The Sharjah government will soon roll out policies to curb the increasing incidence of childhood obesity by controlling amounts of sugar, salt, saturated fats and trans fatty acids in foodstuffs and promoting physical activity in children.

The policies are currently being drafted by the Sharjah Supreme Family Council, Ministry of Health and Prevention with the help of World Health Organisation (WHO), and will be in place by the end of the year.

According to statistics from 2014, the number of obese and overweight children in the UAE is 68 per cent.

"The government has already imposed a 50 per cent 'sin tax' on soft and energy drinks to reduce the consumption of sugar," said Dr Ayoub Aljawaldeh, regional adviser, nutrition and health protection and promotion at the WHO.

"But the sugar content needs to be reduced further especially in juices and soft drinks, therefore, the industry will have to be addressed," he said.

Giving the example of Finland, Dr Aljawaldeh said that only five teaspoons of sugar per one can of cola were allowed by law.

"Here, we have 13 teaspoons per can.we need to reduce this number," said the doctor while speaking to Khaleej Times on the sidelines of a workshop held in Sharjah on Tuesday to frame the policies.

He, however, said that more focus will be on building policies to counter marketing of unhealthy foodstuff besides ensuring proper labelling.

"Advertisements marketing fast food will be banned during times children watch TV and healthy messages will be sent out instead," he said.

Screening will be a major part of this National Action Plan (NAP) on Obesity Prevention while focus will also be on promoting breast feeding.

The NAP also suggests progressively eliminating subsidies for all types of fats/oils and sugar and using food standards to improve local food supply.

"Overweight and obese children will also be screened at primary healthcare centres," said Dr Aljawaldeh. The policies will also include provision of healthy food stuff in educational institutions and eliminate sale of foods and drinks high in fat, sugar or salt.

He also said that food labelling will help people understand the level of dangerous ingredients in foodstuff. "The health ministry is coming up with a traffic light kind of warning system for salt content," he explained.

If the salt content is high in any foodstuff, it will be labelled as red, if it is in the medium range, it will be labelled as amber and if low, it will be green - which means good to go.

The policies will be announced in a conference in November before being implemented.

How nations lead fight against sugar

Hungary applies an excise tax to a wide range of products including sugar sweetened beverages, energy drinks, salted snacks and jams. In 2013, the Hungarian government conducted a health survey that showed that food stuff subjected to tax fell by 27 per cent and consumption of those products fell by 20-35 per cent.

In United Kingdom voluntary salt reduction programme was adopted in 2003 which included food manufacturers pledging to reduce salt content. This resulted in 15 per cent reduction in population salt intake over a seven year period (from 9.5 to 8.1 gramme per day). Significant reductions were seen in blood pressure and cardiovascular disease over the same period.

In 2003 Denmark enacted a virtual ban on trans fatty acids (TFA). A survey in 2012-13 showed that consumption has dropped to about a tenth of the level prior to regulation. Evidence also suggests that elimination of TFA has led to a reduction mortality of cardiovascular disease of 22 deaths per 100,000 people per year.

In 2008 South Korea adopted a ban on the marketing of food high in saturated fats, salts and free sugars (HFSS) between 5-7pm (prime time) and in children's programmes as well as marketing to children on radio, TV and internet of non-food products. In 2013, a study on the impact of the law showed that total advertising budgets and number of advertisement placements decreased during both regulated and unregulated hours.

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