Sharjah24: As part of its celebrations of World Food Day, observed on October 16 of each year, the Health Promotion Department (HPD) at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, has launched an awareness campaign in cooperation with the Sharjah Cooperative Society and College of Health Sciences at the University of Sharjah.

The campaign aims to raise community awareness about concepts of proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle and equip them with the scientific foundations and the necessary skills that help them adopt healthy nutritional practices.

The campaign includes a series of awareness programs and health projects, most notably is the healthy shopping initiative, which aims to help individuals make the right choices while shopping for food.

A special guide will be published for each section of food products at Sharjah Cooperative Society. The guide will be available for the public through the barcode scanning feature of the guide.

This service would enable people to read the guiding content of how to purchase the appropriate food product for their nutritional needs and health condition.

The campaign will also be featuring a scientific survey to find out the nutritional patterns of children and adolescents. 

According to the findings of this survey, a scientific study will be prepared to assess the nutritional intake of caffeine sources and energy drinks, and the factors associated with them among children and adolescents in the UAE.

"This campaign comes as part of our efforts at the HPD to help community members adopt healthy lifestyles that ensure their protection from various diseases, by promoting community awareness of the concept of healthy nutrition and the importance and impact of food safety on public health," said HE Iman Rashid Saif, Director of the Health Promotion Department.

She underlined that proper nutrition is an essential pillar to ensure the health of community members, hence the launch of this campaign which constitutes an integrated work program full of initiatives and activities that contribute to consolidating healthy eating methods for community members.

Majed Salem Al Junaid, CEO of Sharjah Coop, highlighted the importance of the campaign in promoting a healthy, sustainable lifestyle and consolidating food security for the quality of life of the UAE community.

He noted the cooperation with the HPD in launching the "Healthy shopping" initiative comes as part of Sharjah Coop's belief in the importance of its social role in serving the community by supporting various charitable, health, and economic activities and programs as an integral part of the cooperative system that it seeks to embody.

The campaign also includes publishing the principles of smart shopping, a healthy nutrition guide, and a number of educational posts through the HPD social media platforms, with the aim to enhance community awareness about ways to follow healthy nutritional practices.