Fast food is affordable and convenient, but is not so healthy and poses a huge health concern. Picture: File
Betty Moleya
Pretoria - People suffering from non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers have been advised to reconsider their diet.
These deadly diseases are the leading causes of mortality in South Africa.
According to research, the increased prevalence of these diseases in South Africa was largely due to rapid urbanisation.
Statistics released by the government shows that six of the top 10 leading underlying natural causes of death in 2017 were non-communicable diseases, with diabetes mellitus being the leading cause of death.
A study into this was recently released, titled Should fast-food nutritional labelling in South Africa be mandatory? and conducted by Sphiwe Dlamini, Gudani Mukoma and Shane Norris, all from South African Medical Research Council/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit at Wits
It highlights the importance of nutritional labelling and why the information should be easily accessible to aid consumers to make healthy dietary decisions.
The aim of the study was to determine the proportion of fast food restaurants that provide nutritional information.
“With fast food outlets offering mouthwatering meals which are easy to access, readily available and affordable,” it said.
“Although they are affordable and convenient, they are not so healthy and pose a huge health concern.”
The huge number of non-communicable diseases placed a burden to the health care system, and the accumulated losses to South Africa’s GDP between 2006 and 2015 from diabetes, stroke and coronary heart disease alone are estimated to have cost around R26 billion.
Fast foods include burgers, chips, fizzy drinks, pizza.
“But do consumers know how much nutrients are in their food and how much they intake, or the amount of certain nutrients their body needs,” the study asked.
Nutrients are defined as compounds in foods essential to life and health, that provide energy, the building blocks for repair, and growth and substances necessary to regulate chemical processes.
The recommendation of the study is that consumers should limit their fast food intake and avoid eating meal combinations.
The study was based on 31 restaurants in South Africa, to see if they had nutritional labelling on their products.
It was found that 18 out of 31 restaurants (58.1%) had their nutritional information available to the public.
Pretoria News