Saudi Arabia is not only one of the world’s fastest growing economies. Unfortunately it appears that we also have some of the fastest-growing waist lines. Research has demonstrated that as the standard of living has risen, people in the Kingdom have been eating greater quantities of food and moreover, food of the wrong kind.
The traditional sources of nourishment were organic products such as dates, wheat and vegetables. While these can still form a part of people’s diets, they are no longer the healthy staple that our parents and grandparents knew.
Part of the problem is that they have been replaced with American-style fast food, including burgers, fries and sugary drinks. All are fine in their place, but if eaten to excess, as they are in the US, the result is obesity and all the life-style diseases it brings with it, including diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.
The trouble is compounded by the reality that far too many people take far too little exercise. The Deputy Health Minister (Planning and Development) Dr. Muhammed Khushaim, deplored this situation when he told a seminar this week, that only around a quarter of Saudis engage in any sort of sport at all. This compares, he said, with an average of seventy percent in Western countries taking some sort of regular exercise, even if not actively participating in organized sports.
The minister has warned that whereas 20 years ago, the challenge for medical professionals here, was still infectious diseases, today they are faced with ever more patients presenting with chronic diseases, most particularly diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and clinical obesity, which means a body mass index greater than 25. Based on 2007 statistics, 35 percent of Saudis are obese and this figure is only likely to have increased in the last six years.
The ministry is launching a public awareness campaign to try to encourage more people to take up some form of sport or exercise. In truth however, most people who are overweight are well aware of their problem. Clothes start to fit tightly. Bending over to do up shoes becomes a bit of an effort. Indeed sometimes, even walking for any reasonable distance induces perspiration and breathlessness.
The saddest sight is undoubtedly young boys who already carry around rolls of fat and who waddle rather than walk. The medical future for them is surely bleak. If they are not already diabetic, they very probably will be and the strain on their hearts as they move around kilos of extra body weight will, as like or not, tell on them in the end.
Now it is true that some people are genetically on the large side. Such individuals will probably lead long, happy and healthy lives. However, the reality is that the majority of us are kidding ourselves, if we pretend that we are just like them. We are not. If we value our health, two things need to happen. We need to cut down on fast food, or even give it up altogether; eat more wholesome natural foodstuffs and in less quantity. The toughest thing is passing up on that extra cookie or second fizzy drink. But if we value our health, then we need to show that sort of self-discipline, maybe indulging ourselves very occasionally at Eid feasts and other family celebrations.
Rather than a campaign to make the public aware of what they almost certainly already know, the answer is surely to start in schools, encouraging young people to eat sensibly, serving them healthy rather than fast food at mealtimes and making some sort of sporting activity a compulsory part of the curriculum. Promoting inter-school competitions in sports such as football and volleyball would encourage young people to train and play for the honor of their academy. At the very least, every school could have a health club such as those planned for 200 girls’ schools by the Ministry of Education. And these facilities should be used by pupils for gym lessons as part of their school day.
The battle against unhealthy living won’t work for everyone of course, any more than anti-obesity campaigns in Europe and North America are reaching to all levels of society. But increasingly in these parts of the world, people who are seriously overweight are being regarded with the same sort of disapproval as smokers.
Obese people may not damage the health of others in the same way as smokers, but they do make considerable calls on their health services, taking up beds and medical time that could be devoted to people whose conditions are not of their own making.
Editorial: A healthier way of living
