Food security: The good, the bad and the downright dangerous
If the adage, "you are what you eat" is true, then the world is in serious trouble, given the state of what constitutes '"food" (how it's grown, processed and then distributed), and the unprecedented challenges in population nutrition.
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“We are living in a world and time where obesity is increasing at alarming rates and under-nutrition remains at high levels, especially in Africa and South Asia,” comments David Sanders, emeritus professor: school of public health, UWC.
“Globally, nearly 50% of child deaths under the age of five are attributed to under-nutrition, with high stunting rates in children between the ages of one to three. In South Africa, 25% of all our children are undernourished with adolescents being at high risk of developing diabetes as a result of “over-nutrition” and diabetes rates in older age groups having trebled over the past 20 years”.
Adding further weight to the matter, several reports conducted between 2002 and 2010; show that South Africans consume a staggering 285% more than the world average when it comes to a certain brand of carbonated soft drinks. “Fizzy” beverages are now the third most commonly consumed food/drink item among very young urban South African children (aged 12–24 months) — less than maize meal and brewed tea, but more than milk.
Aside from diabetes, there are a number of other growing health concerns, such as the prevalence of anaemia, persisting high rates of vitamin A deficiency, and a broad range of biological, behavioural, societal and structural aberrations. All attributed to the “foods” we consume.
Several factors are influencing this global epidemic, not least of all the fact that healthy choices are not always the easiest to make, the impact of transnational corporations on the food system, and the acute increase in the accessibility of economically viable “ultra-processed-products” They cannot be referred to as “foods”, says Carlos A Monteiro, professor of nutrition and public health at the school of public health, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The double burden of malnutrition will be under discussion at the World Nutrition Congress Cape Town 2016 between 30 August and 2 September 2016, at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
