Battling Childhood Obesity: South African Campaigns for Healthy Eating

Tue Oct 21 2025 02:53:15 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

As childhood obesity rates surge globally, South Africans are taking action to secure healthier food choices for children, with efforts like those at the Kairos School emphasizing vegetarian meals and nutritional education.

In South Africa, campaigners are addressing the alarming rise in childhood obesity through initiatives promoting healthy eating. At Kairos School, a vegetarian food policy aims to combat global trends showing more overweight children than underweight. Local advocates stress the importance of nutrition in fighting obesity, with schools and communities urged to foster healthy habits among the youth.

It's lunchtime in the leafy grounds of the Kairos School of Inquiry in Randburg, South Africa. Dozens of children line up excitedly in front of a table laden with large pots of fresh, hot food.

Today on the menu we have Kitchari: a mix of daal and rice, with tomato chutney, halloumi and salad, the school cook says, as she serves the students.

The school decided to introduce a mainly vegetarian food policy as part of an effort to buck a worrying global trend: for the first time, the number of overweight children has overtaken the number of underweight ones.

The UN says the number of overweight and obese teenagers around the world has nearly tripled in the last two decades. And the number of overweight children aged five to nine years old has increased from 69 million to 147 million.

Parents at Kairos have been asked to pack only whole foods in their children's lunchboxes. Headteacher Marc Loon believes the policy has provided an opportunity to teach students about the importance of healthy eating.

If all schools were to emulate our intention of being thoughtful and conscious of what children are putting into their bodies... the health of the children would be served, he said.

The growing popularity of convenience food in the developing world is partly responsible for the growth in obesity rates amongst children, according to Unicef. Trainee lawyer Mamkhabela Mthembu, 23, told the BBC that when she was younger fast food was a treat.

Now I am overweight, it's something that I'm not proud of, she says. I had bleeding gums as a child from eating too many sweets which I still have today. I'm starting to have breathing problems.

Unicef says more needs to be done to stop fast food companies from targeting children and young people through marketing. The environment in which individuals live plays a crucial role in their lifestyle choices, and there are calls for government policies to limit unhealthy food marketing.

As childhood obesity rises, institutions like the Kairos School are stepping up to educate children on healthy eating habits, while efforts are made to address systemic issues contributing to the epidemic.