In the near future, these diseases could become more prevalent in developing countries like South Africa due to rapid and unplanned urbanization. Photo: Shutterstock
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Chronic nutrition-related illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease remain serious health problems. In the near future, these diseases could become more prevalent in developing countries like South Africa due to rapid and unplanned urbanization.
Urbanization is a major cause of obesity pandemics and associated chronic illnesses. This is because urbanization is accompanied by unhealthy lifestyle changes, such as increased consumption of generally unhealthy ultra-processed foods and energy-dense foods. Most of these unhealthy foods are fast foods, which are convenient to obtain at relatively low prices, but are generally high in energy, fat, salt and even sugar.
Fast food nutrition labeling has been seen as an effective way to help consumers choose healthier foods. Studies show that without nutrition labeling, consumers tend to be unable to adequately estimate nutrient content. As a result, many countries require fast food restaurants to provide nutritional information. Examples include the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.
But African countries are lagging behind. Nothing has introduced the mandatory nutrition labeling for fast food. South Africa is no exception. There are no laws or regulations that require fast food stores to provide consumers with all forms of nutritional information.
In our recent study, we investigated two things. Do South African fast food restaurants provide nutritional information to the general public? Next, we looked at the nutritional content of fast foods offered in South Africa.
I saw the websites of 31 fast food restaurants in Japan. I contacted the outlet when I couldn’t find any information on the website. Our findings show that about 58% of South Africa’s largest fast food restaurants provide nutritional information. It is now accessible primarily from the restaurant’s website, but at some restaurants it is only available on request.
One-third of the restaurants that provided nutritional information were international franchises. This suggests that some of the nutritional information has been edited in response to regulations from other countries in which they operate.
For nutritional content, we found that all dietary combinations exceeded the recommended total energy, carbohydrate, sugar, and salt content, and most exceeded the recommended fat content. These levels are set by the National Ministry of Public Health for individuals over the age of four.
The South African government has concluded that regulations that require nutrition labeling of fast food should be introduced. This helps consumers make informed meal choices. It is important that nutrition labeling is easily understood by all South Africans.
Nutritional ingredients
Our research provided nutritional information on standard fast food items (hamburgers or pizzas) and meal combinations (hamburgers / pizzas + medium fried chips + 440 ml sugared beverages) throughout fast food restaurants.
Hamburgers and pizzas were rich in protein. Some were high in fat and salt, as shown by the percentage of nutritional reference values above the 30% level.
All dietary combinations exacerbated total energy, carbohydrates, sugar, salt, and most of them fat.
Without nutrition labeling, consumers tend not to properly estimate nutrient content. Consumers are often forced to rely on the perception that food types similar to portion size contain similar nutrients.
For example, the nutritional value of foods with similar appearances may vary depending on the different ingredients and cooking methods used in each restaurant. This variation highlights the importance of nutrition labeling.
Traffic light labeling system
It is important that information on the nutritional composition of fast food is available. It is just as important that labeling is easy for consumers to understand and recognize.
One way to do this is to use the “traffic light labeling” system used in countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
The traffic light labeling system uses the color of the traffic light to indicate whether the salt, sugar, or fat content is high (red), medium (orange), or low (green).
Courtesy of author
The final part of the study used a traffic light labeling system to graph that standard burgers and pizzas, and most of the medium-fried chips, are high in fat and salt.
The sugar content of hamburgers, pizzas and medium fried chips was relatively low. However, by including sugar-sweetened beverages in our dietary combinations, we were able to increase the sugar content of our fast foods.
What’s next
Our findings provide evidence that fast food consumption can contribute disproportionately to daily nutritional intake of energy, fat, salt and sugar. This is especially true when eating as a combination of meals. These often exceed the recommended daily intake of the diet.
Consumers can benefit from choosing to buy fast foods and combination meals by understanding how they contribute to their dietary intake and overall energy intake of fat, salt, and sugar. These findings are important because they can.
South African fast food consumers may underestimate their daily nutrient intake and make informed dietary choices.
Consumers are advised to limit their intake of fast food and avoid eating dietary combinations.
We also recommend that the government require fast food restaurants to provide nutritional information in order to provide consumers with sufficient information.
Siphiwe Dlamini, Postdoctoral Fellow, SAMRC / Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, University of the Witwatersland
This article has been republished from Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Please read the original article.
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