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Question
04 Feb 2004
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Diseases caused by "the South-African-way" of eating
Dear DietDoc,
I don't have any troubles with my weight or anything like that but still i have a big problem... I m an 19 year old girl from Switzerland and did an exchange year in SA last year. Now I'm back in colege in Switzerland and in order to pass I "have" to writh an assinement about the eating culture of the Africaans, wich is really intressting...
I don't have any trobles with finding traditional-recepies and the history but ther should also be a part explaining the problems wich "the South-African-way-of-eating" causes, something like diseases or other problems...(for example i realized that wher I stayed they eat lots of sugar, in carots, pumpkin well in basically everything, so I thaught ther could be a problem with diabetes, in the older age or so...)
My problem is I can't find anything out about that whole thing... Do you know any links, books, or anything else wich says somethinmg about that(Taxt, Statistics, reserches...)?
I would be so glad if you coud help my, lots of love jamie
I don't have any troubles with my weight or anything like that but still i have a big problem... I m an 19 year old girl from Switzerland and did an exchange year in SA last year. Now I'm back in colege in Switzerland and in order to pass I "have" to writh an assinement about the eating culture of the Africaans, wich is really intressting...
I don't have any trobles with finding traditional-recepies and the history but ther should also be a part explaining the problems wich "the South-African-way-of-eating" causes, something like diseases or other problems...(for example i realized that wher I stayed they eat lots of sugar, in carots, pumpkin well in basically everything, so I thaught ther could be a problem with diabetes, in the older age or so...)
My problem is I can't find anything out about that whole thing... Do you know any links, books, or anything else wich says somethinmg about that(Taxt, Statistics, reserches...)?
I would be so glad if you coud help my, lots of love jamie
DietDoc
Dear Jamie
Gruess Gott! I hope you enjoyed your year in SA. Now you must differentiate between those South Africans, both black and white who eat a western-type diet (lots of meat, fat, alcohol, etc) and those that still eat a traditional diet (mainly black people who eat plenty of unprocessed, unsifted grains and cereals, sour milk, smaller quantities of meat, and drink traditional sorghum beer). The western-type diet which is high in energy, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar, refined starches, salt and alcohol causes heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and certain type of cancer. These so-called 'Diseases of Lifestyle' are very prevalent in middle-class whites, coloureds, Indian and those black people who are experiencing the 'Nutrition transition'. When coupled with the decrease in physical activity that occurs when people migrate to cities, these dietary habits are a time bomb that is ticking away. I would suggest that you click on 'Diet' at the top of this page and read all the articles I have written about obesity, diabetes, etc. You can also do a Search on the Health24 Website using your key terms like 'Heart disease' or 'Diabetes' and you will find lots of info. Do you know about PubMed? This is an archive which you can access by doing a Search on 'Google' using 'PubMed' as your search term. PubMed lists thousands of abstracts from the scientific literature - you then do a Search on PubMed with say: "South-Africa & Diet' and see what comes up.
Good luck with the project
DietDoc
Gruess Gott! I hope you enjoyed your year in SA. Now you must differentiate between those South Africans, both black and white who eat a western-type diet (lots of meat, fat, alcohol, etc) and those that still eat a traditional diet (mainly black people who eat plenty of unprocessed, unsifted grains and cereals, sour milk, smaller quantities of meat, and drink traditional sorghum beer). The western-type diet which is high in energy, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar, refined starches, salt and alcohol causes heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity and certain type of cancer. These so-called 'Diseases of Lifestyle' are very prevalent in middle-class whites, coloureds, Indian and those black people who are experiencing the 'Nutrition transition'. When coupled with the decrease in physical activity that occurs when people migrate to cities, these dietary habits are a time bomb that is ticking away. I would suggest that you click on 'Diet' at the top of this page and read all the articles I have written about obesity, diabetes, etc. You can also do a Search on the Health24 Website using your key terms like 'Heart disease' or 'Diabetes' and you will find lots of info. Do you know about PubMed? This is an archive which you can access by doing a Search on 'Google' using 'PubMed' as your search term. PubMed lists thousands of abstracts from the scientific literature - you then do a Search on PubMed with say: "South-Africa & Diet' and see what comes up.
Good luck with the project
DietDoc
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