Fourteen-year-old Amna loved ful medames, the hearty Egyptian bean stew that fueled her mornings. But recently, the once-joyful clinking of her spoon against the ceramic bowl felt heavy. Amna, like many adolescent girls in North Africa, struggled with her weight. Clothes didn’t fit as easily, and whispers followed her in the schoolyard.
Amna’s story isn’t unique. The NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, a global network of health scientists, has uncovered concerning trends in obesity prevalence in North Africa. The region has some of the highest obesity rates, among both adults and adolescents on the continent.
A study published last year in the “Nutrients” journal indicates that young North Africans face a higher-than-average overall under-nutrition prevalence. Data from surveys conducted in Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, and Tunisia, involving 37,816 children, showed that 7.2% experienced wasting, and 12.1% were underweight.
For Amna, help came from her school. One day, she received a snack with a message: “Obesity is a complex disease but it can be treatable with a few decisions you can make now.”
“I took the message to my parents and asked for their help,” Amna said. Her parents took her to an obesity specialist who helped her plan lifestyle and diet changes that gradually helped her become fit.
The snack and message were part of a school-based nutrition intervention programme by researchers from the Egyptian National Research Center. Over five years, researchers monitored over 1,700 adolescent students from 60 different schools across Egypt. Almost half of the study group received a specially prepared breakfast snack with high nutritional value and an educational message to raise nutritional awareness.
Compared to the control group, adolescents who received the school meal scored higher on visual memory and auditory attention tests. Moreover, the maternal level of education was a key predictor of improved information processing speed, according to results published in the World Journal of Pediatrics.
However, nutritional indicators weren’t significantly different between the two groups. Marwa El-Sonbaty, lead author of the study, notes in the paper that the impact of school meals on nutritional indicators takes a long time to become measurable.”
According to El-Sonbaty, the results support the positive impact that school-based nutrition interventions could have on more than 30% of Egyptian adolescents who suffer from malnutrition disorders.
School-based nutrition interventions, including school feeding programs, are linked directly to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (zero hunger) and indirectly to SDG 1 (no poverty). They also align with the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy‘s objective of reducing all forms of malnutrition, where nutrition-sensitive education is recommended.
A study assessing the status of nutrition education in Moroccan middle school curricula found that incorporating nutrition education into the science curriculum significantly enhanced students’ knowledge about nutrition-related diseases, the nutritional value of foods, and their preference for fresh vegetables.
Similar results came from studies conducted in Algeria and Tunisia. Moreover, a recent systematic review of published school nutrition intervention studies in Sub-Saharan Africa showed that food supplementation and fortification effectively reduce micronutrient deficiencies and improve nutritional status. On the other hand, nutrition education improved nutrition knowledge but had a limited impact on behaviours and habits.
Experts agree that translating knowledge into behavior requires updated curricula, behaviour-focused and interdisciplinary approaches, and innovative methods that capture the attention of young adolescents.
This article was produced as part of the African Union Media Fellowship, with support from Nutrition International.
