Mindful eating cited as one way to beat obesity

South Africa doesn’t have an over-eating problem but the lack of access to nutritious food. This is according to dietician, Lindelwa Zimu, who says, this has led to an obesity problem that is becoming a concern in the country.

According to experts, obesity has become one of the biggest health crises that people face globally and can lead to diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Speaking to YNews, Zimu said young people are more at risk of being obese.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), obesity has claimed at least 2.8 million lives annually, while one in eight people in the world were living with obesity in 2022.

South Africa’s Health Department has warned that obesity poses a serious challenge to public health worldwide.

The department says South Africa is amongst the countries with the highest overweight and obesity rates.

According to the Association for Dietetics, more than half of all South African women will be obese by 2030.

Zimu says more education on healthy eating and living is needed to nip this problem in the bud.

In a bid to address the problem, the United Kingdom has now moved to ban junk food adverts on TV before 21:00. The ban will kick in on the 1st of October 2025.

The country says this is aimed at tackling childhood obesity.

The adverts will also be banned on some bus and train services.

The AdEnough campaign was started by chef, Jamie Oliver, who complained about children being constantly bombarded with unhealthy food marketing.

It’s so brilliant to see all the mayors stepping up, committing to this bold initiative and banning junk-food ads in their public spaces.

Since 2018, I’ve been running my #AdEnough campaign to protect kids from junk food marketing. I’ve been calling for the government to… pic.twitter.com/8QkUfR4mMR

— Jamie Oliver (@jamieoliver) September 25, 2024

The UK is also considering banning the sale of energy drinks to under 16s.

Zimu, however, says while the banning of the adverts could play a role in curbing the problem, government needs to do better in encouraging people to eat more nutritious foods.

Speaking on another health issue, Zimu says diabetes is a disease that is fast becoming deadly and is affecting many households.

Diabetes has been described as the second leading cause of death in South Africa after tuberculosis, according to Statistics South Africa (SA).

It is seen as the silent killer by those in the health fraternity and South Africa has the highest cases of the disease on the continent.

According to the International Diabetes Federation, an estimated 4.3 million people are living with the condition.

Zimu says people need to be mindful about what they consume.