Children and youth account for 60 percent of the Saudi population which comes out to about 10 million Saudis. The majority of them will be a burden on the health care system in the future because they suffer from obesity, which is the main cause of diabetes, cholesterol, heart problems, high blood pressure and numerous other diseases among the Kingdom's youth, Al-Riyadh daily reported.
A visit to an obesity clinic in any part of the country makes the seriousness of the problem clear. Such clinics are full of overweight children and young men and women who cannot lead normal lives. One woman who checked her 11-year-old, 120 kilogram daughter into an obesity clinic spokes to the newspaper about her daughter's daily struggles.
“My daughter has stopped going to school because her classmates tease her about her weight all the time. I have tried many times to make her go on a diet but she's never stuck to one,” the mother said.
“I always end up giving in to my daughter's desire for food and allow her to have the same food her other siblings eat. My husband and I are now mulling over taking her to a specialized center to undergo a gastric bypass surgery,” she added.
Unable to walk
Umm Khalid is the mother of 10 sons and weighs 275 kilograms. She said she wasn't obese a decade ago and that the sedentary lifestyle she lives is the culprit.
“I can't kneel down or prostrate during prayer. My sons bring me food to my bed. I often go several days without showering because I can't move. I have bedsores,” she said. Umm Khalid's vision has been affected by obesity as well. She said she needs to undergo urgent gastric bypass surgery to lose weight.
Saturated fat
Salim, a 27-year-old suffers from morbid obesity. He weighs 127 kilograms and blamed his family for his being overweight.
“When I come back home from work, my mother serves too many fatty foods for lunch. I eat it because I'm hungry and don't have any other options,” he said.
He admitted laziness on his part is another major contributing factor. “I don't go to the gym or walks outside a lot.”
Role of families
Dr. Ayedh Al-Qahtani, laparoscopic and obesity surgery consultant, said families can play a key role in helping their children lead a healthy life. “Some parents tend to make fun of their obese children, causing them to lose self-confidence. Mockery can have a big toll on girls in particular, because they are emotionally sensitive. As a consultant surgeon who has performed many gastric bypass surgeries on young men and women under 14 years of age, I have seen cases of overweight girls who drop out of school because they could not put up with the teasing and laughing from classmates anymore,” he explained.
According to Dr. Al-Qahtani, mockery is not only limited to schools and he said there are countless case involving girls who are victims of social ostracism and rejection.
“They end up withdrawing from society and live as introverts and do nothing but eat incessantly. Teasing an obese child or preventing from him from eating food is not the best solution for families. Such methods will backfire and the overweight child will end up consuming more food to make up for the times he has been deprived of food. The child will also find consuming more food will make him relaxed and forget about his obesity,” he said.
“Unfortunately, some parents feed their children too much food when they are still little in order to show off as a way to tell others ‘Look, how healthy my child is.' Food isn't the only cause of obesity. Each one of us has certain genes in their bodies that can cause morbid obesity. Lack of sleep and psychological issues are another causes of this dangerous disease,” he added.
Dr. Al-Qahtani stressed the importance of not depriving obese children of food, especially fast food. Rather, parents should organize their overweight child's meals and focus on healthy foods that are rich in nutrients. As for fast food, parents should let their children have a meal every week or two weeks.
“Parents with children who suffer from morbid obesity should take them to specialized centers for treatment and never put of this decision for the future,” he said.
Obesity chair at KSU
Sheikh Ali bin Sulaiman Al-Shehri Chair for Obesity at King Saud University focuses on designing strategies for fighting obesity, something which could help decision-makers in the Health Ministry better understand the extent of the problem, said Al-Qahtani who is the supervisor of the chair.
He called for setting up more obesity clinics all over the country and highlighted the need for hiring additional specialized doctors in the fields of morbid obesity, nutrition and physiotherapy.
