JEDDAH, 19 March — Obesity has become one of the major health hazards in the Kingdom. Recent studies indicate that some 66 percent of Saudi women are overweight, and 52 percent of the total population is obese. Twenty years ago, a fat Saudi would have been an oddity to the point where he or she was the object of fascination and ridicule. Now fat Saudis are the norm. The cause of all this is the dramatic change in lifestyle brought about by the massive oil boom of the seventies and early eighties. Suddenly, Saudis had money in their pockets and time on their hands — a perfect recipe for gluttony and self-indulgence.
A corresponding hunger for all superficial things American resulted in another boom: the fast-food revolution arrived with a vengeance. Whereas before Saudis sat down to a traditional meal and that was that, after McDonald’s set up shop, junk food ruled supreme. The consequences are easily apparent. The latest generation’s waistlines have expanded much more than their minds. They have embraced the trash of American culture and shown themselves to be victims of the crudest aspects of globalization.
Why does this all matter? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), several serious medical conditions are directly linked to obesity — including type-2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Obesity also causes certain cancers, and obese men are more likely to die from cancer of the colon, rectum, or prostate. Obese women are more at risk from dying of cancer of the gallbladder, breast, uterus, cervix or ovaries.
Sadly, most Saudis remain completely ignorant about these health implications. The issue of obesity is only fleetingly mentioned in the Kingdom’s schoolbooks. There are two periods of physical education each week, but they are taken seriously by neither the students nor the instructors.
The Commission for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice frowns on schoolgirls’ participation in active sports, and in February this year members of the commission stopped an all-female basketball game by announcing that they considered it to be haram (or religiously forbidden).
Sara, 18, is an obese college student. She eats fast food on average six times a week. She eats junk food everyday for lunch, and claims that most of the university cafeteria food she consumes is just as unhealthy: cakes, sandwiches, doughnuts and soft drinks. Her university has a primitive gym, with no assistant.
"Whenever I socialize with my friends, the only places we can go to are restaurants. Even if we stay at home, we end up ordering from Domino’s," she admitted.
She says the reason most girls eat too much is simple: boredom.
Rasheed, 29, works for a bank. He, too, is extremely obese and has been so most of his life. He eats up to four large meals a day, takes an afternoon nap and never exercises. His favorite junk food is Burger King, which he eats several times a week.
He says that eating at home is not a healthy option, since the meals consist of pasta and desserts of all kinds.
However, he claims to use nutra-sweet sugar with his tea (but not in his coffee). When asked if he would change his life-style, he gave a categorical "no".
"Unlike women, I don’t have to look good as long as I have a good job and enough money," he declared.
Basma, 30, is a housewife and a mother of two. She gained a lot of weight after having her first baby. Her children are also overweight, and she believes that this is a sign of good health. She is not worried about the health issues related to obesity, but says she would like to lose weight for vanity reasons — or to keep her husband happy.
"There are a lot of new diet pills in the market, and there’s liposuction. I’d love to look like those slim models on TV — and let’s face it, they look like that because of cosmetic surgery," she claimed.
As with all other social ills, combating obesity has to come in the form of a concerted Kingdomwide campaign, carried out in the home and at school and coordinated by the Ministry of Health. If the problem of obesity is not addressed head-on, the situation can only get worse — to the extent that it could get to the stage where it is thin Saudis who are the objects of curiosity.
