Foodies and health-conscious people gathered at Victoria Yards on Wednesday morning for Knorr’s news campaign of creating a better plate for South Africans.
The Plate Of The Nation is the new campaign where Knorr is teaching people how to eat healthily. The purpose of the campaign is to reinvent food for humanity in three ways: champion dietary diversity, more plant-based meals and more sustainable ways to grow and produce food.
At the launch where the beautiful Lorna Maseko was the host, a new report from Knorr exposed the eating habits of the South African population and its impact on their health.
Top chef, Lorna Maseko. Picture: Supplied.
According to research conducted by Nielsen, 84 percent of the people in South Africa are meat-eaters,14 percent are flexitarians and only two percent are vegetarians. The research also reveals that the average South Africans eat two meals per day and their plates have a far greater proportion of meat and are lacking in vegetables.
The typical South African plate comprises 41 percent starch, 28 percent meat products (eggs included), 13 percent vegetables, nine percent fats and oils, eight percent dairy and three percent legumes. The statistics also show that breakfast generally has the largest proportion of starch while dinner the largest amount of meat.
77 percent of kids living at home eat the same thing as their parents, which is concerning considering the fact that South Africa is the most obese country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Now, how does the plate of the nation get fixed?
The Eatwell plate composition as defined by the University of Cambridge and the NHS says that a plate should have the following 33 percent vegetables, 32 percent starch, 15 percent dairy, 12 percent meat and eight percent fats and oils.
Small changes to your plate can shape the health of the nation. Whilst it is relevant to 58 million people, how each one of you changes your plate is personal, and this will have a positive ripple effect on your families and communities. It all starts with small, delicious changes.
South Africans are urged to eat healthily.
Fortunately, South Africa has a rich history of food and agriculture; meaning you can learn from how your forefathers ate. Crops rooted in heritage can once again have a place on your plate. Many of these nutritional crops were identified in Knorr and WWF’s Future 50 Foods report, and include millet, cowpeas, Bambara groundnut, and mung beans, among others.
Chrislynn Ramdeo of Knorr explains, “we need to change the plate of our nation because as Winston Churchill once said: healthy citizens are the greatest asset a country can have. Knorr is encouraging South Africans to choose to eat better by championing dietary diversity and more plant-based meals. Knorr wants to make healthy eating more accessible for all.”