According to health researchers, medical professionals and statisticians, 12.1 per cent of adolescents in the UAE are overweight or obese. Furthermore, 21 per cent of residents are at risk of being overweight because of an imbalance between calorie intake and calories burnt.
In essence, our lifestyle in the UAE is bad for our health. If that's not bad enough, 39 per cent of pupils in UAE schools lead a sedentary lifestyle, compounded by the fact that 26 per cent of pupils have at least two sugar-laden soft drinks per day.
If you are obese, you face more than a 50 per cent increase in your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. And you are more prone to suffer from kidney diseases and diabetes. Without major lifestyle changes, these startling rates are set to increase in the coming years, placing a huge strain on health care costs and needing expensive medical specialisations.
We all need to exercise more. We need to watch what we eat, balancing our intake of calories with those burned. And we need to opt for healthier foods, lower in salts and sugars. Unless we change our sedentary ways and our lifestyle choices, we are destined for an early grave.
