Obesity and poor nutrition were weighing heavily on the global economy, the UN’s food agency said yesterday, telling governments that investing in food health would bring big economic and social returns.
Lost productivity and spiralling health-care bills linked to obesity cost the world economy about $1.4 trillion (R13.5 trillion) a year, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. It said improving nutrition would boost earnings, “with a benefit-to-cost ratio of almost 13 to 1”, adding that about 1.4 billion people in the world were now overweight and a third of these were obese.
In its yearly report, it found that 12.5 percent of the world’s population, or 868 million people, were still undernourished, while 26 percent of children were stunted by malnutrition.
The FAO said a rapid rise in obesity was being seen in the associated costs in low- and middle-income countries, pointing out that the highest obesity rates in the world were now in Mexico.
FAO officials said the problem was a complex one and some countries had both under-nourishment and obesity problems, calling for more “dietary diversity” and agricultural systems that were not oriented solely to production of cereals.
In South Africa, obesity and excess weight are core contributors to cardiovascular problems. According to The Heart and Stroke Foundation of SA, obesity has more than doubled globally since 1980, with at least 2.8 million adults dying each year from conditions caused by excess weight.
The Medical Research Council’s study looking at chronic diseases of lifestyle in South Africa between 1995 and 2005 showed that the level of obesity was higher in South Africa than in other African countries, particularly in women.
In addition to a campaign against smokers, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has been working on introducing a number of laws aimed at reducing fatty acids and the salt content of foods to combat obesity and other lifestyle diseases.
Motsoaledi signed regulations to reduce the salt content in several foods after South Africa gazetted draft regulations for compulsory regulation of salt content in foodstuffs in July 2012.
The government has also looked at the advertising and marketing of alcohol beverages as one of the avenues to address lifestyle diseases. The department has since gazetted draft legislation to provide a total ban on alcohol advertising. – Additional reporting by Londiwe Buthelezi