A UAE university and United Nation’s body will generate a catalogue to help challenge the high rate of non-communicable diseases in the Emirates.
On Sunday, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation and United Arab Emirates University decided to cooperate to gather proof on the role of diet and food in stopping obesity and non-communicable diseases.
According to the World Health Organisation, NCDs — diseases that cannot be directly transmitted from one person to another — account for more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of all deaths in the UAE.
The organisations will examine the relationship between food source, food value chain, intake and environment, and their roles in increasing the occurrence of obesity and NCDs.
The goal is to use this data to plan a healthy diet action plan that will help reduce levels of obesity and NCDs in the UAE.
“The FAO is very pleased to start this teamwork with UAE University,” said Dr Dino Motis, coordinator of the FAO Sub-regional Office for the GCC States, on Sunday.
“This study will produce tremendously relevant evidence on the way food could help us to reduce the frequency of obesity and non-communicable diseases”
In September, specialists at a medical discussion in Abu Dhabi said unwholesome diets and a lack of practise were leading to a health crisis in the UAE that doctors could not undertake alone.
