A new initiative by the Ministry of Education to encourage children to lead healthier lives includes a ban on junk food and carbonated beverages in lunchboxes.

A new directive from the authorities forbids parents from sending “unhealthy” food products including processed meats, chocolate spreads and bars, peanuts, and even chewing gum for children attending government schools in the nation.

Parents are asked to provide a healthier lunch, and school principals are urged to carefully follow the canteen charter.

Schools under the Ministry of Education have received a circular explaining the prohibition on fast food.

Children eating unhealthy lunches is a concern, according to Aisha Alsiri, the Ministry of Education’s acting director of health and physical fitness.

Children are not permitted to bring certain foods to school.

This is directed at parents, as these sugary goods and unhealthy foods were already not sold at schools.

To inform the parents about healthy eating, we have a pamphlet that we distributed to them.

We’ve been working on the canteen project for five years, and we don’t provide any bad meals there.

We have now made public the objects that kids are not permitted to bring from home.

Both at school and at home, we are urging children to eat well. They should learn how to develop a healthy lifestyle from us.

Since 2011, Dubai’s school canteens have been prohibited from selling chocolates, crisps, soft drinks, and chewing gum.

The advice to parents is a novel approach to combating childhood obesity, which is an increasing national concern.

According to earlier articles from The National, around one in three children in the UAE are either obese or overweight.

Although the move is a “step forward,” Dr. Mohamed Embabi, a specialist pediatrician at Bareen International Hospital in Mohamed Bin Zayed City, Abu Dhabi, feels parents and schools should still do more to enhance children’s health.

He claimed that although parents worry when their child puts on weight, they frequently do not fully understand the health dangers connected to a poor diet.

According to Dr. Embabi, it’s important to keep an eye on the cafeterias and stores close to schools to make sure that kids aren’t buying bad food.

It is a positive move. Parents need to be trained, educated, and the subject of a public awareness campaign.

There are still some schools with subpar buffets. Parents are arriving, and they are saying that nobody at the school cares.

Parents often grumble that when they pack their kids healthy lunches, the lunchboxes return empty, according to Dr. Embabi.

Parents claim that their children would find noodles and fried chicken in the cafeteria if they don’t provide food from home.

After consuming unhealthy food, a lot of young kids arrive with vomiting and diarrhea. According to Dr. Embabi, this is the result of the child using their pocket money to go out and purchase junk food.

In order to reduce the likelihood that their children would purchase unhealthy food from other sources, he urged parents of packed lunch recipients to refrain from providing their kids pocket money.

Parents were forewarned by the doctor that giving their children improper food can harm their growth. He claimed that parents feed their children what is convenient for them.

The vitamins, proteins, and minerals that developing youngsters require are not found in junk food.

Because it is savory and spicy, kids enjoy it. However, it is detrimental to their long-term brain development. Such foods won’t give the child the energy they need to support their vision and cognitive growth. They shouldn’t consume this on a regular basis.

For the proper growth of their brains and eyes, children require critical amino acids, carbs, proteins, and vitamins. The child will develop anemia, illnesses linked to food, nutritional deficiencies, rickets, vitamin deficiencies, and visual issues if this does not happen.

He recommends boiled eggs, cheese, dairy products, foods high in protein such cereals and yogurt, as well as fruits, vegetables, milk products, chicken, and handmade burgers for lunch.

The Dubai Health Authority proposed a proposal in April 2018 that required private schools to make sure students were encouraged to consume five servings of fruit and vegetables each day and that physical education sessions should last at least 150 minutes each week.

According to the data, girls consumed more calories on average each day than boys did among teenagers aged 12 to 19 whereas there was no discernible difference among children aged 2 to 11. Additionally, the percentage of calories from fast food consumption rose with age, averaging 11.4% for kids between the ages of 2 and 11 and 16.7% for teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19.

The rate at which people are becoming aware of the negative consequences of junk food is not as rapid as those impacts on your child.