Huda Al Tunaiji (Abu Dhabi)
Healthy food products are witnessing a remarkable demand by a large segment of society for their nutritional value that benefits the human body, and their importance in avoiding health problems and various diseases, as well as their role in promoting mental health.
The health authorities and the competent institutions are making unremitting efforts to demonstrate the importance of healthy foods, including: calling on commercial establishments such as groceries, “hypermarkets and supermarkets” to allocate a fixed corner in their facilities to highlight products and foods that contain calories and appropriate proportions of salts and fats; With the aim of inviting consumers to choose it and adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Consumers stressed that healthy foods have become very important, especially in light of the association of unhealthy foods with various diseases and injuries, and they called for the importance of commercial establishments promoting and marketing these healthy foods, as well as the concerned authorities in addition to educating the community, and citizen Saeed Ali said: Healthy eating is for him. It is directly related to human health and safety, especially with the spread of some diseases associated with high calories, eating unhealthy foods, and not following the proper nutrition that health authorities appeal to.
He stated that the aspect of awareness must start from childhood, in order for the child to grow on a healthy lifestyle that he continues to follow until he grows up, and is aware of the importance of this diet, which reduces his exposure to diseases associated with unhealthy foods, including: obesity, diabetes and pressure, and he is able to Choose the right food for him.
Intensive awareness
Alia Al-Shehhi stated that healthy eating requires intensive awareness, especially among adolescents and young adults, who tend to purchase products harmful to health that contain industrial materials, different flavors, etc., in addition to fast food that causes various diseases that begin with them from adolescence and may exacerbate and multiply their impact until After the years have passed.
She emphasized the importance of promoting the awareness aspect, starting from home, and then in educational institutions, in order to establish the importance of healthy choices that preserve their health and reduce their exposure to various diseases that may force some to enter into long-term treatment trips.
Support initiatives
For their part, workers in commercial establishments, including groceries and supermarkets, stressed the importance of strengthening their role in raising awareness and spreading the culture of eating healthy foods by supporting public health initiatives, and allocating sections in commercial establishments to display healthy products to consumers.
Ali Muhammad, a worker in a grocery store, said: Healthy eating is among the priorities of the authorities concerned with the health sector, which calls on all institutions and agencies to support initiatives to preserve the safety of consumers, by creating a corner or a special section that offers healthy food products and options supported by information and data on Calories, to be a healthy and safe option.
He stated that this step will support community members’ tendency to choose healthy foods and products that are presented to them and compare them with others that may contain high calories, and work to know the harms resulting from choosing others that cause diseases and may affect their mood and psychological state.
A remarkable turnout
Timur Selim did not disagree with him in the opinion, who confirmed that healthy eating has become remarkably popular with the various segments of society, as a result of the continuous awareness carried out by the various stakeholders in this aspect, and groceries, “supermarkets” and “hypermarkets” are keen to provide healthy products. Because there is a large segment keen to eat these foods.
He stated that raising awareness has an important aspect in the process of changing the food patterns followed by members of society, particularly the adolescents and young adults, by increasing the indication of the dangers of unhealthy foods and the diseases resulting from them, and strengthening the role of awareness in various educational institutions from the advanced stages, in order to implant the importance of following a healthy lifestyle. To ensure that the community members enjoy complete health.
“Sahy”…a program that promotes awareness of healthy food ingredients
Last year, the Abu Dhabi Center for Public Health launched the “Sahy” program – with the aim of raising awareness of the components of healthy food, promoting nutritious food options, in addition to enabling the surrounding environment that provides healthy food options in all parts of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, encouraging individuals to choose healthy food options, and improving Eating habits, in line with Abu Dhabi’s vision aimed at ensuring a healthy life for community members, to raise community awareness of the importance of the role of nutritional awareness in reducing the risks of diseases resulting from unhealthy eating habits and lifestyles.
Three sub-programs have been identified, namely “Healthy for Healthy Food Menus”, which raises the “Healthy” slogan on food menus to identify healthy meals that are low in fat, sugar and salt, and that are characterized by the availability of fiber at high levels. And a “healthy calorie display” program, which will indicate the number of calories per meal on menus. And a “healthy program for healthy groceries and supermarkets”, which aims to ensure the availability of healthy options and rearrange them in “supermarkets and hypermarkets”, groceries and digital applications, and rearrange them to highlight and attract attention to them.
nutritional value
Hajar Hamid Al-Ali, a nutritionist at the Emirates Foundation for Health Services and a member of the Emirates Dietetic Association, stressed the importance of choosing healthy food to be a healthy lifestyle that nourishes the human body with benefits and beneficial nutritional value that has a major role in providing it with energy, vitality and activity, nourishing the brain and bone health, gaining immunity and maintaining Body health and prevention of cancer and chronic diseases, for example, diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure, weight gain, obesity, and other diseases.
And she called for the importance of avoiding or reducing unhealthy products that lack healthy nutritional value, and that are rich in calories and saturated fats, including: trans and hydrogenated, and are also high in salts and sugars that are harmful to health and other unhealthy components for the body, which mainly contribute to increasing the risk of Infection with diseases and health problems, stressing that a healthy diet contributes greatly to the process of maintaining good health and strengthening the immune system.
sustainable meals
Dr. Issam Samaha, a specialist and expert in psychiatry at the Saudi German Hospitals, said: Individuals should be careful to eat healthy, balanced meals, and that this should be a sustainable lifestyle, while eating some useful elements that in turn affect the formation of neurotransmitters and maintaining their levels in the blood. And the brain.
He stated that recent medical studies have proven that foods play an important role in a person’s mood and the levels of neurotransmitters that affect their stability, and their deficiency leads to depression, tension, anxiety, psychological injuries and various disorders, as well as taste, as eating foods with a delicious taste and a healthy taste It raises the pace of happiness and psychological satisfaction of a person, and stimulates the brain to show high efficiency if the body receives healthy, balanced food that contains beneficial nutrients, including carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that nourish the body and mind, to the fullest.
He pointed out that if there is an unbalanced consumption of these elements, it leads to a disruption in the issue of mental efficiency and the emergence of psychological disorders, as these elements have a fundamental role in changing human feelings and feelings and the stability of his psychological state, and a bad diet that lacks vitamins and others or dependence on meals. It contains only one element, such as sugars, and omission of the other in terms of nutrition has a significant impact on the formation of neurotransmitters, which control the stability and disorder of the mental state, and thus leads to depression and hyperactivity for children, and sometimes to epilepsy from childhood.
He added: adherence to the issue of a healthy diet is beneficial in stabilizing the mental state and mood and keeping away from severe disorders, such as anxiety, acute heart attacks, and others, and therefore balanced meals that contain different food elements and foods rich in omega-3 and nuts must be followed, which lead to stabilization of the psychological state and distance from symptoms. depression, the importance of stopping foods that contain sugar in large quantities, fried foods, and fast food for children, and the trend towards healthy, home-cooked meals that are concerned with mental and physical nutrition, and sustainable balanced meals.
#food. #responsible #mental #health