Qatar- Professionals in Mena eat more fruits and vegetables than fast food

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

DOHA: Professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region including Qatar eat more fruits and vegetables than fast food and majority of them claim that they are non-smokers reveals a regional survey conducted by leading career website bayt.com.

When asked about the overall healthiness of their diet six out of 10 respondents agree that their diet is healthy with 17.5 percent claiming it is ‘very healthy’ and 43.1 percent ‘somewhat healthy’. Conversely 26.8 percent of respondents believe their diet is ‘not too healthy’ shows the latest ‘Health and Lifestyle in the Middle East and North Africa’ poll.

The study also revealed that 96 percent of the respondents believe it is the employer’s responsibility to support and promote employees’ health and wellness. Subsequently 87.1 percent of respondents claimed they will more likely exercise if their company offers a gym subscription. Only 2.3 percent of respondents claimed otherwise

Asked about diet 42 percent of respondents said they eat vegetables and fruits on a daily basis 23.1 percen said they eat them ‘several times a week’ and 11.5 percen said they eat them ‘less often’.

Among the professionals who agree to eating fast food 16.7 percen eat out ‘every day’ 14.1 percent ‘several times a week’ and 23.8 percen ‘a few times a month’.

The biggest challenge that professionals face when making healthy lifestyle choices is their busy schedule (30 percen). Other reasons cited include lack of management (15.8 percent) lack of motivation (15.3 percent) and lack of exercise facilities in or near their workplace (10.6 percent).

Asked about smoking the majority of respondents (73.2%) said they were non-smokers. Among the 26.8 percent of the respondents who smoke 16.9 percent smoke less at work.

Over half (53.5 percent) of the respondents believe that their work schedule allows for adequate sleep while 31.2 percent disagree. In reality 30.1 percent of respondents get seven to eight hours of sleep on an average workday followed by six to seven hours (29.7 percent) and less than 6 hours (26.9 percent). 10.2 percent of them said they get more than eight hours of sleep a day.

The majority of Mena professionals take time to exercise throughout the week with 29.1 percent of them engaging in more than 30 minutes of exercise three or four times a week. 18.5 percent of respondents said they exercise once or twice in a week.

Only 3 in 10 respondents (30.2 percent) said that their companies provide fitness facilities or benefits to encourage a healthy lifestyle while 60 percent claimed the opposite. One out of every 10 respondents said they were not sure about the health benefits offered at their company.

Data for the poll was collected online from December 18 last year and January 12 this year. Results are based on a sample of 8205 respondents. Professionals from Qatar the UAE Bahrain Algeria Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Morocco Oman Tunisia Qatar and Saudi Arabia took part in the survey.The Peninsula