South Africa campaigns for healthy food

This is lunch on the leafy sites of the Cairos study in Randburg, South Africa.

Dozens of children are arranged excitedly in front of a table loaded with large pots with fresh, warm food.

“Today we have Kitchari on the menu – a mix of Dahl and rice, with Chutney, Halloumi and salad tomatoes,” says the school chef while serving the students.

The school decided to introduce mainly a vegetarian food policy as part of the effort to break up in an alarming global trend: for the first time, The number of overweight children has outpaced the number of underweightS

The UN says the number of overweight teens and obesity around the world has almost tripled over the last two decades.

And the number of overweight children from five to nine years has increased from 69 million to 147 million.

And South Africa is one of the most affected countries.

Cairos parents were asked to pack only whole foods in the lunch boxes for their children.

Chief teacher Mark Lun believes that policy has provided the opportunity to learn students about the importance of healthy eating.

“If all schools imitate our intention to be considered and realized what the children put into their bodies … The health of the children will be served,” he said.

The increasing popularity of comfortable food in the developing world is partly responsible for growing the percentage of obesity among children, according to UNICEF.

Trainee lawyer Mamhabla Mttembu, 23, told the BBC that when she was a younger, fast food is a treat.

“I grew up with my grandmother, not in the best circumstances,” she says. “Unwanted food was something we looked at because my grandmother didn’t always have money, so it’s a sign of celebration.”

Therefore, she says she never thought of unhealthy unhealthy food. Instead, it became ambitious.

But this changed as she moved to Pretoria at the age of 19 to a university, where her student residence was at the top of a fast food restaurant.

With the busy schedule, she says she found that she was choosing comfortable food because of cooking – and that had a lasting effect on her health.

“I’m overweight now, it’s something I’m not proud of,” she says. “I had bleeding gums as a kid from eating too many sweets that I still have today. I’m starting to have breathing problems.”

Her struggles made her becoming a defender of UNICEF in her spare time. She wants more students to be aware of the damage that fast food can do on their health.

Poor and average incomes have observed the largest jump in overweight children and obesity.

But while in poorer countries, overweight children tend to be from wealthier families who can pay for high-calorie foods, in medium-income economies such as South Africa, more people can afford to go to fast food restaurants.

This led to an explosion in the number of chains across the country. The fast food market in South Africa was estimated at $ 2.7 billion ($ 2 billion) in 2018 and is expected to reach $ 4.9 billion by 2026.

UNICEF says it needs to be done more to stop these companies from marketing children and young people.

“Before that, we would always accuse a person of not practicing enough or not eating healthy,” says Gilbert Citaudi, South Africa’s governor in South Africa.

“But now we know this is not really the case. How do you expect a person to lead a healthier lifestyle if their environment does not allow them to do it?”

He says UNICEF advised the South Africa government to limit the marketing of unhealthy foods for children.

The constant presence of comfortable food is an additional challenge for parents who want to keep their children healthy.

Paddy Paddy’s eight -year -old daughter, Sofia, was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease ADM (acute disseminated encephalomyelitis) when she was 18 months old.

Sofia received steroid shots to help with her symptoms, but her mother believes that they have led her weight to a balloon. Now it weighs 107 kg (236 pounds).

“Her nutritionists can see that this is not about food. They say she eats normally,” she says.

Padi Paddy has put her daughter on a low carbohydrate diet, but still struggles to maintain her weight.

Proponents have created pages on social media to raise money for Sofia. Although Mrs. Paddy says she can’t afford fast food, well-wishers will sometimes buy her for her daughter as a handwriting.

“We rarely go out, but when we do it, she sometimes begs for quick food. She is a child so she wants these things.”

Currently, Padi is unemployed and struggles to provide her daughter with the support she needs, including swimming lessons.

She sometimes takes Sofia for walks through their neighborhood in Alexandra, a city near the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, but the traffic and the people who were staring make it unpleasant.

The South African government introduced higher taxes on sweet drinks in 2018.

But this has not stopped the growing rate of obesity in children – 22% of children under five are overweight or obese in South Africa, compared to 13% in 2016.

UNICEF says countries should improve access to local, nutritious food for children and teens.

“It is known that South Africa is nutritious,” says Mr Tshitaudzi. “But many households do not have money to access healthier options due to our high unemployment rate.”

Back at the Cairos School, it’s time. Children feed on lunch boxes full of fruits, vegetables and sandwiches made from whole grain bread.

Until governments are able to implement policies that can turn the jump into childhood obesity, it is left to the institutions and people to protect the health of future generations.