Tackling SA’s obesity problem

The National Research Foundation has awarded a significant grant to CDIA researcher and UCT Professor Vicki Lambert to find practical ways to address and curb obesity among South Africans.

The latest data shows that South African children will have a shorter life span than their parents due to too much fast food and too little physical activity, says University of Cape Town (UCT) researcher Vicki Lambert, a professor in the MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine and senior researcher for the Chronic Diseases Initiative in Africa (CDIA).

“The situation requires an urgent response,” she says. “Among other things, we need to reclaim our neighbourhoods. It seems the days of cricket in the streets and riding bikes are gone, we need to bring those activities back.”

Professor Lambert – one of the country’s leading experts on obesity – has just received a substantial grant from the National Research Foundation (NRF) to help find practical solutions to South Africa’s obesity problem, which was highlighted by the recent study in the Lancet, which named SA as the country in Sub-Saharan Africa with the most overweight people.

The same study found that seven out of 10 women are overweight – which places a huge burden on an already- strained healthcare service, as obesity is linked to life- threatening conditions like heart disease, stroke and diabetes