EXPERTS are urging the government to take steps to curb the country’s growing obesity crisis, linked to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which account for three of the top four causes of death nationally.
The Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) says urgent action is needed as deaths from NCDs in the country increased by almost 60% between 1997 and 2018.
A group of scientists have called it a “calamitous threat” to the lives of South Africans and likened it to the HIV epidemic in the 1990s.
Heala acting CEO Nzama Mbalati said research showed that about one in eight South African children were