Rashid Hospital celebrates World Food Day

"This year's World Food Day theme is how countries can tackle the problem of hunger. In the UAE, we are blessed with enough supply of food. However, the problem here is overeating and obesity. Therefore we initiated this program to address two issues, firstly to make people aware of the plight of countries facing food storage and secondly to educate people about healthy eating."

The day-long event at Rashid Hospital consisted of nutritional lectures and stands which provided information about different nutritional products. Bill Campbell, Global Vehicle Leasing Programme, Fleet Manager at United Nations World Food programme, provided his insight and gave a lecture on the topic.

Dr Younis Kazim, Director of Rashid Hospital and other senior members visited the event to extend their support.

Nutritionists from Rashid hospitals addressed queries of visitors and medical staff.

Dr Sufyan Ahmad Othman, Specialist Clinical Dietician at Rashid Hospital said, "This event is particularly important because we need to create more awareness about nutritional issues in the UAE. A high percentage of people in the UAE suffer from many chronic diseases which are related to poor nutrition such as obesity, health problems, high blood fat and diabetes."

"Almost 20 to 25% of our population is diabetic and this figure does not take into account people who are pre-diabetics. Besides, there are people who are still not aware that they have diabetes."

Dr Othman said that on a monthly basis almost 500 overweight people visit the nutritional clinic. "Most of them suffer from chronic diseases as a result of poor nutritional. The biggest problem we see nowadays is not the consumption of fatty-food which is empty calories but it is the overconsumption of starchy foods such as rice and bread."

He said that many patients are found to be eating only rice and meat and do not consume other healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables.

Dr Othman said that the clinic provides free counselling sessions and more information is available at Rashid Hospital.