Junk foods in schools coming to an end

Health authorities in Abu Dhabi are combating the ever growing obesity epidemic in the United Arab Emirates by regulating food choices in schools. It was reported in Khaleej Times that the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority and the Abu Dhabi Education Council joined forces to implement new food guidelines in schools at the start of September. In their view this would tackle unhealthy dietary in school canteens. 20 percent of children between the age of 8 and 12 are overweight because of bad food provided in schools.


This is a positive move towards a healthy lifestyle. Eating junk foods is the addiction, which is affecting many people across the world especially teenagers and children because in today’s competitive world people want everything to happen fast. People prefer fast food more as these junk foods can be bought within a short time. Children nowadays don’t eat vegetables at all they just have junk food which have loads of disadvantages for the children because these foods are rich in harmful substances such as salt, fat and sugar. Plus these are high in calories and low in nutrition. These calories and harmful substances cause many different complications in the human body including heart diseases, cancer, diabetes and not the least; obesity. Too much saturated fat in junk food causes obesity. Pizza, chips, burgers cause people to put on weight leading to many health complications as a result. Chocolates and soft drinks are obviously high in sugar causing diabetes and heart attack as well. Hence this great step towards reducing junk food is better because 60 percent of school children eat chocolates and chips daily, while only 23.3 percent consume vegetables and fruits.

Strict guidelines have been imposed by Mohammad Jalal, director of public relations and it has been stressed that these should be followed by all school canteens. Fizzy drinks, hotdogs and fried foods will no longer be included in school menus and for this purpose food inspections will be held. This is such a great step towards a healthy life so the government of other countries should also take this step even Pakistan where many diseases are spreading day by day. This step would solve all of the problems provided people adhere to the rules properly.