Fighting childhood obesity

Abstract

This South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition (SAJCN) issue comes at a time when childhood obesity is attracting considerable attention in the country. South Africa is a middle-income country and regarded as being in the final stage of nutrition transition.¹ Thus, while successive national surveys in South Africa have shown some decrease in the prevalence of undernutrition, particularly underweight, in children, the prevalence of chronic overnourishment (overweight and obesity) is growing progressively and is a public health concern. This was highlighted in the recently released report of the 2012 South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-1),² which concluded that “interventions are needed to address the dual problems of chronic undernutrition (stunting) and the rapidly rising trend of overweight and obesity in children in South Africa”.