Editorial
Johannesburg - You would have thought that South Africa had enough problems, what with load shedding, unemployment, a tanking economy, and spiralling crime, but there’s more. Scientists and activists are speaking out against the threat of obesity, which is costing up to R33 billion a year in public health services.
Many of us choose to delude ourselves when we look in the mirror or scroll through selfies looking for the perfect picture that hides the double chin and flatters the physique. But it is a dangerous delusion, because obesity is the gateway to all manner of otherwise avoidable health crises.
The government has done much to discourage people from smoking, and has made sweetened drinks more costly through the sugar tax, but we cannot rely on it to do everything for us. We need to do something for ourselves too.
HIV scientist Professor Francois Venter believes that supplementing a healthy lifestyle with medication is the most sustainable way of achieving weight loss. He is probably correct, but the reality on the ground for most South Africans is that it’s hard enough to access primary health care and chronic medicine without adding weight-loss medication to the mix.
It’s hard enough to eat right; it costs more and it takes more time to make than the ease with which we can gobble up fast foods, which is precisely why they are called convenience foods. They are also very well-marketed, speaking to our immediate wants, rather than our long-term needs.
The only way we will turn the tide on the obesity epidemic is through education and hard choices – every day. The answer to losing weight is simple, but doing it is another thing. If we can help it, though, we really need to watch what we eat – in the end, it’s the quality of our own lives we are gambling with.