The nutrition transition and the right to adequate food for adolescents in South Africa

• Main Author: Stupar, Dijana
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: Norwegian

Changes in diet and nutrition along with other lifestyle changes have during the last decades affected the pattern of diseases and nutrition problems in many developing countries, the phenomenon known as ‘The Nutrition Transition’. As people move into cities, their lifestyles and food supplies change leading to changes in their diets. Urban diets show trends toward greater consumption of rice and wheat, more milled and polished grains, food higher in fat, more animal products, more sugar, and more processed food. Various nutrition studies on adolescents in South Africa have shown that overweight and obesity are increasing, possibly as an outcome of the nutrition transition that is affecting the country. Researchers in South Africa have expressed a need for more studies, policies and programmes that can facilitate prevention and early diagnosis of malnutrition in all its forms including those resulting from unbalanced diets that exists among adolescents. This thesis uses a human rights based approach as a mean of making a contribution to this need. The overall aim was to expand the knowledge of the nutrition transition processes and changes that influence adolescents in South Africa, and to explore what relevant measures exist and are/or planned for the future. Perceptions regarding adolescents’ diets, dietary pattern changes, body images and physical activity have been investigated from the selected right-holders’ as well as corresponding duty-bearers’ perspectives. Further, a conceptual framework has been used to systematise their understandings of the situation and ideas regarding possible actions and measures. The rationale behind the study was to create awareness and thus facilitate the establishment of an environment that can enable adolescents in South Africa to increasingly enjoy their right to adequate food given the challenges of the nutrition transition. The right to adequate food is laid down in international human rights law especially through the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as the Constitution of South Africa, one of the most progressive constitutions in the world through its Bill of Rights. The right to food is realised when everybody has physical and economic access to adequate food or means for its procurement at all times. “Adequacy” refers to nutritional adequacy, food safety and cultural accessibility. Further the accessibility of such food needs to be sustainable and must not interfere with the