By Noelene Barbeau
South Africans have become lazier, with a third of men and more than half of the women being overweight.
And the children are becoming fatter. These are the findings of Discovery Health's in-house dietician Marieke Loubser and head of wellness Dr Craig Nossel, who both referred to obesity as a growing epidemic in South Africa.
This is because many choose to drive to the local shop instead of walk, children stay indoors playing computer games instead of playing outside.
According to Discovery, 29 percent of males and 56 percent of females aged above 15 are overweight.
In the obese category, the figures stand at 9 percent for males and 30 percent for females. For children, 17 percent are overweight and 4.2 percent are obese. Lifestyle diseases account for 37 percent of the deaths in the country.
Continues Below ↓
With an estimated world population of 6,76 billion, there are 1.5 billion overweight adults, more than 255 million school-aged children are overweight and by 2015 about 2,3 billion adults would be overweight - and more than 700 million would be obese.
"One of the schools we work with told us they now have to start changing the chairs they use for grade one pupils because the children cannot fit into them anymore," Nossel said. While working with schools on healthy alternatives, they learnt about unhealthy food served at tuckshops or by vendors outside the schools. They also learnt that many of the pupils did not know how to kick or throw a ball. "With physical education no longer included in the school syllabus, these are the problems experienced," he said.
Quoting from nutrition and obesity studies, Loubser said childhood obesity was becoming more prevalent, resulting in serious long-term health effects and a reduced quality of life for these children and teenagers.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
