Food environment transitions in southern Africa-impact on dietary patterns

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Global Food and Environment Institute

How different social groups access food and the agri-food policies shape experiences in Zambia.

The food environments in southern Africa are going through changes, leading to a mixed pattern of malnutrition. This includes lacking important nutrients and stunted growth, as well as increased levels of overweight and obesity. However, how these changes affect what people eat is still not fully understood. <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/staff/11814/dr-peter-yiga?_gl=1*6gowv*_gcl_au*MTI5MjAzMzU0Ni4xNzY1OTcwMDU5*_ga*MTI4MTQzNzc3LjE3NDIzMTQzNzI.*_ga_SEKE21EBEQ*czE3NjYwNTAwOTMkbzM0MCRnMSR0MTc2NjA1MDA5OSRqNTQkbDAkaDIwNzYwNTg0Njk." title="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/staff/11814/dr-peter-yiga?_gl=1*6gowv*_gcl_au*MTI5MjAzMzU0Ni4xNzY1OTcwMDU5*_ga*MTI4MTQzNzc3LjE3NDIzMTQzNzI.*_ga_SEKE21EBEQ*czE3NjYwNTAwOTMkbzM0MCRnMSR0MTc2NjA1MDA5OSRqNTQkbDAkaDIwNzYwNTg0Njk." target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr Peter Yiga, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds</a> has used interactive methods called "Photovoice," where consumers take photos to show their experiences, along with interviews with key people involved in the food sector. His work shows how different social groups access and experience food environments, and how agricultural policies influence these experiences in Zambia.Photovoice findings reveal a growing consumer exposure to an obesogenic food environment marked by a decreasing diversity of healthy foods, alongside increasing availability and unregulated marketing of unhealthy processed and fast foods. Heightened by the desire for convenience, increased attention to food safety, limited food knowledge and skills, and aspirational attitudes towards unhealthy foods, the environment is habituating the public towards unhealthy dietary patterns.Policy analysis shows that transitions are underpinned by fragmented and uncoordinated government actions that result in contradictions across different policies which include:<ul><li>monocultural agriculture prioritisation vs diversification aspirations</li><li>vitamin A sugar fortification</li><li>economic-driven investment policies without explicit public health safeguards</li><li>lower investments in wet markets amidst supermarket growth</li></ul>Public health policy places emphasis on improving public awareness, but implementation is slow due to local government’s capacity. Overall, cross-sectoral, integrated structural double duty do no harm policy bundles that align economic incentives across agricultural, trade and processed food value chains with nutrition guidelines, are suggested as potential levers.The session will start with welcomes and introductions from the Chair, <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/food-nutrition/staff/7159/professor-yun-yun-gong" title="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/food-nutrition/staff/7159/professor-yun-yun-gong" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Professor Yun Yun Gong</a> followed by a 20-minute presentation by <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/staff/11814/dr-peter-yiga?_gl=1*6gowv*_gcl_au*MTI5MjAzMzU0Ni4xNzY1OTcwMDU5*_ga*MTI4MTQzNzc3LjE3NDIzMTQzNzI.*_ga_SEKE21EBEQ*czE3NjYwNTAwOTMkbzM0MCRnMSR0MTc2NjA1MDA5OSRqNTQkbDAkaDIwNzYwNTg0Njk." title="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/staff/11814/dr-peter-yiga?_gl=1*6gowv*_gcl_au*MTI5MjAzMzU0Ni4xNzY1OTcwMDU5*_ga*MTI4MTQzNzc3LjE3NDIzMTQzNzI.*_ga_SEKE21EBEQ*czE3NjYwNTAwOTMkbzM0MCRnMSR0MTc2NjA1MDA5OSRqNTQkbDAkaDIwNzYwNTg0Njk." target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr Peter Yiga</a>. Afterwards, there will be 10 minutes for questions and answers managed by the Chair.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-yiga/" title="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-yiga/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dr Peter Yiga</a> is currently a Research Fellow in Dietary Health at the University of Leeds, UK. His research is aimed at bridging the gap between science, policy, and practice to improve cardiometabolic health. He applies participatory methodological approaches to understand food environments and build an evidence base (designing and evaluating) of scalable culturally tailored lifestyle and food environment interventions to address the nutrition/health transition in the Global South and ethnic minorities in the Global North. More specifically, he has applied participatory approaches to understand and develop intervention strategies to address dietary transitions in Southern and Eastern Africa.

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Food environment transitions in southern Africa-impact on dietary patterns

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