhabi, “The rate of obesity is expected to rise unless we undertake community and institutional interventions with all relevant parties to put an end to this increase and control this health problem.”
Omniyat Al Hajeri, Director of public Health at the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi remarked, “We are looking at both the UK and USA plan on how this issue is being targeted, so we can take a combination of the best approach.”
“We will be establishing specific key performance indicators so that we can monitor the progress of the plan to reduce childhood obesity. The idea is to have measurable outcomes during this process, and we can learn from our colleagues. We recognize that obesity is a social and a health problem and there needs to be a large intervention in the community to help children,” he added.
UAE is predicted to more than double its health care spending to $47.5 billion by 2040 as obesity levels are rising rapidly and putting people more at risk to non-communicable diseases.
The two-day forum was held at the Sofitel on Abu Dhabi Corniche with more than 300 delegates attending from twelve government agencies and nine private organizations.
