Dubai: Recent figures describing the state of health of UAE residents are not very flattering for the country's population.

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 50 per cent of men and women in the UAE are overweight. And, moreover, 13.5 per cent of the population suffers from diabetes, the report says, one of the highest rates in the world. The figure is expected to rise to 19.3 per cent by 2030. Other countries with high rates are the US and, surprisingly, India.

The main reason for the obesity and diabetes problems in the UAE (and the other Gulf countries as well) is seen in the rapid change of lifestyle during the last decades.

Less than half a century ago the Gulf population comprised mainly Bedouin tribes, which subsisted on a healthy diet of fish, bread, rice, dates, milk and meat.

With urbanisation and oil wealth, rapid changes led to the adoption of fast food, changes in working and leisure habits and a mostly laid-back lifestyle without much exercise.

Ayoub Al Jawaldeh, nutrition specialist at the WHO Middle East office, said that many residents have become "victims of their affluence" in terms of an unhealthy lifestyle.

"Low levels of exercise and overeating the wrong food, this has led to increasing obesity," Al Jawaldeh said.

He added that while in Europe and the US awareness has already been created, prompting many to change their lifestyles, there is still a lack of awareness in the UAE.

To start tackling the problem, Jawaleh's team has developed a draft regional nutrition strategy together with the UAE Ministry of Health for the period between 2010 and 2019.

"The guidelines will be put into place as part of the National Nutritional Strategy and Action Plan, as proposals for improvements and changes in methods of food preparation and consumption in the household," said a senior ministry official.

Zeinab Taha, Nutrition Consultant at the Maternal and Child Health Department in the Ministry of Health, said: "Nutritional education programmes will be conducted in health centres, schools and women's associations as part of the strategy.

"Nutrition guide for families, adolescent girls, kids and pregnant women will be supplied across the country."

Salah Al Badawi, Director of the National Project for Control of Diabetes at the Ministry of Health, said: "The nutrition strategy will outline conditions to develop a better dietary culture in school canteens as well as hospitals' dietary and nutrition departments. The residents are also urged to include iodised salt in one's diet to avoid serious diseases."

Al Jawaldeh also pointed out that a poor quality of life, ignoring prevention of diseases, micronutrient deficiencies and nutritional welfare of women and children and food-borne diseases will also be addressed by the national nutrition strategy.