Abstract:
One serious concern of health policymakers in South Africa is the fact that
there is no national data on the dietary intake of adult South Africans. The only national
dietary study was done in children in 1999. Hence, it becomes difficult to plan intervention
and strategies to combat malnutrition without national data on adults. The current review
consequently assessed all dietary studies in adults from 2000 to June 2015 in an attempt to portray typical adult dietary intakes and to assess possible dietary deficiencies. Notable
findings were that, in South Africa micronutrient deficiencies are still highly prevalent and
energy intakes varied between very low intakes in informal settlements to very high intakes in
urban centers. The most commonly deficient food groups observed are fruit and vegetables,
and dairy. This has been attributed to high prices and lack of availability of these food groups
in poorer urban areas and townships. In rural areas, access to healthy foods also remains a
problem. A national nutrition monitoring system is recommended in order to identify dietary
deficiencies in specific population groups.
