{"id":3019,"date":"2012-04-16T15:53:32","date_gmt":"2012-04-16T07:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muzlimbuzz.sg\/?p=3019"},"modified":"2012-04-16T17:09:02","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T09:09:02","slug":"supersized-boys-and-girls-in-gulf-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/supersized-boys-and-girls-in-gulf-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Supersized Boys and Girls in Gulf States"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Born in an economic boom,\u00a0kids in\u00a0oil-rich Arab Gulf States use their silver spoons to up caloric intact.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blame laziness, love of Western brands, or ample disposable income,\u00a0 but children across the Gulf region are getting fatter. Recent studies tag 20 percent of children in Dubai as overweight, and another 12% as obese. Their Gulf nations\u2019 cousins in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar are just as hefty.<\/p>\n

The core lifestyle of\u00a0the world\u2019s\u00a0urban children, zip code be damned, is numbingly similar. Conditioned living spaces and electronic entertainments encourage an increasingy sedentary lifestyle.\u00a0Children in the Gulf are nothing like their nimble agrarian ancestors. Informal exercise is all but extinct. Internet-based social networking brings the playdate indoors.\u00a0 Besides, public parks and sports fields are hard to find in modern Gulf cities.<\/p>\n

Why sweat outside with friends when you can sit in air-conditioned comfort and Skype and Facebook for hours?\u00a0 Have mom order in a pizza or a bag of\u00a0cheeseburgers<\/a> while you\u2019re at it.\u00a0 You\u2019re living the fatty-Emirati Dream.<\/p>\n

Folks are fast to pin it on \u201cAmerican Eating\u201d \u2013 a phenomenon I first heard of when I moved to Ireland.\u00a0 The Irish and Brits are quick to\u00a0blame their obesity on American fast-food (conveniently ignoring their starch-based home cuisines and epic alcohol consumption).<\/p>\n

In the Middle East, fast-food living arrived about ten years ago. Western franchises are wildly popular; proving the power of advertising.\u00a0 But the food is awful and, outside the USA, it\u2019s not cheap. No denying that my fat homeland\u00a0has exported its Twentieth\u00a0Century fast-food values to the rest of the world.\u00a0 But I object to American\u00a0junk food being the only cause of this tubbydemic.<\/p>\n

Washing down falafel sandwiches and shawarma with sugar-laden tea is as belly-building as\u00a0anything Mayor McCheese has on offer.<\/p>\n

Money\u2019s not an object in most Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Parents here aren\u2019t ideal role models: over 50% of Gulf men and 70% of Gulf women are overweight orobese<\/a>. The adults who are employed have jobs requiring\u00a0miniscule physical exertion. Most GCC countries use oil revenues to provide citizens with reduced rates for the basics like rent and energy, or outright cash payments, leaving families with more money to indulge in convenience.<\/p>\n

Home cooking is history when\u00a0families can eat out easily and affordably several times a week.<\/p>\n

Scientists estimate that global obesity among children will rise substantially over the next few years. Presently, 60% of all children living in North and South America are overweight; 38% of EU kids similarly tip the scales. The numbers of overweight kids in the Middle East and Asia are\u00a0rapidly swelling.<\/p>\n

Environmental conditions are squashing\u00a0poor diet as a predominant root of disease.<\/p>\n

Quick\u00a0urbanization of Arab Gulf states exposes kids to increased air and water pollution. \u00a0New planned housing communities provide inadequate space for safe, informal, outdoor\u00a0play. Ubiquitous passivesmoking<\/a> further\u00a0jeopardizes their health. And everyone is in cars.<\/p>\n

World Heart Federation <\/a>data suggests that over 66% of the Saudi population is physically inactive and about 25% of those adults are smokers. (Organized sports are not an option for the Kingdom\u2019s females.) The same study shows 63% of Kuwaitis are couch potatoes, trailed by 58% of Emiratis and 47% of Lebanese.<\/p>\n

Add it up, and kids in the Gulf region are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than kids in other Arab states, says the World Heart Federation. Overweight kids often become obese adults who\u2019ll face a menu of significant health issues including\u00a0heart disease<\/a>, diabetes and hypertension, and obesity-related cancers, including breast and bowel cancer.<\/p>\n

Statistics from Syria indicate 3,000 new cases of child coronary heart disease arise annually among the country\u2019s 20 million residents. According to the World Heart Federation, only a third receives the necessary treatment. Cairo\u2019s National Heart Institute reports approximately 9,000 new cases of CVD annually in Egypt, half of them requiring surgery.<\/p>\n

Catch that distinction? These stats are for the children.<\/p>\n

At the same time, children on the opposite end of the Arab economic scale face severe malnutrition, ironically another critical risk factor for CVD.\u00a0 Yemen has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition among children in the world. And in Egypt, 6.8% of children under five are malnourished. Political strife in Syria and Palestine disrupts food supplies. Rich or poor, turbulent or peaceful, these modern realities\u00a0are hurting the hearts or our children.<\/p>\n

Help kids from falling into the eating disorder trap?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With western medicine having a few decades\u2019 head-start, there are some practical and proven remedies:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[box_dark]Separate\u00a0your child\u2019s self-worth from their physical appearance.<\/p>\n

Become a\u00a0positive \u2018healthy body image\u2019 role model.<\/p>\n

Balance the constant\u00a0media barrage by talking to your kids.<\/p>\n

Tell\u00a0them what they see in ads is\u00a0not achievable.<\/p>\n

Teach that all food is good food in moderation.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t skip meals.<\/p>\n

Become an active family.<\/p>\n

Eat together, and not on-the-go.<\/p>\n

Maybe even\u00a0cook<\/a> together?<\/p>\n

[\/box_dark]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good health: it\u2019s the game the whole family can play.<\/p>\n

Photo of\u00a0fat Middle Eastern boy<\/a> from Shutterstock<\/em><\/p>\n

Article from: Green Prophet<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in an economic boom,\u00a0kids in\u00a0oil-rich Arab Gulf States use their silver spoons to up caloric intact. Blame laziness, love of Western brands, or ample disposable income,\u00a0 but children across the Gulf region are getting fatter. Recent studies tag 20 percent of children in Dubai as overweight, and another 12% as obese. Their Gulf nations\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,53],"tags":[1474,10,1475,177,1476],"class_list":["post-3019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news","tag-arab-country","tag-featured","tag-gulf-states","tag-health-2","tag-obesity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3019"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3022,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions\/3022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplyislam.sg\/muslimbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}