SEE: What is your cultural food?

What foods make you feel right at home? Is it braaivleis, pap, inkomazi, or umnqushu? Or what about kota, ox tail stew, mogodu or amagwinya?

Rising number of lifestyle diseases

Many of us have, however, largely forsaken the foods of our various cultures and fill our stomachs with fast foods like McDonald's and "bunny chow".

Is the rapidly changing food culture responsible for our poor health outcomes? With the rising number of lifestyle diseases now taking many South Africans lives, a new discussion around food needs to take place.

The biggest driver of obesity is the consumption of unhealthy foods, and the biggest consequences are chronic and often debilitating diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.

And while it’s a crisis long-thought to be associated with wealthy populations, more and more research is finding that the poor are the hardest hit, especially in South Africa.

The following short video short video looks at traditional food in SA:

^{Image credit: iStock}