Messages
Good nutrition is key to living a healthy life. When people eat well, they have more energy, less disease, and can ultimately enjoy better wellbeing. The first step to eating right is having access to affordable and nutritious food.
Affordable, healthy food from a young age helps children and adults reach their full potential. It provides the right type of fuel the body and brain needs to grow and develop optimally. Nutritious foods also support sustained energy and focus, which improves learning and work performance. This, in turn, helps people achieve more and strengthens earning potential and the economy.
Eating the right foods also lowers the risk of diseases like heart disease and diabetes. This means fewer medical visits and less stress on individuals, families, communities and the healthcare system.
In addition, good nutrition and affordable food benefits mental health. Being able to eat well can improve mood and reduce stress. “Eat Right for a Better Life” highlights how eating nutritious food can help everyone feel better, live healthier, and achieve their full potential.
Right and healthy eating options
- Most of what we eat should consist of mainly unprocessed or minimally foods from plants, for instance vegetables, fruit, starchy foods (preferably minimally processed) and legumes according to the proportions indicated in the Food Guide (see Annexure I for the Guidelines for Healthy Eating and the Food Guide). This indicates that nearly 80 per cent of what we eat should be a variety of unprocessed or minimally processed foods from these food groups. Sugar, salt and fat should be used sparingly in food preparation and at the table.
- Drinking water is an important part of healthy eating and should therefore be the beverage of choice. Avoid sugary drinks.
- Babies should be given only breastmilk for the first six months of life. Breastmilk contains all the energy, vitamins and other nutrients and water in the correct amounts that the baby needs.
- They should not be given any other food or fluids, not even water, except for medicine prescribed by a doctor or nurse. From the age of six months, appropriate and culturally acceptable complementary foods should be introduced and breastfeeding continued until the child is at least two years old.
- Eating plenty of vegetables and fruit regularly can help prevent chronic diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, some types of cancer, aging related eye diseases and type-2 diabetes. These foods are also high in fibre (roughage), which ensures proper bowel functioning and helps to prevent constipation and related symptoms like bloating.
Improving the food environment
- The food that is available and most affordable in our communities, is what we end up consuming.
- Currently, the environment is flooded by ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat. These tend to be affordable and heavily marketed, which increases their consumption, especially among children and youth, who are pervasively targeted with unhealthy food advertisements.
- By empowering people of all ages to demand/ask for healthier options, they can contribute to increasing the availability of healthy foods and thus improving the local food environment, which will in turn benefit the health of the population.