Indian Women's Association on being food smart - getting it right!
Dr. Sohaila Cheema, Assistant Professor of Healthcare Policy and Research and Director, Institute for Population Health (IPH) presented an interactive workshop for the Indian Women’s Association on November 13, 2019. The workshop titled Being Food Smart: Let's get it right! informed participants about what 'real food' is and what is a healthy diet is. Additionally, participants were enlightened with practical tips on how to make smart choices while shopping, eating and dining out. The IPH team consisted of Dr. Sathyanarayanan Doraiswamy, Assistant Director; Dr. Amit Abraham, Instructor of Healthcare Policy and Research & Projects Specialist; Ms. Sonia Chaabane, Projects Specialist; and Ms. Raji Anand, Administration Manager and interacted with participants to highlight key aspects of how to read food labels (grocery items) for healthier choices and increase their awareness of the sugar content in some frequently consumed foods, drinks, sauces and so on in a 'sugar detective' exercise.
Press Release
Empowering the young with healthy nutrition information
The Institution of Population Health's (IPH) Dr. Karima Chaabna, Population Health and Communication Specialist, promoted healthy eating behaviors at Lycee Bonaparte on November 5, 12, and 19, 2017. Six interactive sessions were conducted in French with a focus on identifying healthy and junk food for students aged 3-4 years old (100 students), 4-5 (100 students) and 5-6 (96 students). Dr. Chaabna also conducted seven sessions of about 30 minutes each in November 2018.
Medicine Unlimited 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019
Annually Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar hosts a recruitment fair, which offers high school students and their families a glimpse of science and medicine and the possibility of a career in healthcare. Members of the IPH team participate in the annual Medicine Unlimited outreach event. At the IPH booth, the team interacts with high school students and their families to educate them about healthy food choices, portion size, healthy snacks and how to read food labels. Several hundred students from schools across Qatar and their families visited the IPH booth and benefited from the information provided to them.
Education City (EC) Health and Wellness Fair
IPH joined the EC Health and Wellness Fair held on September 28, 2016. The fair took place at Carnegie Mellon University – Qatar in Education City. Members of the IPH team conducted a quiz on nutrition, led an activity aimed at helping the public understand food labels and presented the latest updates on vaccination requirements for individuals of different ages.
On September 27, 2017, members of the IPH team (Dr. Karima Chaabna, Population Health and Communication Specialist, Ms. Raji Anand, Administration Manager, and Ms. Yasmeen Kalverts, Administrative Assistant) participated in the EC Health and Wellness Fair hosted at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Center. The team engaged with participants on how to read food labels and ingredient lists and helped deconstruct common nutrition myths and misconceptions. The team interacted with approximately 100 Education City staff, faculty, students and their family members.
In 2018, the EC fair took place on September 26, 2018. Members of the IPH team promoted healthy nutrition amongst EC faculty, staff and students. The team conducted a nutrition detective activity to enhance awareness and highlight the importance of reading food/nutrition labels. The team also conducted an activity to highlight the amount of added sugar in common food and beverage items like juice, donuts and muffins.
In 2019, the EC fair took place on September 25, 2019 at Carnegie Mellon University - Qatar. IPH designed two activities for the fair, one to equip participants to read and interpret nutrition labels; and the other to comprehend the sugar content of commonly consumed food items.
