Wealth Damages Dietary Health in Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf Arabs, among the world’s wealthiest people, are showing signs of malnutrition.

The sudden wealth that came in the wake of the oil boom, combined with low health awareness, has resulted in a drastic change in the diet and eating habits of the gulf’s Arabs.

Traditional and nutritious food--such as iron-rich dates, yogurt, fresh fruits and vegetables--have been replaced by frozen and processed foods with additives and a disproportionate intake of candy and fizzy drinks.

Bahrain alone, with an estimated 370,000 inhabitants, consumes 163 million bottles of carbonated drinks a year--and the other gulf states show similar trends.

In Kuwait, where the average income is $17,800 a year, there are underweight children, according to figures provided by the U.N. Children’s Fund, and U.N. publications show similar tendencies in other gulf states.

In Bahrain and Oman, almost 25% of primary schoolchildren and almost 50% of secondary schoolchildren were found to be undernourished.

Anemia has become prevalent among adult females--one study indicates that 50% of Bahraini women and 59% of Omani women are anemic.

However, while many people are undernourished, obesity is also common among gulf Arabs. About 25% of teen-agers in Kuwait who participated in a recent study by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research were found to be overweight. A UNICEF publication described 40% of women in Bahrain and 17% in Oman as obese.

Musaiger said the high buying power of gulf women is a negative factor, since a large percentage of them are illiterate and therefore easily swayed by television advertisements into buying expensive junk food with fancy packaging.

Calorie intake among gulf Arabs also ought to be lower because of their now more sedentary life styles, he said. Previously, almost everyone walked everywhere, whereas now most of them have air-conditioned cars.

For women, running the house now involves very little physical work, partly because the houses are equipped with all the modern conveniences and partly because it is common to have servants.