Almost one-third of female Bahraini adolescents suffer from a blood disorder caused by unhealthy eating habits, it has emerged.

A Health Ministry study found that around one in three Bahraini girls suffered from Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA), which results from a poor diet, as they develop into women,  reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

IDA causes a shortage of healthy red blood cells, which are needed to distribute oxygen throughout the body, and symptoms include tiredness, weakness, shortness of breath and inability to exercise and headaches.

The condition can also lead to diminished intelligence and depression.

"A big issue that we are seeing a lot of in Bahrain is anaemia that is caused by a lack of nutrition," revealed Health Ministry nutrition section head Dr Nadia Gharib.

"It is called Iron Deficiency Anaemia and it is connected to dietary habits related to under-nutrition and specifically a lack of iron. It leads to a lot of problems and it is a big problem in Bahrain," she stated.

"About 30 per cent of female adolescents suffer with it and it is also common in pregnant women."

Dr Gharib is now seeking to launch treatment programmes in Bahrain"s nutrition centres for people suffering from malnutrition.

"I"m trying to introduce a treatment programme into our centres and hopefully we can do it by the end of the year," she said.

"We just launched the first mobile nutrition unit on Tuesday to deal with obesity and overweight children, but we will be catering to those with IDA when the unit starts its rounds in September.

"We will need to manage nutritional intake because girls are not getting enough iron.

"It affects women more because during their menstrual cycle they lose blood, which needs to be replaced.

"That is why there is a need for extra iron, to replace that blood loss."

Iron-rich foods include red meat, poultry, seafood, beans, dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach, dried fruit such as raisins and apricots, peas and iron-fortified cereals, breads and pastas.

However, Dr Gharib said people needed to be educated on when they should be incorporating more iron into their diets.

"The treatment is not too complicated, it goes beyond taking supplements," said Dr Gharib.

"We need to manage the dietary habits of those suffering with IDA and explain what iron rich foods need to be eaten and when," she added.-TradeArabia News Service