Thursday, March 20, 2025

December 11, 2014

Stop Eating So Much Crap! South Africa Has A Massive Weight Problem

Obesity is sneaking its way into South African lives at an alarming rate. If we don't do something now this may be our biggest health crisis of all.

McDonald’s. Ah the glory of fast, efficient food service.

I was once told by a friend that the only reason he chooses McDonald’s over Steers, is because Steers doesn’t have a drive through. Can you spell L A Z Y ?

South Africa seems to have a problem at the moment: an obese epidemic!

Nearly three quarters of South Africans are overweight and the country ranks third in a list of the world’s most obese nations behind the United States and Mexico, according to surveys by GlaxoSmithKline and medical journal The Lancet.

Of course eating healthy foods cost more, and take more effort to prepare. Just walk into Woolies and compare the prices of the gluten-free and wheat-free products to the regular foods – there’s a huge difference. This filters all the way down to cheaper foods, like pies compared to nuts, or bread compared to biltong, sandwiches compared to wraps…

“The thing that really disturbs me is how expensive a healthy basket of food is and how cheap junk foods are,” said Melvin Freeman, head of non-communicable disease at the government health department.

Until we have a solution to healthy food for the masses, we are going to be stuck with this problem. Not everyone can afford to do LCHP, or Banting diets, in fact, only a minuscule percentage can.

In the mean time, take control of your own life. Drink more water, eat less processed junk. Do what you can to be better…

Fore more see Times Live