April 7-----www.lunchboxes.ae

Here is a business that is taking its responsibility to society a step further!

We all try hard to send our children off to school each day with a sensible, nutritious and appetizing lunchbox comprising of a diversity of food groups that they will enjoy. However, we all know from experience that this simple mission quickly becomes monotonous, complicated, frustrating and very time-consuming. Every morning we find ourselves asking the same old questions … what should we prepare? will they eat it? is it nutritious enough? will it still be fresh at lunch time? what container should I use? etc etc…

At long last, two Dubai-based organisations have joined forces to ensure that

your school lunchbox worries are now over!

Why should we care?

CHILD OBESITY RATES RISING STEADILY
BY ATEF HANNAFI (Staff Reporter)

13 October 2005 AND THIS IS AN OLD ARTICLE!

The UAE is one of over 40 countries in the world with high rates of obesity and people who are overweight. The UAE shares that dubious record with countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Germany, the USA, UK, Turkey and minnow-states like Micronisia and Naoru.

Dr Abdul Rahaman Obeid, director of the Bahrain-based Arab Centre for Nutrition, said obesity prevalance in the Gulf region ranged between 10 to 15 per cent among children in primary schools, 15 to 30 per cent in students at the intermediate level and 20 to 40 per cent in students at the secondary level. He said the statistics were from a recent report of the World Health Organisation (WHO). "Obesity in married women reached levels as high as 50 to 75 per cent due to recurrent pregnancy," he said.

With obesity, prevention was by far better than treatment. "Therefore effective measures ought to be taken to counter the phenomenon through reduced intake of fast-food rich in fats and soft drinks," said Dr Sinan Hunood, a specialist in diabetes at Al Noor Hospital in Abu Dhabi. "It is a mistake to depend on one type of meal only. One needs between 45 to 65 per cent of starches, 10-35 per cent of proteins, 20-35 per cent of fats in addition to fibres such as lettuce every day."

Dr Hunood said a new phenomenon has become apparent, and that was the spread of adult diabetes among children because of obesity or what was often abbreviated as 'MODY'.

To address the problem, Dr Hunood has recommended a low calorie nutritional regime to be followed, such as intake of vegetables and fruits, avoid TV viewing, particularly for children, in order to lessen the impact of snacks and soft drink commercials on them. "Physical exercise," he said, "is advised. As per the Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height, 18.5–25 is considered healthy weight, while 25-30 is overweight, 30–40 obese and 40-70 overly obese."

Most diabetics, Dr Hunood said, are obese and particularly potbellied.

There are more than one billion obese around the world, a figure expected to rise to 1.5 billion by 2015, and about 17 million persons die of heart diseases and artery blockage every year.