SA’S child malnutrition rate increasing alarmingly
SOUTH Africa’s children are under a nutritional siege that stretches from stunting to obesity.
A recently released study shows our children are fast becoming the world leaders in obesity – growing fatter at a rate even faster than that of children in the US.
According to the International Journal of Epidemiology, in only six years, the rate of obesity among local children has doubled – in the US, the same development took 13 years.
Almost 70% of South African women and 13% of children are either overweight or obese, while some 3.85 million South Africans have diabetes. The chronic disease is a leading cause of kidney failure, cardiac arrest, strokes, leg amputathe tion and blindness. As such, it places a crippling burden on the national health-care system.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Statistics SA reported that about a third of all children in Gauteng and the Free State are stunted as a result of chronic malnutrition.
With such a poor start in life, these children are likely to never reach their full potential.
The National Development Plan’s education-related targets for 2030 specifically mention the eradication of child under-nutrition.
The plan identifies the 1 000day window between conception and two years of age as the most effective and cost-efficient time to intervene in a child’s cognitive and overall development.
The stunting-obesity double whammy is malnutrition manifested. The World Health Organisation regards malnutrition as the biggest threat to global public health, and describes it as deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of nutrients.
The WHO website explains: “The term malnutrition covers two broad groups of conditions.
“One is undernutrition, which includes stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height), underweight (low weight for age) and micronutrient deficiencies or insufficiencies. The other is overweight, obesity and diet-related non- communicable diseases.”
Given the malnutrition crisis South Africa so clearly faces, the recommendations of the Woolard panel of experts regarding the basket of Vat-free food stuffs continues to beggar belief.
Not only did the panel recommend the inclusion of refined carbohydrates that are known to contribute to weight gain, it also declined to recommend chicken, despite its report making a strong case for it.
Chicken is the protein of choice for all South Africans and a nutrient-dense food, meaning it delivers more nutrients for less kilojoules.
The Minister of Finance has asked for public comments on the panel’s recommendations to help inform the parliamentary decision-making process that will determine the final Vatfree basket.
To make a submission, all you need to do is send an email to vatsubmissions@treasury. gov.za by close of business on August 31.