Dietary Patterns for Girls in the United Arab Emirates - Essay Example

Dietary Patterns for Girls in the United Arab Emirates Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Instructor Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Introduction The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis and understanding of the dietary patterns and nutrition for girls’ teenagers in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E). It compares and contrasts the use of different public health nutrition approaches in the dietary intakes of the said teenagers at a regional level, focusing on the Abu Dhabi region. The patterns of consumption in the United Arab Emirates for teenage girls present major contributing factors to their health and well being (Cheikh et al 2008). The UAE is a rapidly developing nation and the economic change and progressive transition from a nomadic culture to a technological era has also resulted in change of patterns in food consumption. Notably, there is a disordered pattern and prevalence of wrong eating habits amongst the teenage girl population in the UAE. Likewise wrong eating attitudes have also become prevalent as shown by recent studies. There are those that pose significant health problems and complications to the teenage population. The rapid changes in the social set up and the economic overhaul has resulted in the attitudes and behaviours of this young generation to gradually swing towards the Western culture and values (Cheikh Ismail et al 2008). Different public health nutrition approaches are thus used to address the problem. These include biological, socio-ecological approaches as well as the right-based and strength-based approaches. The Right-Based Approach This approach encompasses a variety of techniques that have been used by governments, the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations in an effort to blend rights and public health interests (De Vos et al, 2007). As such, it articulates that there are certain human rights that are essential to the basic individual health. A framework is thus put in place to improve the health status of the young teenage girls in a bid to address the problem. For instance, the UN Committee in 2000, called for governments to ensure delivery of quality health through sustainability, availability and accessibility to quality health services. The rights that accrue to good and quality health include the right to be educated on quality health, noon-discrimination, information and privacy among others that encompass promotion of health related interventions (Gruskin, Bogecho & Ferguson, 2010 at p. 2). . This approach is based on the principles of human rights and the fulfilment of national plans that are aimed at improving the health of the human population. Thus a rights based approach could be the right way in addressing the problem of dietary intake patterns for young teenage girls in the UAE. The advantages of adopting such an approach is that it promotes the health and the well being of the individuals while at the same time protecting and preserving their fundamental rights and freedoms. However, it is also disadvantageous in terms of lack of the basic concepts and the clarifications on how the right based approaches would be well implemented (Gruskin, Bogecho & Ferguson 2010 at p. 9). The Strength Based Approach According to De Vos et al, (2007 at pg 28), the strength based approach incorporates improving the health of the individuals by changing the manner of doing things. It includes empowering the teenagers with resources and skills on how to improve on their daily dietary intake and consumption patterns. The group of individuals can use the available competencies to identify and address the concerns (Strength Based Approaches pdf at pg 2). In this case for instance, teenage girl adolescents could use the available foods to formulate the patterns conducive for the proper dietary intake. Incorporating a strength based approach will help in eliminating problems of poor nutrition in the teenage girl population. The cons for this approach are that it is likely to face lack of willingness to cooperate from the population. Moreover, it not efficient and cannot be relied upon. The Socio-Ecological Approach This approach is meant to promote health by taking into account the social determinants of health as well as the ecological factors. The social factors include access to food, proper housing and employment, good income, transport and also education (Robison 2008). For the young teenage generation, only access to food, good housing and good education apply. Lack of provision of the three may have detrimental health to the health of the individuals. This approach also involves eliminating factors such as social isolation and addiction in early life stages. The ecological factors that contribute to the dietary patterns and eating habits for girls in the UAE are environmental factors like the home and school environments (Robinson 2008). In regions such as the Abu Dhabi in the UAE, it is vital for parents and other stake holders to create environments that are conducive to the promotion of health. For instance, schools can provide trees and shelter that provide shade to provide the students and the teachers from the rays of the sun. Moreover, a school can formulate a health policy which involves a nutritional pattern that promotes healthy eating habits. The school dining hall must make sure that it provides foods rich in nutrients and minerals. The school canteen must also ensure that it sells only nutritious foods. The Biological/ Technical Approach Mostly, factors that influence food choices way into the teenage stage of life are shaped and cultivated during childhood (Eapen, Mabrouk & Bin-Othman 2005 at pg 3). All foundations of dietary food intakes and patterns are set during the childhood stage. This shapes the way in which an individual’s body will adapt to certain foods biologically. Later in life it becomes very difficult to make choice adjustments in regard to food consumption. According to Delaney (2009 at pg 3), the teenage stage for girls in the Abu Dhabi, UAE is the only time when the choices made in regard to food adjustments should be made. The practice should thus be encouraged in order to eliminate bad habits that may lead to bad health and nutritional deficiencies. It is however, not conclusively effective. Nutritional Needs for Girl Teenagers The nutritional needs for teenage girls in the United Arab Emirates will differ significantly from those of any other group. However, the dietary needs have a very small impact on the choice of food intake patterns for them (Story & Stang, 2005). They rarely take into account these nutritional needs when determining the variety’s of food they will consume. Of more importance however, is that these needs fall in various categories because of the phenomenal growth that occurs in adolescent girls. The stage of adolescence and puberty demands for a lot of energy and nutrients (Cetin et al 2011). The demand is higher in adolescence than at any other time in the entire lifecycle. Nutritionists recommend a daily intake that is sufficient to meet the body’s nutrient requirement. Teenage girls are required to take in a considerable amount of vitamins and minerals. These are very essential to their growth and development. At the life course stage of adolescence, much of biological development takes place which requires adequate nutrient consumption (Story & Stang 2005). Nonetheless, the occurring sexual maturation also determines the dietary intake pattern of the individual teenage girl. In the UAE, the national board of nutrition recommends that the primary dietary for the teenage girl is energy (Cetin et al 2011). Energy is essential in sustaining growth and maintaining good health. Thus, the healthy dietary intakes that should be encouraged for the teenage girls include large amounts of starchy carbohydrates, at least five portions of fruits and vegetables daily, dairy products like milk and yoghurt and considerable amounts of proteins like fish eggs and meat (Hill, Nishida & James 2004). On the other hand, the girls are encouraged to limit the amount of fats as well as the foods and drinks that are rich in sugar. Fluids must be taken every time. It is a healthy practice. The geographical locations, socio-cultural and other ethnic factors, biological and technical factors are some of the factors that are responsible for the varying habits in the dietary eating habits of the teenage adolescents (Zaghloul et al 2011). Generally, the dietary eating habits and food consumption trends have changed in the past twenty years or so. Some of the food practices are unsound. This is because the trend of consumption in the lives of adolescent girls has moved in the direction of unhealthy eating habits. According to Berger and Peerson (2009), Most of the population eats food that is rich in fat, has high amounts of cholesterol and that which contains a lot of refined sugar and salt. The patterns are generally harmful to their health. Findings in study revealed that the teenage girls averagely consumed a lot of saturated fat, very high levels of sugar and salt and other unhealthy snacks. Meanwhile the intake of starchy carbohydrates and foods with fibre content was very low. Moreover, there are fewer intakes of fruits and vegetables. The situation is also coupled with poor consumption of vitamins and minerals such as iron, magnesium and potassium. There was also a tendency of high calorie intake that was slowly resulting in obesity (Berger & Peerson 2009). Causes of the Problem In the UAE, change in the dietary patterns and trends in food consumption has been highly attributed to the major shift from the Arabian lifestyle to the modern lifestyle adopted from the western culture (Zaghloul et al 2011). The impact has been felt by the entire population but the focus here is on the adolescent girl teenagers. A considerable percentage of the teenage girl population has a tendency of showing anorexic behaviour (Eapen et al 2005). This has resulted out of the prevalence of eating disorders and bad food consumption patterns. Furthermore, the UAE population is not exempted from the opposing cultural influences. Here traditionalistic tendencies and liberalization are very big rivals. Just like the other rapidly developing countries, there are several socio-cultural norms and values that have put obstacles for proper dietary intake (Delaney & McCarthy 2009). Others also do not allow for sport involvement, a factor that creates health hazards to the health of the young people. Moreover, there is limited access to sporting venues since most of them are crowded by men. The girl female generation in their teenage years thus tend to spend most of their free time indoors. Time spent indoors largely involves television watching and a lot of snack intake. These snacks contain big amounts of high fat and sugary foods (Kerkadi 2005). These culminate to the bad eating habits which will always result to health problems and complications. Some of the teenagers end up with obesity and heavy body mass index. Furthermore, a lot of time spent indoors does not give room for exercise and physical activity. Lack of sporting and physical prowess becomes detrimental to the health of the individual. Epidemiological risk factors also contribute to the dietary patterns and food intake for girls in the UAE. At the adolescent stage, several weight changes start to take place in the bodies of the girls. The girls will always notice their body shape and the other physiological changes that are taking place (Trainer 2010). As the girls mature, they begin to gain more fat than the boys. It becomes very difficult for them since they start becoming self-conscious and self- concerned. In as much as they have increased nutritional needs at this stage, most of them tend to cut on their daily food intake in an attempt to slim. Due to peer pressure and self-consciousness, teenage girls get dissatisfied with their weight and develop a low self esteem (Trainer 2010). Moreover, they are likely to get a distorted view of their body image. This being the case, they develop eating disorders in an attempt to slim. Most of them will thus avoid healthy foods like meat, vegetables and eggs. Instead they will go for foods such as snacks with the wrong belief that they are light foods (Kerkadi 2005). In this manner, they develop very poor eating patterns which can negatively impact on their health. Two of the complications that may result are discussed below. Vitamin D Deficiency Vitamin D deficiency has become a major health burden in the UAE among the young adults. Teenage girls have also been affected heavily as it results to other multiple illnesses. The vitamin D status amongst girls in the UAE was conducted in a study by Zayed University; Institute of Laboratory Medicine (2011). The study focused on the Abu Dhabi region and came up with the following findings. There was on average a low dietary intake of foods that were fortified with Vitamin D nutrients. Moreover the deficiency problem was also associated to minimal exposure to the sun which also another source of vitamin D (Al Anouti et al 2011). There is a common assumption that enough exposure to the sun helps to improve on the status of vitamin D in the body. In concordance, lack of enough vitamin D nutrients in young teenage girls in the Abu Dhabi region was also attributed to their cultural ways of their dress code. Most often, the girls cover their whole bodies sparing only the face and the hands, a practice that limits their exposure to the sun. This makes them vulnerable to developing vitamin D deficiency (Al Anouti et al 2011). Iron Deficiency Iron deficiency is very common in teenage girl adolescents. In fact, it is one of the most prevalent nutritional deficiencies amongst adolescent girls in the UAE. Most of the girls have got very low stores of iron (National Diet and Nutrition Survey, UK).This is usually caused by the poor choices for dietary intakes and the poor eating habits. Taking into account the rapid growth that takes place at this time, such eating habits can easily result in iron deficiency. Iron deficiency then results to anaemia. High chances of the deficiency are also accelerated by the menstruation flow which leads to a drop in the iron stores in the body every month (Story & Stang, 2005). It is thus recommended that teenage girls take a lot of red meat which is a source of rich iron. For the vegetarians they can select from a variety of the non-meat sources which include fortified cereals for breakfast, dried fruit, green vegetables as well as bread. However, only the meaty sources are recommended since the body does not absorb well iron from the meaty sources. Considerations and Recommendations Governments and other policy makers ought to make informed decisions regarding the allocation of resources to the diverse approaches in public health nutrition (PHN). Many of them have different ethical and social implications in society (Zaghloul et al 2011). For instance the rights based approach brings in the question of the legal guaranteed rights of the population versus the moral rights and obligations to protect other accruing interests. Undoubtedly, the rapid social change has had different implications on family life. This must also be taken into consideration. Conclusively, the UAE government must urgently formulate laws, regulations, policies and other measures that are aimed at helping the young girl teenage generation to improve on their daily eating habits and their dietary intake patterns. By doing this it eliminates and counters all the possible dangers associated with poor food consumption patterns (Greene & Smith, 2007). It can do this by incorporating all the approaches ranging from the socio-ecological approaches to the right based approaches and all the others. Intergenerational measures must also be maintained to make sure that the chain of practice is not broken. In a nutshell, a combination of these initiatives will lead to a healthier diet choice and promote a positive environment for the healthy dietary intakes of teenage girls in the UAE. This will generally promote the public health nutrition. References Al Anouti, Fatme, Thomas, Justin, Abdel-Wareth, Laila, Rajah, Jaishen, Grant, William B, & Haq, Afrozul. (n.d.). Vitamin D deficiency and sun avoidance among university students at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Landes Bioscience. Pg.13-17 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3256339. Berger G, Peerson A (2009). 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