These are fat times in the Emirates of the Persian Gulf. Rising rates of obesity are blamed on fast food and sedentary lifestyles. Dubai is using the very prosperity that caused the problem to solve it, rewarding successful dieters with gold. During the next month the ‘Your Weight in Gold’ initiative will give registered dieters a gram of gold for each kilogram they lose, and the top 3 losers get a gold coin apiece.
This is the month of Ramadan in the UAE and the rest of the Muslim world, a month of fasting, so you might think that dieting would be no big deal. You would be wrong. The ritual fast is confined to daylight, and the nights are marked by Iftar, the communal feast.
Good luck, Dubai dieters. Go for the gold!
More:
“Dubai paying citizens gold to lose weight in fight against obesity,” Rheana Murray, New York Daily News
“Reduce weight and win gold in Dubai,” Emirates 24/7
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