Authorities to monitor diet, exercise in schools

Besides keeping an eye on a child’s diet and physical activity hours and offering healthy eating tips, the plan is also to monitor the food being offered in school canteens. Once rolled out, the guidelines are expected to cover 170,000 students in 140 private schools in the emirate.

The guidelines are an attempt to curb the growing epidemic of childhood-obesity in a country where more than 20 per cent of school children aged between 8-12 years are overweight due to poor food choices offered in school canteens, while 33 per cent of children 2-15 years live a sedentary lifestyle.

Results of an ongoing survey on school canteens, currently being carried out by the Dubai Health Authority, will help formulate the guidelines.

“The survey and evaluation policies are in the pipeline,” said Dr Ali Marzooqi, Director of Health and Safety at the authority, without giving further details. The move also comes as a number of schools have been found to be substituting physical activity hours with missed lessons and also allowing ‘junk’ food in canteens.

“Some guidelines have existed for some time now, but schools have been violating them,” said Dr Hamid Yahya Hussain, Incharge of School Health Department at the authority.

“Physical activity is parallel to nutrition and is needed to reduce obesity in the country,” he said, adding the department had deployed the services of a nutritionist to teach children
on eating right.

Regulatory guidelines for canteens are also ready for implementation. Apart from listing the types of food items to be sold, a manual will detail instructions on maintaining a healthy environment in canteens, and tips to improve the knowledge of students and parents about the nutritional values of foods. Workers dealing with students’ meals will be required to keep high standards in safety and hygiene.

Though authorities are deploying corrective methods, a situation analysis of the UAE that brought about the implementation of the National Nutrition Strategy, shows that nutritional awareness among both school and university students is very limited. According to the draft plan of action most schools with the support of the Ministry of Education have failed to develop clear nutrition policies.

Food choices in school canteens were highlighted as part of the root causes of obesity among school children. Studies also showed that 60 per cent of school students aged 5-14 years consumed chips and chocolates daily, while only 28 per cent and 23.2 per cent, respectively reported a daily consumption of vegetables and fruits.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com