You are what you eat: congress to address food and nutrition challenges

©Olena Yakobchuk via 123RF

Given that South Africa has the highest rate of obesity in Africa (amongst the top 10 in the world), it is appropriate that the country won the bid to host this vitally important discussion.

Hosting the WPHNA congress in South Africa has the potential to inform key policy-makers and researchers and significantly shape the food and nutrition policy landscape in South Africa and Africa as a whole. Attending this conference is imperative for all parties in the food chain concerned with sustainable nutrition and food security. - David Sanders, Emeritus Professor: School of Public Health UWC, who is also Chairman of the Congress in 2016.

Health concerns stemming from food system

But it is not only Southern Africa that is affected by ‘The Double Burden of Malnutrition’, this year’s theme. "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," explained Sanders. "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." (Rising Diabetes Prevalence among Urban-Dwelling Black South Africans)

Adding further weight to the matter, several studies 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.(Hawkes C. (2002), Coca-Cola Company (2010) Theron et al (2007), Reddy et al. (2010))

Aside from diabetes, there are a number of other growing health concerns, such as the prevalence of anemia, 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 influence 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, MD, PhD, Professor of Nutrition and Public Health at the School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and one of the key speakers at this year’s event).

The line-up

Joining Sanders and Monteiro at the Congress, are a number of experts and thought leaders, researchers, policy makers, activists and students from the world of public health, nutrition, food systems, dietetics, industry and more. Included in the line-up are several PLAAS staff including:

• Emeritus Professor Ben Cousins, who will be presenting on: “Cheap and nasty”: The contradictions of capitalist food regimes;
• Professor Andries du Toit, who asks ‘Can agriculture support a nourishing food system’
• Dr Stephen Greenberg (PLAAS Post Doctoral Fellow) leading discussion on ‘Value chains in the food system’
• Refiloe Joala (PLAAS researcher), discussing ‘Changing agro-food systems in Southern Africa and the role of agribusiness’
• Alex Dubb (PLAAS PhD candidate), exploring sugar and health in Africa.

In addition to the line-up of speakers, the conference will host many action-oriented workshops and ‘practise what it preaches’ by ensuring that all conference foods and meals provided will be ‘whole foods’ and by small providers from the adjoining Cape Flats.

The World Nutrition Congress Cape Town 2016 is co-hosted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC), the School of Public Health at UWC, and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.