(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Supreme Council of Health (SCH) yesterday launched guidelines for healthy eating, in a bid to reduce the risk factors of non-communicable diseases which cause a considerable percentage of deaths in the country.
'The Qatar Dietary Guidelines' offers insights and guidance for healthy eating. It includes eight recommendations that discuss different tips for achieving an overall healthy lifestyle.
Qatar is first in the region to introduce a national dietary guideline and it's prepared by the Health Promotion and Non-communicable Diseases/Public Health Department at SCH.
Adopting behaviours mentioned in the Qatar Dietary Guidelines will help to reduce risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, said Dr Salih bin Ali Al Marri, Assistant Secretary General of Medical Affairs, SCH.
"These are simply dietary guidelines about what we should eat to reduce cholesterol, blood sugar, weight and improve psychical activity. This will be like a guidance which will be referred to people," he said.
"We work with public, private sectors, academics, clinical personnel and people from the food industry to communicate the message of healthy eating among people," Dr Al Marri added.
Sheikh Dr Mohammad bin Hamad bin Al Thani, Director of Public Health, SCH, and Dr Tawiq bin Ahmed Khoja, Director General, Executive board, Health Ministers' Council for GCC states, were present with several other officials at a ceremony held to launch the Qatar Dietary Guidelines at Marsa Malaz Kempinski at The Pearl.
The guidelines includes eating a variety of healthy food, maintaining a healthy weight, doing physical activities, drinking water, getting vitamin D from the sun, adopting a safe and clean food preparation methods and breast feeding.
The guidelines were launched in line with the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Action Plan (2011-2016), part of the National Health Strategy, which aims to reduce morbidity and mortality attributable to chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Qatar.
Non-communicable diseases accounted for 34.4 percent of the total deaths recorded for the year 2013.
The rate of people with a BMI of 30 or more is 41 percent. This is based on a recent Stepwise Survey that was sponsored by the Supreme Council of Health, with help from the WHO. According to the survey, 16.7 percent of adults in Qatar suffer from diabetes, and about 33 percent of them do not know that they suffer from this condition.
Some of the other worrisome findings concerning lifestyle disease in Qatar: 16.4 percent of adults are smokers, 91 percent eat less than five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, 46 percent have a low level of physical activity, 70 percent are overweight, 41 percent are obese, 17 percent have an elevated blood-sugar level and 22 percent have increased cholesterol levels.
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