HEALTH NEWS - Overwhelmed with the wide choice of what to drink, most of it sweetened with sugar, we’ve somehow left the simple, but profound goodness of water behind.
National Nutrition Week 2017, running from 9 to 15 October and, with its theme “Rethink your drink – choose water”, aims to help us rethink when it comes to water and get into the habit of making water our beverage choice each day. Water hydrates and contains no kilojoules. It is essential for health and is the best choice to quench thirst.
What the campaign highlights is that when we are not drinking water, we are probably choosing a sugar-sweetened drink which spikes our daily kilojoule intake, degrades our diet, and leads to weight gain and the onset of non-communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and dental caries.
“The prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases in the country is alarming,” says Rebone Ntsie, Director of Nutrition of the National Department of Health.
“The South African Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2016 found that the prevalence of overweight was 13.3% among children 0 – 5 years of age. About 67.6% and 31.3% of South African women and men respectively are overweight and obese. These findings show that overweight and obesity among children and adults have increased from earlier surveys. Replacing sugary drinks with water can help.”
Professor Pamela Naidoo, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa (HSFSA), warns that the risk of coronary heart disease and ischaemic stroke rises with an increase in body weight.
“There is also a clear link between sugary drink consumption and heart disease,” she says. “Indicators of heart disease such as blood lipids and uric acid also increase with an increase in consumption of sugary drinks.”
