SA’s dietary guidelines outdated since 2012, physicians warn

South Africa’s dietary guidelines, unchanged since 2012, should be revised to show advances in nutrition science, the growing burden of lifestyle diseases and the role food systems play in climate change, the Physicians Association for Nutrition (PAN) South Africa says.“The fuller question is what dietary guidance can help South Africans live healthier lives within the realities of affordability, culture and the inequalities that affect us, while supporting a food system that is sustainable and just.”PAN SA chief operating officer Dr Heinrich Volmink said dietary guidelines affected far more than individual eating habits because they informed school feeding schemes, health care training and broader public nutrition policy.