Nine-year-old boy who weighs 49kg at 1.38 metres in height, is checked by a dietitian at a hospital in Hong Kong. | REUTERS/Bobby Yip
On Monday, food health organisations celebrated World Obesity Day and raised concerns about the sporadic increase of child obesity in South Africa, which puts children at risk of being diagnosed with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and high blood pressure at tender ages.
Health Living Alliance (HEALA) warned that there has been a surge of deaths from NCDs globally, and within the perimeters of the country: from 1997 to 2018, 60% of deaths were related to NCDs. This calls for a sense of urgency in providing solutions and prevention methods to deter an increase of childhood high blood pressure and diabetes.
Therefore, HEALA is calling for a package of bold interventions with a systemic overview of the issue of obesity, as NCDs cannot be battled with isolated, small and convenient interventions in individual lifestyles.
The African Centre for Obesity Prevention (ACTION) shared that a population vulnerable to an obesogenic environment is children. Children who have overweight parents, and those who have been subject to malnutrition during pregnancy or infancy, are prone to obesity in their adult life.
In South Africa, one in eight children is overweight, which is double the global average. ACTION reported in 2025 that 3.91 million were expected to be overweight and obese, posing a high risk of obesity in young girls.
The report further elaborated that a national survey had been conducted and relayed, showing that 14.2% of schoolchildren are overweight and that 30% of girls from urban areas are obese.
To control childhood obesity and children contracting NCDs, HEALA calls for the government to regulate the food industry to curb the consumption of unhealthy food, which is mostly heavily marketed in the country’s poverty class, hence the poor tend to think healthy eating is expensive.
Moreover, the government must increase the Health Promotion Levy (HPL), a sugar tax by the National Department of Health, on selected sugar-sweetened beverages to 20% and include juice in the HPL to decrease obesity. Currently, the sugar tax sits at 11% and there has not been an increase since its introduction in 2018.
HEALA also calls for the Department of Health to speed up the adoption of effective front-of-package warning labels on unhealthy foods to help consumers make informative decisions and live healthier lives. Several studies have shown that people globally and in South Africa have trouble reading traditional nutritional labels.
“The food industry spends billions of rand every year to reach children with their product marketing. They also aggressively lobby against public health policies aimed at promoting good health. We know the food industry would not spend billions of rand fighting public health interventions that are not effective,” said Nzama Mbalati, acting interim CEO on HEALA.
ACTION explained that children fall prey to child obesity because they grow up in an era of energy-dense food and lack of exercise, such as playing, due to consumption of screen time and social media and sedentary behaviour.
“It is unfortunate that the government perpetuates the notion that public health interventions should first and foremost have economic benefits. We believe that the people’s well-being and dignity should be enough of a reason to push forward with solid regulations,” said Mbalati.
When childhood obesity is not controlled, children are also prone to diseases related to NCDs. ACTION stated that of the 3.91 million children, 123 000 children will have impaired glucose tolerance; 68 000 with overt diabetes; 460 000 with high blood pressure; and 637 000 with the first stage of fatty liver disease.
The Star
Hope Mafu
hope.mafu@inl.co.za
Related Topics: