Relevance of food-based dietary guidelines to food and nutrition security: A South African perspective

Food-based dietary guidelines are often developed at country level to assist in bringing dietary intakes closer to nutrient intake goals and, ultimately, to prevent nutrition-related diseases. However, high food prices, alongside growing inflation, increasingly restrict food choices. This can leave those who are already vulnerable and less well off more exposed to the associated health implications of a nutrient deficient diet. With food and nutrition security being a high priority on the global nutrition agenda, this paper explores the feasibility of food-based dietary guidelines to assist in improving food and nutrition security, focusing on nutritionally vulnerable groups in South Africa. It is argued that increased food prices, together with population growth, urbanisation and inflation, constrain everyday healthy food choices of a large proportion of South Africans. The South African food-based dietary guidelines released in 2012 advocate the consumption of a daily diet containing a variety of foods. Unfortunately, even when the most basic and low-cost food items are selected to make up a recommended daily diet, the associated costs are well out of reach of poor individuals residing in South Africa. The average household income of the poor in South Africa equips many households to procure mainly low-cost staple foods such as maize meal porridge, with limited added variety. Although the ability to procure enough food to maintain satiety of all family members might categorise them as being food secure, the nutritional limitations of such monotonous diets may have severe implications in terms of their health, development and quality of life. Food-based dietary guidelines alone have little relevance in such circumstances where financial means limit food choice. Alternative interventions are therefore required to equip the poor to follow recommended healthy diets and to improve individual food intake and nutrition security.