Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) held a workshop for 52 kids from Al Salam School in Mamoura at the Al Muntazah Health Center about the importance of good eating habits and its direct effects on health through consumption of a wide variety of food during childhood. Students were reminded that established food preferences in childhood will last into adulthood and will contribute to their healthy growth.
Nayla Abdulraman, the Social Worker of PHCC’s Al Muntazah Health Center said: “Eating a healthy diet is a foundation of optimal growth and development from infantry through adolescent years. A nutritious diet contributes children reaching their maximum educational potential.”
Mourina Ali Abidi, the Maternal Child Health Educator, opened the workshop with explanation about the need of a basic knowledge of foods and the importance of learning about its benefits at early age. “It is known benefit from eating two or three pieces of fruit each day, while sweets should be eaten only occasionally,” she explained.
This workshop also underlined disadvantages of unhealthy eating habits explaining how bad food can affect our personalities by even causing frustrations, as well as overall mental energy slowdown.
Through this workshop PHCC encouraged students to cooperate with their families and underlined the importance of a food discipline within a family because the way in which parents consume food will influence their children.
“If the parents do not eat fruit, then the children will be unlikely to do so. Interventions should aim to influence parents’ habits because parents are the gatekeepers for much of the food entering the family”, Abidi explained.
Dr Waleed Emam, Dentist at PHCC Al Muntazah Health Center, said, “Healthy food intake is also directly linked to the importance of oral and dental health in order to reduce the incidence of diseases and its overall consequences in our well-being.”
Dr Emam demonstrated the effects of a bad nutrition and possible dental damages through pictures.
The Peninsula
