From mid-April, availability of non-vegetarian food in Qatar to be strictly controlled

Qatar is quite serious when it comes to building a healthier generation for the future. It is one of the few countries in the world to have a National Sports Day of its own.

Several initiatives are in place to encourage people to become more active and healthier. However, the rate of change in people’s attitude has not been encouraging.

In order to speed up the adoption of healthier lifestyles and make changes more visible, the country’s administration has come up with a radical plan of action, as proposed by the National Athleticism Council (NAC), a think-tank specifically created for the purpose.

Acknowledging the huge impact that non-vegetarian foods have on people’s weight, it has been decided to strictly control the amount of such food families can purchase from different points of sale.

From mid-April, all forms of red and white meat, as well as fish and eggs, will be available for purchase strictly based on a family’s combined weight.

“When we studied the reasons for weight gain among Qatar’s population (both nationals and expatriates), we found that easy availability of non-vegetarian foods was a key factor. So we felt the change was needed right from that point on,” said Nihal Kadam, a senior researcher at NAC.

“From now on, each family member living in Qatar should go to their nearest health centre and record their present weight in a special passbook. They will need to present this passbook at the shops’ check-out counters while purchasing non-vegetarian foods.

“The more the family’s total weight, the less non-vegetarian items they can purchase. Should they lose weight after a three-month period, it should be duly recorded and stamped in the passbook. They will then be able to buy more non-vegetarian food items,” added the official.

He said NAC has also called for the curbing of offerings from popular shawarma shops. The proposal is to limit the size of shawarmas to something that will snugly fit inside a customer’s palm.

Shawarma shops have been advised to employ an additional worker to measure a customer’s palm even as they place the order.

Based on its success, there are plans to widen the ‘non-vegetarian foods limitation’ to other hotels in and around the country.

Customers have until mid-April to prepare for the new regulations. If one cannot say goodbye to old habits like having unhealthy food, then one should better start jogging to burn those extra calories away.

And what is a better day to start jogging than today, April 1?