The Healthy Living Alliance (HEALA) will this month advocate for South Africans to embrace their food heritage for a healthier nation.
This is as South Africans observe Heritage Month. Over the years, healthy eating habits have been associated with the Western food traditions.
However, HEALA says there are various ways South Africans can embrace healthy living through their traditional foods.
“Our food is a fundamental part of our cultural identities. By allowing big food to homogenise our plates we run the risk of finding ourselves losing the rich tapestry of our collective identities.
“This, however, this is near impossible given the proliferation of cheap, addictive ultra-processed food. HEALA is calling on government to use funds from unhealthy food taxes to subsidise healthier alternatives. Since its inception in 2018, the Health Promotion Levy has raised billions for the fiscus,” says Dr Petronell Kruger, programmes’ manager at Healthy Living Alliance.
Kruger is of the view that the government money can be used to implement health promotion measures such as subsidising healthy food and making it accessible to ordinary South Africans.
She reveals that researchers, economic development disparities and patterns has displaced traditional dietary patterns and driven a shift in food preferences, resulting in the “nutrition transition”.
“This change in the food environment is synonymous with a proliferation of packaged foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, otherwise known as ultra-processed foods and undermines dietary patterns based on minimally and unprocessed food and processed culinary ingredients.
“Since the dawn of democracy, experts note that our diets have shifted towards an increase in sugar-sweetened beverages, processed and packaged foods, sweet and savoury snacks, and increased meat consumption. We have moved away from consuming vegetables. These shifts in food consumption are concerning as it leads to more fat, sugar and salt intake and negative impacts on public health,” she says.
As a result of these shifts, Dr Kruger says South Africans have resorted to unhealthy food choices, which in turn have led to an alarming trend of increased deaths due to non-communicable diseases.
It has been reported that more than six out of 10 women in South Africa are overweight or obese, a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases.
Furthermore, according to the World Health Organisation almost one in three South Africans were obese in 2016 and about 13% of children in the country are also reported to be overweight, which according to Dr Kruger, this is more than twice the global average.
“We know that half of South Africans are dying from non-communicable disease at the moment, and that Statistics South Africa has already said this is our next looming health crisis…
“This begs the question, why can we take diseases like Covid-19 seriously to the extent of lockdowns, but we don’t see serious government intervention to protect our lives and our cultural heritage,” she says.
Dr Kruger and her team have organised a panel discussion with food and heritage experts and economists on this topic which she says will be held on September 18 at the Radisson Red Hotel in Rosebank.
The Star