The statistics on diabetes are staggering. As The National reported yesterday, the number of diabetics worldwide has quadrupled in less than 40 years. It's a particularly challenging issue in Eastern Mediterranean countries and the Middle East, which have the highest number of cases in the world. In the UAE, there are an estimated 803,900 diabetics ,out of a population of nine million.
What can be done? Experts point to personal lifestyle choices, responsibility and moderation as keys to fighting the disease. But the reality is that these are hard to follow in a society that values instant gratification and where consumers are spoilt for choice as far as fast-food restaurants are concerned. This explains why some experts consider government intervention to be critical. Last month, for example, the United Kingdom announced a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks companies.
But it should not only be down to governments to introduce laws and taxes to encourage better habits. It is everybody’s responsibility to look after their own health and well-being. But to do so, they should have the information they need to make healthy choices. Fast-food restaurants, for instance, should increase their range of reduced-fat and calorie-controlled menu items, and provide more options to modify the order or reduce portion sizes. Moreover, they should display nutritional information prominently at the point of sale and on product packaging.
Labelling should be done in such a way that consumers are able to understand it. Rather than quoting numbers of calories, this information could be expressed as a percentage of the recommended daily food intake. It could also be expressed in illustrations to ensure that everybody, including children, understands it. Ideally such a scheme would be voluntary at the beginning, with the option of legislation to follow.
Our rapidly spiralling diabetes and obesity rate means we must all do something towards addressing the problems – at individual, corporate and government levels. The social and financial costs to society are simply too great to ignore.
