The first annual Arab diet conference, scheduled for Bahrain in September, will spotlight unhealthy living in the modern Arab World, reported the Gulf Daily News on Thursday.
The conference slogan is Diet in the Arabian World: 21st Century Challenges and Hopes.
The event is being organized by the Bahrain Center for Studies and Research (BCSR) and the Arab Diet Society, under the patronage of BCSR board of trustees chairman, Ali Fakhro, said the paper.
“Arab nations face many dietary problems, despite social, economic and health improvements over the last 30 years,” said event coordinator, Abdulrahman Musaiger.
A large change has occurred in the healthy eating habits and the lifestyle in Arabic societies, he said.
Diseases once rare are now common, such as heart and artery diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and cancer, said Musaiger.
He said the rise in such diseases was proving a strain on government budgets, with more and more people needing treatment.
The conference will focus on the identification of dietary problems, their effect and how to combat them, he added.
Visitors to Arab countries these days can witness for themselves the health havoc wreaked by sugar-laden soda pop, greasy munchies and other junk food enthusiastically marketed by Western companies – Albawaba.com
