AMMAN — According to the
Global Nutrition Report, 84
percent of Jordanians eat unhealthy food, and 34 percent of children and women
of childbearing age have anemia, Khaberni reported.
اضافة اعلان
Social media
platforms in Jordan are filled with advertisements encouraging healthy meals
and nutritional supplements or following a healthy lifestyle.
Despite the high
prices of these products, they are highly sought after by different groups of
Jordanians, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, which established a new
healthy culture and lifestyle.
With the
millennial generation’s growing interest in living an active life, local sales
of healthy food products, mostly imported, increased — estimated at $50 million
— and market shelves started getting full of healthy food items, which had, for
years, been the preserve of certain social groups.
In the capital,
Amman, in particular, hundreds of restaurants that offer healthy daily meals
that count calories and ingredients are racing to win customers with monthly
subscriptions that do not exceed $120 for two meals a day, while markets that
sell sugar-free and gluten-free products, or cater to those that follow the
“keto” diet, are booming.
Years ago,
healthy types of bread started being most in demand, after having been just a
“luxury” for some; later, Jordanian food companies found themselves forced to
keep up with the obsession for healthy products, such as sugar-free juices,
lactose-free milk, energy bars or even organic products.
In contrast to
this boom in healthy food production and consumption, the
UN ranked Jordanians
last year among people who do not eat safe and healthy food.
The UN in Jordan
recommended coming up with a mechanism to help provide healthy and affordable
food for all.
According to
Rouhiya Barham, head of the Nutrition Department at the
Ministry of Health,
Jordanians consume less vegetables and fruits than people in other countries in
the region, and about 30 percent of them rely on canned food.
In this context,
many entrepreneurs in Jordan promote a healthy food culture. Among them Thuraya
Al-Dulaimi, who transformed the traditional “Eid Maamoul” from an unhealthy
sweet to a healthy food free of sugar, gluten, and dairy products.
Dulaimi founded the
“Bia Bakes” project for healthy desserts; she replaced the traditional dough
with one made of almonds and rice powder, uses coconut oil instead of ghee or
butter, and mixes homemade peanut butter with dates to fill the maamoul, having
felt that healthy eating in Jordan was unattractive and not tasty.
A group of young
men is active manufacturing what is known as energy and protein bars, which
include oats, dates and homemade protein, in an attempt to compete with
world-famous products. The same applies to a small project making healthy
sweets and well-known breakfast meals with granola.
Mujib Organic
Farm has for years grown organic vegetables in Jordan. It is a family project
of a Jordanian family that left the hustle and bustle of the city to devote itself
to its project on a 15-dunum land to produce 50 types of vegetables and fruits
without preservatives, pesticides, or fertilizers.
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