Development of halal nutrition framework

The preservation of life is one of the elements of “Maqasid Syariah” which should be given emphasis in view of the incremental negative behaviours existing in societies at large. It is important to go back to basics of life itself whereby every human needs food to survive and how does this affect his behaviour. The best model for halal nutrition is the diet of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and his eating practices which will affect any individual in the areas of mind, spirit, intellect, physiology and health. Halal nutrition in itself is food as well as medicine for the whole body, spiritually and physically. Nutrition is a matter of life-long eating habits which become set with age. Dietary patterns also vary from one person to another according to the difference of cultural and geographic environment to another. To ensure a proper supply of the essential nutrients, we must combine food sources of these nutrients in the right amounts. Babies should be breastfed at birth until 6 months of age or to continue until two years of age. Milk, dates, honey, fruits and vegetables are very much encouraged to be consumed whilst meat should be sparingly eaten. This results in a healthy well-balanced diet. The research concluded by recognizing the Halal Nutrition framework is in parallel with the food pyramid whereby it is actually a moderate and a healthy balanced diet, relevant and befitting the halal nutrition but the whole regime has to be without the haram elements which are blood, pork, carrion and liquor to provide proper nutrition guidelines for quality and better consumption of halal food for the future generation. This is in line with the Maqasid Shariah.