The Role of Nutrition in Reducing Obesity Among People in Saudi Arabia

This research proposal investigates the crucial role of nutrition in combating obesity within Saudi Arabia. The study aims to analyze the relationship between dietary habits and weight management, exploring the impact of healthy eating on public health. The methodology includes primary data collection through interviews with medical professionals and surveys of the general population, alongside secondary data analysis of existing health records and literature. The findings will address the current state of obesity in Saudi Arabia, its implications, and the potential for nutritional interventions to improve health outcomes and increase life expectancy. The proposal emphasizes the importance of raising awareness about healthy eating, promoting lifestyle changes, and implementing policies to address the obesity epidemic. The research highlights the value of nutrition in preventing diseases and improving the overall well-being of individuals and the society. The research also provides a comprehensive literature review, research questions, objectives, and hypothesis.

Running Head: The Role of Nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
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Research Proposal
The Role of Nutrition in Reducing Obesity among People in Saudi Arabia

Running Head: The Role of Nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
Table of Contents
RESEARCH PROPOSAL TITLE.............................................................................................1
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................1
Purpose...................................................................................................................................1
Methodology...........................................................................................................................1
Findings..................................................................................................................................1
Practical implications.............................................................................................................2
Value.......................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
Describe the nature of the research topic...............................................................................3
Subject area of the research topic along with the relevance of the research study.................3
Importance of research question.............................................................................................4
Worth of the research topic....................................................................................................5
PROBLEM STATEMENT........................................................................................................6
Identify gaps, problems and unresolved issues......................................................................6
What is the problem................................................................................................................6
Is problem of current interests................................................................................................6
Why is this question important...............................................................................................7
What arouses interests in this topic........................................................................................7
RESEARCH MODEL................................................................................................................8
RESEARCH QUESTIONS........................................................................................................8
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES......................................................................................................9
HYPOTHESIS...........................................................................................................................9
Scope and LIMITATION...........................................................................................................9
SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH..........................................................................................10
RELEVANCE OF SELECTED VARIABLE TO EXISTING LITERATURE......................10
Literature review..................................................................................................................10
Summarises concisely literature...........................................................................................13
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................14
Research design....................................................................................................................14
Population.............................................................................................................................14
Sample design.......................................................................................................................14

Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
Data collection......................................................................................................................15
Data analysis.........................................................................................................................17
SELF ASSESSMENT..............................................................................................................17
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................18
APPENDICES..........................................................................................................................23

Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
RESEARCH PROPOSAL TITLE
The Role of Nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Purpose
The focus of the current research lies on analyzing the role of nutrition in losing the
weight of an individual. The aim of the research is to stress on the proper diet of a person by
including healthy nutrients in the daily routine of a person by eliminating all the junk foods
and high-calorie foods (Combs Jr and McClung, 2016). Obesity is one of the biggest issues of
the current world as people eating ratio of the junk food is higher than the healthy food. With
the help of this research, health awareness is created among the people to think more about
their health first as lack of weight management will invite lots of diseases. Collecting facts
and figures for this research will contribute to the social development of the society by
decreasing the number of diseases from the cities by waking people to focus on their health
by making significant changes in their normal diet.
Methodology
Primary collection of data is used by the researchers in collecting data by interviewing
various peoples such as doctors, nutritionist and health minister of the country. For local
citizens of the Saudi Arabia, questionnaires are used by the researcher by distributing the
questionnaires to all the people randomly to take their views and opinions on the current issue
of the research (Spitz, Kim and Ho Gavazza, 2017). In the current world majority of people
are obese which, in turn, attracts lots of diseases which affect the overall environment of the
place. Secondary collection of the data is also used in evaluating the trends of the Saudi
Arabia in terms of increasing obesity as compared to the different parts of the world. Census
records of the country are checked to know about the demographical structures of the nation
to collects facts about the research. The Internet is also used as an important source of
information for generating information related to the nutritional value of foods included in a
normal diet of the citizens of the Saudi Arabia (Ang and Chan, 2016).
Findings
Data is collected from various people by categorizing people into different groups to
proceed with the research easily by getting accurate and reliable data about the current
research topic.
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
30 doctors and 40 nutritionists have selected to take their advice on the current matter in
understanding the positive or negative aspects of nutrition in reducing obesity of a person.
100 people have been randomly selected by distributing questionnaires to all of them to take
their consent on the current issue (Geissler and Powers, eds., 2017). Views of the people on
the health issues and importance of nutrition’s will be helpful in concluding the research.
Food served by the 50 restaurants and outlets is interviewed to know their opinion
regarding the inclusion of the nutrition in the daily routine diet of a person, loses weight of a
person or not.
The supervisor will also interview the health minister on this issue to know about all
the policies framed on protecting the health of individuals (Jones and Ejeta, 2016). The
hygienic measures are to be followed by all the restaurants and food outlets in serving the
quality oriented and tasty food to all the people to maintain their health.
Practical implications
Increasing awareness among the people about their health increases the life
expectancy rate of people in the country. Life expectancy rate gets increased due to a
reduction in a number of diseases in the country as obesity is a major issue faced by the
people of the country (Jensen, Frongillo, Leroy and Blake, 2016). Research states that one out
of three people in Saudi Arabia is obese as being the top-rated country in the world, it is
suffering from severe obesity. Health officials declare this problem of the country as Obesity
Epidemic that spoils the image of the nation in the entire world. Implementing healthy
policies in this country can improve the statistical performance of the firm by reducing the
total number of diseases. Healthy people in the country will contribute more towards the
economy as a nation who takes steps in improving the health of the society. It will secure
their position as the best country.
Value
Health is a precious for all individuals as without this, the existence of the life is not imagined
as healthy people can enjoy all the flavours of their life including happiness, sadness, success,
failure, and lot more but unhealthy people spend their whole life in sadness and sorrows as
they lose their hope in recovering from this disease and isolate themselves from the entire
world (Celis-Morales and et.al., 2016). People suffering from severe diseases lost their mind
as they are highly obese who need to go through liposuction surgery and bariatric surgery in
reducing their fat and obesity. Making changes in the diet of these persons can slowly and
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
gradually decrease their weight as reducing weight through natural way is more beneficial for
the users as compared to the artificial ways used in eliminating body fats.
INTRODUCTION
Describe the nature of the research topic
This research topic stresses two factors such as nutrition and health of an individual
whose relationship is evaluated by analyzing the role of nutrition in the diet of a person. An
individual gives more priority to his health as no one wants to compromise with the health as
nothing is more important than the health of a person. Taking counselling on involving
nutrition in a daily diet is important as it helps an individual in preventing himself from
various diseases (Navarrete-Muñoz and et.al., 2017). Nowadays young generation is prone to
severe diseases like heart attack due to increased cholesterol in the body. Eating oily food
will result into increasing levels of the bad cholesterol and decreasing good cholesterol.
Nutritious advice is fruitful for the people in improving their health. The shape of the body
depends on the eating habits and lifestyles maintained by a person as an individual eat
healthy food, then they secure their health for forever without building unnecessary belly fat.
Taste is another influential factor in restraining people in adopting healthy diets as people
give more preference to their taste rather than improving their shape of the body. People think
that healthy food has no taste, is the biggest myth that increases resistance among the people
in choosing healthy lifestyle over the misbalanced lifestyle of a person which is full of junk
foods (Mayhew and et.al., 2016). Adopting healthy lifestyle means eliminating all junky
foods, high-calorie foods, and sweets that increase the weight of a person. Protein is regarded
as the important nutrient that strengthen the muscle protein an individual. Nutritionists
suggest spinach, yogurt, garlic and ginger to be included in the diet of a person which
increase the white blood cells which help in fighting against the diseases by boosting the
immunity of a person.
Subject area of the research topic along with the relevance of the research study
This research stresses on an important issue of the current society that is obesity as
due to careless attitude of a person towards their health increases the burden of obesity which
in, turn, increases several risks of a heart attack due to increasing level of cholesterol in the
blood level of a Person. Results of this research promote the social awareness among the
society to focus more on their health. Protection ways from all these risks have been
explained in a research (Wynendaele, Verbeke, Janssens and De Spiegeleer, 2016). Nutrition
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
is a specialization that involves the study of minerals, fibre, protein, carbohydrates that help
in improving the normal diet of an individual. Nutrition is a science that involves the study of
the metabolism. Body catabolism is held responsible for increasing or decreasing the weight
of an individual as this shows the breaking of food in the body of an individual. Doctors and
nutritionists recommended in eating slowly to digest the food properly as this directly affect
the metabolism of a person (Diet and et.al., 2016). Another aspect is anabolism which
involves creating of cells and the body tissues as a mixture of both catabolism and anabolism
form the metabolism of a person. Boosting the level of metabolism in the body is beneficial
for the users that help in extracting bad toxins from the body.
In this research, the culture of the Saudi Arabia has been explained in the research
which reveals that majority of people in this country are obese. Higher rates of obesity in the
nation raise a big question on the health facilities offered by the country for their citizens
(Wildman ed., 2016). Rules and regulations of the country also matter in decreasing this issue
as prohibition is necessary on reducing junk food as due to heavy consumption of junk food,
the ratio of obesity has increased from one period to another.
Myth in the society gets resolved by not adopting a healthy lifestyle as most of the
people think that there is no taste in the healthy food. There are two phases that exist in the
world such as obesity and malnutrition. Majority of people in the whole world are starving
due to poverty which results into malnutrition as they can’t get adequate nutrition in a day
and on the other hand obesity exists in the major parts of the world (Prentice and et. al.,
2017). Basic difference among both these situations is due to nutrition in the body of
individuals. In the case of obese person there is lack of good nutrition and ample of bad
nutrition. On the contrary, mal-nutritious people have lack of nutrition as compared to the
normal calories required by a person per day.
Importance of research question
Balance diet plays a significant role in today’s environment as this is a single way to
stay away from the occurrence of severe diseases like heart attack, thyroid, sugar, and
diabetes. Obese persons will likely to have these diseases which need to be avoided by an
entity. Awareness has increased among the people through this research as people come to
know about the positive aspects of a proper diet. Dietician suggests diets to an individual
according to their daily routine to decrease the resistance among the people. Common
perspectives about dieting have changed. With this research as the majority of people think
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
dieting means skipping food which results in increasing obesity (Truswell, ed., 2017). A
study reveals that skipping any meal in a day increases starvation in an individual. Doctors
and diet counselors recommend in eating three meals in a day by eating the right food at right
time as skipping food is not the solution in meeting all the problems. The importance of this
research depends on the severity of the research issue. Obesity is a serious issue that spreads
like a wind in all across the world in all the age groups. Due to wrong habits of eating
children’s in the age group of 5-10 years old are mostly prone to these diseases.
Health officials declare obesity as epidemics that affect major parts of the society
ranging from infant to old age people as all the society members are affected by this disease.
With the increasing trend of technology, people do the less physical activity as they can do.
All their daily routine work through technology and various devices (Riley, Bowen, Krause,
Jones and Stonehouse, 2016). Through Electronic shopping modes, people get used to in
purchasing all the household and grocery items through e-commerce sites that decreases the
trend of purchasing the goods by visiting the retail store. The existence of the traditional
shops is essential that forces a person to walk daily to reduce their body fat. When people
remain in their home for a long time and not walk and roam around the places, then this
increases the severe problem of muscle congestion. Increasing body fat firstly targets leg area
as due to lack of walking all fats get stored in the leg muscles. The economic structure of
Saudi Arabia is essential in getting advantages by reducing the risk of obesity and all other
kinds of diseases associated with the obesity (Isolauri, Sherman and Walker, eds., 2017).
Worth of the research topic
This research topic helps in redefining all the policies and regulations framed by the
country officials in getting rid of this problem. Accumulation of fat in various body parts of
individuals impairs the health of a person. The root cause of all the diseases is fat as people
are not taking care of their health. People eat tasty food which is full of calories that store
higher calories in the body of a person. As per the results of the world health organization,
the trend of obesity has increased from the period of 1980 (Saudi Arabia struggles with the
burden of obesity, 2010). In 2014, total obese people in the entire world are more than 1.
Billion which includes most of the people belong to the age group of 18 years or older
people. An aim of this research is to decrease the obesity ratio by presenting the dangerous
future in front of all the people to make them aware about their present health. Taking
precautions by an individual currently will help in improving their health in the future. It says
that ‘An apple a day keeps a doctor away’ is itself shows the importance of healthy food to
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
safeguard people from all the viral in the external environment. Due to unhealthy weather, an
individual gets exposed to dust that increases the chances of affecting the health of a person
with the risk of severe diseases.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Identify gaps, problems and unresolved issues
Obesity is an unresolved issue that is affecting the health of several people in Saudi
Arabia as one out of three people in the families of the country is affected by this risk.
Deficiency in the legal structure of Saudi Arabia in explained with the help of this research
which results in the execution of improved regulations in the place of old regulations. This is
to improve the position of the nation in the world regarding health and safety measures taken
by the country (Hammad, Berry and Knafl, 2016). Cultural issues of the country get resolved
in this research. For getting rid of this problem by awaking people about the significance of
the use of adequate nutrition in the daily diet of an entity.
What is the problem
The basic problem individuals face is that they are approaching artificial ways in eliminating
their body fat through surgeries. By adopting this method several side effects of the same
affect the health of an individual (Khoja and et. al., 2016). To overcome this issue, role of the
nutrition is explained to all the citizens of the country in losing their weight by using natural
and healthy ways. Taking diet sessions from the nutrition’s, a person gets the perfect schedule
of eating the right food at the right time which helps in decreasing or increasing the weight of
a person. In today’s busy schedule people eat junk food and ready to eat food as the majority
of their time is spent in an office or in travelling (Alwin Robert and et. al., 2017). But eating
junk food regularly will affect their health as their digestion gets affected which will not
digest the home’s food. Diet counselling is essential to stay in shape as taking medicines for
reducing weight and going gym is to the resolution of this problem.
Is problem of current interests
Health advisors have declared obesity as a curse in the life of children as future of the
country gets affected with the increasing obesity. Body mass index is a measure that helps in
deciding the increasing or decreasing the risk of obesity among children’s. It has determined
that children have higher BMI of 95 or more is considered as obese. Fat in the body stored in
the stomach slowly creates cells which form belly fat that creates lots of problems (Hammad
and Berry, 2016). Obesity in a child is occurring due to genetic problems and hereditary as
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
the family backgrounds. Eating habits develop in the child due to their parents as a child
imitates his parents. So this is essential that the parents of a child stay heath that inspires his
child in staying healthy in avoiding all dangerous health issues.
Why is this question important
The department of health and human services has researched on this issue and has
revealed that adolescent has suffered from this issue in which ratio between boys and girls is
separately categorized (Alshahrani and Chandramohan, 2017). This study suggests that 32%
of girls and 52% of boys are prone to this disease which keeps on increasing with the wrong
eating habits of all the children. The rigid mentality is to be changed by alerting people by
increasing seriousness towards the health of an individual (Al-Khaldi, 2016). The existence
of obesity is acted like a black spot in the lives of an individual which decreases the risk of
diseases. The involvement of unhealthy food is higher in the life of children’s such as
noodles, pasta, salty and oily snacks, pizza, burgers. These foods take 3-4 days in digesting as
the digestive systems of the children is not strong enough to digest all junk foods eaten by the
children. By these convenience foods acidity is created in the stomach which increases
stomach burning, constipation (Azzeh and et.al., 2017). Bowel disorder is common among
children due to improper digestion which decreases the sleep count in children. Bad health of
children increases the risk of other factors such as loss of health, lack of sleep, improper
digestion, reduction of white blood cells and platelet count in the body.
What arouses interests in this topic
Nutrition is regarded as the hidden medicine that heals all the problems of an
individual as daily routine food has all the nutrients but better utilization of all this
nutritionist gets increases in the diet prescribed by the counsellors. An individual comes to
know about the secrets of all the food nutritionist that increases strength in their body.
Importance of nutrition gets induces with the results of this research in which focus of the
health advisor lies on prescribing all the healthy food to a person (Aljaaly, 2016). All the
foods that create high calories are eliminated from the daily routine lifestyle of a person such
as replacing milk with soya milk, replacing cottage cheese with tofu. These health options
can be used by a person without hesitating as every healthy food is not boring. Saudi Arabia
is mostly known for their strict rules and regulations related to the protection of women as in
his country women wear Hijab that signifies their cultural regulations. A burden of obesity in
this country is higher as 70% of the citizens of this nation are obese (Alhraiwil and Jradi,
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
2016). This fact about the country is not known to all the people has been explained in this
study with facts and figures about the issue.
RESEARCH MODEL
The research models have developed on the research issue of the current study that is
evaluating the role of nutrition in losing the weight of an individual (Al Ahmari and et.al.,
2017). His model has two components such as dependent as well as independent variable.
Independent variable is nutrition and dependent variable is losing weight of an individual
Nutrition has two factors such as good nutrition or bad nutrition and losing weight of an
individual depends on the two factors such as diet and exercise.
Independent variable is Nutrition Dependent variable is Losing weight
Good Nutrition
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Asparagus
Avocado
Soya Milk
Tofu
Soya chunks
Water
Broccoli
Roasted black chickpea Exercise + Diet
Bad Nutrition
Refined Flour
Sugar
Cheese
Processed cheese
Cottage cheese
Oil
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 Explain the concept of nutrition?
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Role of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
 In what way nutrition contributes in losing weight of individual in Saudi Arabia?
 What is the impact of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia?
 Recommend some strategies to overcome the problem of obesity in Saudi Arabia.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 To determine the concept of nutrition
 To identify the contribution of nutrition in losing weight of individual in Saudi Arabia
 To analyse the impact of nutrition in reducing obesity among people in Saudi Arabia
 Suggest some strategies to overcome the problem of obesity in Saudi Arabia
HYPOTHESIS
There is no need of developing in this kind of research as this research type is
exploratory research type. In this type of research, the problem has not evaluated properly as
this shows the lack of research which increases the severity of the issue in absence of
executing an appropriate research tool to resolve all the issues (Roumans and et.al., 2017).
Obesity is that issue which is spreading in all major parts of the world that needs to be
stopped in protecting the future generations of the society. In this research, both aspects have
not been analyzed such as an issue of the problem that is obesity and its resolution in the firm
of nutrition.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
It includes the scope and barriers faced by a researcher in collecting evidence for
concluding a research. In distributing questionnaires among all the citizens of the Saudi
Arabia, the researcher faces difficulty in talking with the obese women as according to the
culture of the Saudi Arabia, men are not permitted to talk with another woman as the safety
of women is an important factor in this country (Sieber, 2018). The researcher chooses the
long way of communicating with the women by convincing one of the male members of the
family to interact with the women in their family which requires more time to spend in
collecting data for the research (Augustin and et.al., 2016). Collecting data from doctors and
dieticians is not an easy task as the researcher has to consult 30 doctors for evaluating all the
relevant and accurate data by consulting with the doctors. All the doctors have different
appointment which wastes a lot of time. If the research to get invests on more important tasks
in getting the desired results within a short span of time (Dietz and et.al., 2016). Resistance
issue is another biggest restrictive factor in the data collection as obese people are not ready
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