Enabling sustainable future health

Abstract

We attended the South African Association for Food Science and Technology (SAAFoST) Congress held from 7-9 September 2015, and the International Life Sciences Institute Post Congress Workshop. The congress, as well as the workshop, focused on enabling sustainable future health, and what we are going to do about our growing problem of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Dr Nelia Steyn, University of Cape Town, spoke on Food consumption by the South African population: challenges and opportunities. She mentioned that, according to research carried out so far, South Africans are eating too much starch. We suspect that they are also consuming too much fat, fatty meat, and thus excessive energy in relation to their requirements, and too few vegetables. Most restaurant meals predominantly contain protein, starch and fat (thus contributing further to excessive energy intake) and too little or no vegetables or salad. Richard Delate, Managing Director, John Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa, mentioned that the statistics for NCDs are looking similar to or worse than those on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 1994, when huge anti-AIDS campaigns were implemented. Further, Lynne Moeng-Mahlangu from the Department of Health also spoke against restaurants encouraging overeating.