Saudis and Food: Teens and Stomach Staples

My mom, Laura, writes about the challenges of balancing money and food in Saudi Arabia.

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I walk down the school hallway. Stare at his ass. His wide ass. His very wide ass. I am 53, female, a teacher. He is 14, a student -- a shockingly large student. Two of me, I surmise, could fairly easily fit in the space that is one of him.

The Culture:

The Saudi culture is a food culture -- a shop and eat culture -- and it hits the youth, particularly males, hard. As an American, when I think ‘obese’ I used to think Walmart, USA. But now, as an American residing in Saudi, I hear ‘obese’ and I think Saudi boys.

Saudi Arabia is considered one of the top countries with high obesity rates. According to the Saudi Food and Nutrition Association, around 70% of the population are considered obese, with 40% of Saudi men obese, and 62% of women suffering from this ‘condition’, according to the Saudi Health Ministry, with at least one out of ten adults morbidly obese.

Saudi’s two biggest pastimes -- shopping and eating -- are bigger than ever. This is in large part because these activities go hand-in-hand at malls, one of the only places males and females are allowed to congregate in mixed company, especially in a country whose rules and schedules are still dictated by religious separation and multiple prayer times interspersed through the day. At allotted times -- even in the malls -- shop doors shut and gates slam, otherwise be subjected to a fine. Cafes and restaurants are supposed to stop serving entirely. However, we have been to a number of cafes that stealthily sneak clientele inside and offer a coffee or cake during prayer to keep their business going -- I mean, what else should shoppers do while stores are closed?

Case in point: If my husband and I walk out of our compound to the right, to the local strip mall we can reach on foot, we find a grocery store, a trendy cafe, Baskin Robbins, Nestle Tollhouse Cookies, Cinnabon, Tex-Mex, Kudus, Dr. Cafe Coffee, Burger Fuel, McDonalds and a Starbucks. Nestled in between, elbowing for space, are a pharmacy and maternity wear shop. Extending ourselves just a bit further we reach an Indian restaurant, an Italian place, and Currylicious. The other direction, should we opt for a quieter walk, we'll quickly arrive at a local pizza joint, a Subway, a Burgerizer, and a Brew 92 -- another new, trendy coffee place.

Why? In part, Saudi’s love the international flair -- bakeries from New York, fine dining from London, Nandos from South Africa, Raising Canes from the US, authentic Indian cuisine. And it is authentic. In these restaurants, the waiters, and presumably the chefs as well, are not Saudi.

There’s a plethora of choices for the palate. Outback Steakhouse has the meat. Cheesecake Factory offers the desserts. Buffalo Wild Wings, TGIFs, Fuddruckers, and TGIF bring casual American dining. For Italian, there’s Venchi Cioccolato e Gelato, Ninos and Piattos. The European Spazio is elegant and upscale and the French boast Paul’s Restaurant and Bakery in numerous Saudi malls.

And Saudis love their ‘fast food.’ As many Saudis travel abroad and eat at Western pizza and burger joints, these same global franchises have been introduced in the Kingdom -- McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and New York Fries to name a few.

Oh, and let’s not forget the Saudi love of all-things chocolate: Patchi, Bostani, Dolchi Chocolatier, Artisan Du Chocolat, and the famous Saudi owned Aani & Dani, renowned for luscious Belgian sweets of the finest ingredient.

Food culture is developing into a serious issue in Saudi Arabia, where diabetes is alarmingly the highest-ranking disease in the Middle East. According to recent statistics issued this year, one in four Saudis is diabetic.

Yes, there has been an upswing of body-consciousness: even in my two years here, I have seen a few more Fitness Time gyms and Health Centers popping up. And nestled locally between Currylicious and Dunkin Donuts is a small CrossFit gym. I have heard people speak about private trainers and nearly all compounds have a well-equipped gym and swimming pool. The two trainers I have met recently, though, are Egyptian and Portuguese -- coming in from the outside to encourage weight loss in Saudi.

A 2018 Government Report entitled the National Survey of Health, Diet, Physical Activity and Supplements among Adults in Saudi Arabia sums up the food indulgence repercussions quite succinctly. Around 4000 Saudis were interviewed, from which the following was determined:

Overall, 25.9% of participants were obese (29% of men and 26.5% of women). A lack of willpower was the most-reported reason for not being active. A very small portion of participants ate fruit (5.8%) and vegetables (7.3%). Less than two thirds (60.5%) of participants were physically active, with an average of 53 minutes of physical activity per day.

It's true, many Saudi youth are not physically active. The sport culture is minimal. In our school -- where said student attends -- sports include a bit of swimming, badminton, table tennis, ‘bench-ball,’ and a tiny bit of cricket played on a cement patch between two closely set "wickets" near the side of the school.

For adults, Saudi sports tend to be of the observation-only variety. Favorite Saudi sports include the traditional camel-racing -- only getting the camel in shape! -- and the annual King’s horse races are a hit. Football is growing in popularity, with a Saudi national team and a few players even playing in Europe. However, tickets prices are quite low (to encourage attendance at games in the stadiums) as the seats are mostly empty. I googled ‘sporting events’ in Saudi for this month of June and could only find one -- WWE wrestling -- another observer "sport."

The Solution:

Obesity is "amenable to surgical intervention," reports the Saudi Journal of Obesity.

Enter: stomach stapling, or ‘bariatric surgery,’ surgery on the stomach or intestines to help a person with extreme obesity lose weight. Nip, or more accurately, "staple" the problem in the bud -- right in the tummy -- to limit the amount of food a person can eat.

For Saudis, especially teenage boys, this is the salvation of pudgy-faced youngsters en route to becoming obese, gelatinous men.

When the stomach is stapled, a new, much more restricted stomach pouch is created after making an incision in the abdomen. A person feels full for a long period after eating only a small portion of food.

It is estimated that over 20,000 weight loss surgeries are performed annually in Saudi Arabia, with over 24 surgeries happening every week in the King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh alone. No surprise. To be eligible for bariatric surgery, a Saudi must be between 16 and 70 years of age (with some exceptions) and morbidly obese (weighing at least 100 pounds over ideal body weight).

In a typical move for the wealthy country, Saudi is throwing money into this. According to Healthy Living, last year, in a step to fight obesity in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Health Insurance Council announced the addition of new benefits to citizens’ standard insurance policy, which includes weight loss surgeries like stomach stapling.

The budget for these new additions is 500 million SAR ($133 million) per person.

The council added that for weight loss surgeries specifically, they will cover 20,000 SAR ($5,000) per person. The cost of these surgeries vary around Saudi Arabia. In private hospitals, they range between 30,000 - 35,000 SAR ($8,000 - 9,000) while in famous private clinics, these surgeries can reach 65,000 SAR ($17,000).

Let’s see if big money and smaller stomachs -- literally taking away a significant portion of a teenager’s stomach -- will "shrink" the obesity problem. A part of me thinks we should just take away the food.

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I see the student again, just over a year later, at school still. He is noticeably taller, a predictable growth spurt of a teenage boy. But he is also far, far thinner, a result of a tiny tummy, one that can handle two pieces of pizza rather than eight or nine.