Once upon a time, there lived a boy named Hamza who ate healthy food. However, his best friend Ahmed, who also studied in the same class, only loved junk food.

Hamza was always conscious about his health and he used to bring healthy snacks to school. Hamza enjoyed eating healthy food such as fruits and vegetables that contain vitamins that help the body fight germs and infections.

Ahmed didn’t care about his health and he often ate junk food such as doughnuts, burgers, fries, chips, pizzas and chocolates, which are high in fat, sugar and salt, and which cause serious diseases like heart attack, diabetes and cancer.

Hamza was very active in sports and always won races due to his good performance. Besides, he was good in studies and got appreciation by his teachers and therefore, he was the teachers’ favourite student.

On the other hand, Ahmed was neither good in sports nor in studies, and always got scolded by his teachers for not completing his class work on time and achieving the desired results in exams.

One day something unusual happened to Ahmed. He sneaked into the kitchen, opened the cabinet and took out four packets of chips. His mum saw a glimpse of him taking the chips. Ahmed went to the balcony of the house and gulped all the chips in minutes. After that he came to his room and started playing a video game. Suddenly, he had a terrible stomach ache. His cries brought his mother into his room and he was taken to the hospital by his parents. The doctor diagnosed food poisoning and admitted him in the hospital for treatment.

When Ahmed didn’t come to school the next day, the kids in his class, including Hamza, wondered where Ahmed was. After a few days, the teacher called Ahmed’s parents to ask about his constant absence from school.

Ahmed’s father then disclosed that Ahmed was not well so he won’t be coming for a few more days to school due to food poisoning.

The next day, the teacher told the class that Ahmed had got food poisoning. All the students were astonished to hear this news. When Ahmed finally came to school, everybody welcomed him. During recess, every single student advised him to make better food choices and eat in a healthy manner.

They told him that eating nutritious food has a positive effect on our body and it is important to maintain a good diet for our balanced growth. Ahmed realised that health is our wealth.

In a few days he was normal again and he started playing well in sports and got good marks in education. Now he realised that eating nutritious things protects us from all diseases, and therefore he just had junk food once in a blue moon.

Besides, Ahmed went to Hamza and said, “Thank you for helping me realise not to eat junk food and we should follow a healthy balanced diet.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 9th, 2019