Dates a Food Treasure in Alleviating Anemia

Provision of weekly awareness and educational sessions for 6 months. Sessions were conducted at the community based associations within the cases respective villages. Cases were subjected to 24 sessions for improving the patients' own nutrition situation through nutritional education about food rich in iron and counselling. The sessions focused on basic knowledge on iron deficiency anaemia, the most common presenting symptoms, iron rich dietary sources, factors that enhance and inhibit iron absorption, effects of anaemia on health and how to prevent it, Role of dates fruit in preventing and treating anaemia. Th e sessions also focused on the provision of a diverse range of local iron rich food. Special focus was on increasing patients' awareness for self-management of their status

Implementing model nutrition kitchen; once every month for six months with six sessions for each village (6 sessions/village) with cooking sessions was done to promote eating healthy and provide innovative ideas for feeding anaemic cases. 117 patients were reached by the nutritional kitchen activities with 6 sessions until the end of the project. Special focus was done on skills like sharing cooking, meal planning, and label reading that help support healthy eating patterns. Suggesting ways that individuals can model healthy eating behaviors for friends and family members that is based on Dates fruit was encouraged.

3\) Development of recipe book that is based on the local food in the market to increase the number of nutritionally balanced meals and increase the frequency of iron-rich foods per day and improve current and risky nutritional habits

"Dates fruit intake for all the anaemic patients was provided for 16 weeks (four months):~• Diagnosed anemic patients were given five to seven pieces of Dates (dependent on its weight) on daily basis for 16 weeks (each date fruits is about 10 -20 gm). Dates was taken as breakfast on daily base.~The Dates fruit that was used during the proposed trial is Saudi's Dates extract know as Barni which is organic Dates. The fruit is mentioned more than 20 times in the Quran, This Barni is known for its very high nutritive value (vitamins, minerals and antioxidants) compared with other Dates types. The nutritive value of Barni is shown in the below table, calculated per every 100 gram (range 5- 10 pieces) of dry weight (DW) :~The nutritive value of Barni calculated per every 100 gram (average 7-10 pieces) of dry weight (DW) of which iron constitutes 6.78 mg that represent 67.8 % of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of the males and 45.20 % of the RDA of the females"