Crack down on unhealthy food

Dubai: Women's College (DWC) cafeterias are unlike any other campus eatery you will encounter in the UAE.

Walk past the pasta and rice and you find them colour coded orange; fruit and vegetables are labelled green; dairy products are labelled blue; chicken, fish and beef are purple and naughty foods such as French fries and hamburgers are labelled red.

Why would a college go through the hassle of analysing all its food offerings and labelling them, you may ask?

"Because we live in a country that has the second highest rate of diabetes in the world as well as ranking high in other health risk factors [obesity, etc.]," said DWC Student Affairs supervisor Mary Lackie.

DWC is the first college in the UAE, and maybe in the Gulf region, to:

n eliminate trans fats in its food preparation

n not sell sodas in their cafeterias or anywhere on campus

n have a food labelling system so that students can easily identify the healthiest choices of foods

Apart from the trans fats ban and colour coding of food, Lackie said DWC has put several initiatives in place to help combat dietary problems and educate students about them.

She said most of the health problems prevalent in the UAE are linked directly to lifestyle choices concerning eating and exercise and by educating young women the college can make a difference now and in the future.

"By teaching them to make healthier choices, they themselves will be healthier and as mothers [many are presently, and many more will be in the future], they will be educating the next generation of Emiratis about healthy life choices."

Nutrition manager Mariam Saleh with the Abela and Co catering company, which runs the DWC cafeterias, said the college recently implemented the five-colour coding system to label food so students could make better choices.

College management had requested that the company stop using trans fats in food; it had implemented a traffic light system in 2006 before the current system.

The catering company no longer uses shortening, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or hydrogenated cooking oil to prepare foods. "This was a cheap alternative but we found that they are more harmful to health than saturated fats," the nutritionist said.

Currently only mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated oil is used in the form of olive oil and corn oil respectively. This is used to prepare French fries, gratins and cream sauces among other items.

Apart from labelling food, healthier options have been introduced such as fish, dietary fibre and beans. Foods are cooked using low fat cooking methods. Chicken in the chicken fajitas dish, for example, is no longer fried but baked.

"Students have noticed the difference in the food and it is popular with them," Saleh said.

Abela restaurants can be found on most university campuses in the UAE; however, DWC is the only campus to adopt this system, said Saleh.

Lackie added that if food prices go up, the college tries to raise prices on the least healthy foods to steer students towards the salad bar and other healthy options.

DWC has also embedded physically education into the curriculum; all students are required to take part during their first two years. At the college's Fitness Centre, data is collected about students concerning their Body Mass Index and other benchmarking factors.DWC hosts a Health and Wellness Week sponsored by the Fitness Centre, the Wellness Centre and Student Affairs where students participate in games and sports competitions as well as health-related programming.

Halima buys a cup of yoghurt at the Dubai Women's College cafeteria. The college is trying to raise awareness by taking excessively fatty foods off the menu.

Photo:Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Gulf News