While obesity is often blamed on the consumption of too many calories, especially in Western countries, in the landlocked southern African country of Zimbabwe, the lack of access to a proper balanced diet is making the poor overweight.
Despite reeling under economic hardships for decades and over 90% population unemployed, obesity is affecting people and mostly women across the country.
Health officials on the condition of anonymity said the obesity cases have drastically increased in the country over the years. They estimate that at least 18% of the total 14.65 million population of Zimbabwe was battling obesity.
A 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey, the last one conducted officially shows that 35% of Zimbabwean women are obese, and so are 12% of men.
The Zimbabwean officials said the latest statistics were being prepared for publication.
Bernard Madzima, a top official in Health and Child Care Ministry, said that intake of unhealthy food has increased the prevalence of obesity in the country.
Health officials attribute increased intake of sadza, made from boiled maize, rich in starch and carbohydrate as the cause for overweight population.
The diet has become the most popular meal for indigenous peoples of Zimbabwe.
Dependent mostly on the sadza diet, Mavis Nyoni, 33, a resident of capital Harare’s Mabvuku high-density eastern suburb is now weighing 93 kilograms. She has also developed diabetes.
“I’m worried about my weight. I do not eat much. I always have sadza which we can only afford easily for our family here,” she told Anadolu Agency.
Her mother Letiwe Nyoni, 57, and her father Petros Nyoni, 61, are also overweight and diabetic.
“Sadza is the only food we can take here because we have no money to buy other types of food,” said Letiwe.
Health officials say the sadza made from ground maize contains massive carbohydrates that have been the cause of obesity across Zimbabwe. They said that obesity has also led to an increased incidence of other diseases like diabetes and cancer.
But the family says that despite bad effects on their health, they have at least something to eat like sadza.
Source: Anadolu Agency