Press Review of the week
28th February 2011
The International Journal of Obesity published on February 15, 2011 a new survey on obesity; the New York Times said about it that calorie-posting, imposed by the New York city to fight against obesity, in fast-food restaurants has little influence on the foods teenagers order. “More than half of the teenagers noticed the calorie postings. A quarter of the teenagers said they were weight-conscious, and 9 percent of the teenagers said the labeling made them buy lower-calorie foods,” -28 percent among adult people.
Teenagers eat on average about 725 calories, underestimating the number of calories they were consuming, some by up to 466 calories.
Obesity is a new black plague in Arab world: 70 percent of women in the UAE are obese or overweight. In Saudi Arabia, women struggle to do physical activities, even now, still prohibited for them, owing to Arabnews on February 22.
Bad habits, sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activity are the main risk factors and contributory causes of obesity. Emirates 24/7 reminds us that obesity kills an average 20,000 people every year in Saudi Arabia which spends in excess of $5.1 billion a year on treatment of diseases related to fatness.
Your body has a right over you
On 21st February began the 22d Saudi Heart Association annual conference in Saudi Arabia, Professeur Hani Najm, President of this association, said that a 54 percent of Saudis have high cholesterol, one in four has diabetes, more than one in four has hypertension and half are obese. All these comorbidity factors are making obesity a public health priority.
Bad eating habits contribute to rise obesity risk: e.g. excessive consumption of red meat (especially during festive meals) is one of them. United Kingdom recommends, through the NHS Website of Department of Health, to reduce red meat consumption to decrease cancer risk, said the Washington Times. But is information enough?
