UPS: - VOICER - It’s official. South Africans are obese. So says a recent Department of Health study on obesity. We are now on a par with America and Britain. And we are eating ourselves to death.

Title: Heavy Weight

UPS: - VOICER - Nearly 40% of South Africans are overweight most of them obese. Worldwide more 1, 5 billion people are overweight and 2 million deaths occur annually due to obesity-related diseases - hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and some types of cancers. Half the population in our country does not exercise. The Heart Foundation says as a nation we are a ticking time bomb. With this in my mind I started my investigation:  how to lose weight so I don’t become yet another statistic. My first stop was at the Sure Slim Wellness Clinic. A South African company with more that 180 000 members.

UPS: - SHARON LEWIS; MD SURE SLIM - We do not use pills, shakes or gimmicks we prescribed three balanced meals a day for you. And obviously when you’re loosing seven kilograms or five to seven kilograms a month you need a balanced vitamins an minerals so we had our own range of products that you can use that are not pills and shakes.

UPS: - VOICER - I never thought much about South Africans’ obsession with losing weight – but what I do know is that the weight-loss industry is a multi-billion dollar business internationally. And South Africans are no different to others around the world… who are willing to pay to be taught what to eat. Here I’m having my body mass index calculated.  This will tell you what you should weigh to be healthy. At 29 years I’m being told that I am not just overweight - but I’m on the border of obesity.

UPS: - SHARON LEWIS; MD SURE SLIM -  Everything is according to your individual blood test which is why we are such a safe eating plan. We have a medical team at Sure Slim the blood results when you have been for your blood tests go to the medical team and then this individual eating plan is worked out.

UPS: - VOICER - Sure Slim says their eating plan will ensure that I lose a minimum of 4 kg a month. All I need is to take a blood test at a cost of R450 – so they can find out if I have a medical condition… like diabetes or high cholesterol. After that they can tell what foods make me fat and how to eat. It sounds complex but what is really needed is dedication and money – just to be taught what to eat.

UPS: - SHARON LEWIS; MD SURE SLIM -   It cost you approximately two hundred rand a month to change your life. You know you spend two hundred rand a month on junk food.

 UPS: - VOICER - This is a weekly support group at Weight-Watchers an international organization that promote healthy weight loss. After a sign-up fee, you pay R100 every month to learn how to eat healthily. The core of their programme is the point system. Different foods are worth different points and you have a daily limit of points.

UPS: - MICHELLE CRAEMER; WEIGHT WATCHERS CO-ORDINATOR - Weight Watchers is about teaching people to make changes in their lifestyle. It is about food definitely, food is life to quote one of my members she said “what weight watchers is done for her it’s taught her not have a fear of food”.  And really food is there to be eaten in the right quantity you can be healthy not to forget about exercise I mean that is very much part of our programme as well. So we really do give you an overall base on how to live a health lifestyle and to make changes that would be to your benefit certainly in the long term. Not too many people are able to loose weight on their own they need the support they need someone helping them and guiding and encouraging them that is what we do at weight watchers. We are there to encourage our members to keep themselves going even in times when things are disappointing at the scale we are there to encourage them to carry on stick with the programme keep going on. What we done at weight watchers in terms of portion sizes is very simple we teach you what a portion of food look like. Your protein for example which is your fish, meat or chicken that is already cooked it is in your plate ready to eat will be approximately the size of the palm of your hand it is a guideline that is what it is. We do not weigh food it is a non-prescriptive diet your whole family can benefit from this.

UPS: - COLLEN KAICENER – I don’t think there is any fat person in this world that got fat because that is what they really wanted to do.

UPS: - VOICER - Colleen Kaicener has been with Weight Watchers for a year. She weighs more than 150 kg. She has grappled with obesity for years emotionally and psychologically. Even her family has been affected.

UPS: - COLLEN KAICENER –  I have a little nine year old daughter I would like to go and run down Emmerantia dam with her run around feed the ducks walk enjoy myself I do not do that because physical it causes me too much pain.

UPS: - VOICER - Regular over-eating and lack of exercise cause an energy-imbalance. This can lead to obesity. Forty one year-old Colleen has tried several weight-loss products that promise a ‘quick fix’. But now she wants to change her lifestyle – to make a commitment to healthy eating for life. She has no choice. She is already suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes.

UPS: - COLLEN KAICENER – I did not get fat over night I started picking up weight around about the ages of sixteen seventeen. And it just continued every year it is couple more kilos couple more kilos until you wake up one morning and you look like I do I mean that is how it really happens.  It is like a drug addiction with food it is not easy for a drug addict to stop the temptation is always there so it is like this war that you fight with yourself. And I was suffering badly with panic attacks because I got to the stage I am going to have a heart attack I felt powerless and I realized that I was powerless for as long as I did not take control I did not do something about it.

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UPS: - VOICER - In Africa obesity has become a major cause of illness. The traditional African diet didn’t have much fat. Today in cities fat intake has shot up. Obesity-related diseases are putting immense pressure on health systems. Yet many of them can be prevented by healthy eating. But consumers are often confused by reports that offer new advice on what not to eat and advertising that promotes fatty and sugary food as mouth-watering snacks. African women are the group most affected by obesity. Martha and her friend Brenda aren’t even 35 yet and they already know they’re facing the threat of death. They are overweight and suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes. They’re both unemployed and staying in the township poses more challenges. This is the only food they say they can afford and it’s easily accessible. They’ve never bothered to find out about cheaper healthier choices.

UPS: - BREANDA NDLOVU - I like fried foods and salads. Vegetables I only have in salads. I know that I don’t eat healthily. If I had money I would be buying vegetables and coming back to cook and eat them. Bu I don’t have money. I eat whatever food is available.

UPS: -MARTHA MLAMBO - I worry a lot because when I need something to wear I have a problem getting a size to fit me. I have a problem when I have to do housework because I cannot kneel down. My weight is making me sick.  I have high blood pressure and diabetes.

UPS: - BREANDA NDLOVU - You get stressed in the taxis. They say four people must sit in a row. So if I sit here where will the other three sit? In taxis they accuse fat people of taking up all the space.

UPS: -MARTHA MLAMBO – these days it has got worse. I went looking for a job and they said I was overweight. I could not work there. So I just sit at home.

UPS: - BREANDA NDLOVU – it is difficult to wake and jog where I stay because there is a lot of crime. I will jog the first day and the second day by the third day there is a strong chance I will be raped.

UPS: -MARTHA MLAMBO - My problem is that I do not have money. If I did I would go to a gym.

UPS: - BREANDA NDLOVU -: We do not have a hall or a stadium or tennis courts.  Our park is run down. It gets flooded when it rains because there are no drains. Soon I will not be able to go through a door. For instance on a bus I have to get out sideways and with a lot of difficulty. I will end up not being able to take a bus because the steps are too high to climb.

UPS: -MARTHA MLAMBO - I am scared that I will die and my kids will be left alone. So to be able to live a normal life like other people I have to lose weight for the sake of my kids.

UPS: - VOICER - I am at a support group at Weigh Less a South African programme. They boast that their research into healthy eating is ongoing. And ordinary people are prepared to pay good money for this advice.

UPS: - WEIGH LESS MEMBER 1 – It has given me a lot of confidence I love going out now.

UPS: - WEIGH LESS MEMBER 2 – weigh-less has a positive effect on me as well as my family.

 UPS: - VOICER - It is hard not to get caught up by the claims members make about the changes Weigh less has made to their lives. 

UPS: - MARY HOLROYD; CHAIRMAN: WEIGH-LESS - Weigh less is based on the food pyramid which is endorsed by WHO the World Health Organization. From the beginning weigh-less has never gone to crash diets maybe on the form of fat person would never give members a crash diet. I would try maximizing and speeding up weight losses but ii would only do it through healthy methods.

UPS: - VOICER - There are close to fifty thousand Weigh Less members in the country. Once every week they come to be weighed and learned about for hundred and thirty rand a month. Once again that catch phrase comes up “it’s not about loosing weight but changing your life style”.

UPS: - MARY HOLROYD; CHAIRMAN: WEIGH-LESS - There is no bad food or good it just better choices from the health point of view cause it not just about weight we managing what is inside as well as what is on.

UPS: - VOICER - Every weight loss programme has its challenges. Here the challenge is to learn how to weigh food. Then to know how to read food labels for fat, carbohydrates and sugar content. The trick is in control what and how much you are eating.

UPS: - MARY HOLROYD; CHAIRMAN: WEIGH-LESS – a potato is a potato an apple is an apple if you can and you want and you know that you are picking up a product that is low on fat low on salt it’s got the kilojoes count that will help you or convenience for fast foods we’ve got pizza and etc. the types of foods that we eat when we not watching our weight is very expensive packet of chocolate packets of chips I mean that junk food is expensive.

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UPS: - VOICER - Everybody thinks their diet is best Body for Life is an international programme. It was brought to South Africa eight years ago by EAS. Many people with money swear by it. The MD of Body for Life says it is not advisable to go on crash diets with rapid weight loss. You may lose the weight - but you will lose muscle and that is unhealthy. It is also not enough to watch what you eat.

UPS: ANDREW BUTLER; MD EAS AFRICA -  Body for life is not about loosing weight it is about changing the shape changing the composition of your body that means dropping body fat and possibly increasing your lean muscle tissue which is very healthy. Increasing your metabolism and you energy levels the better you feel about your energy levels the more comfortable on the diet. By doing any diet from a big from a big pear to a small pear. You never change the shape of your body without exercise. You need to do some form of exercise with any type of eating plan I don’t believe in doing any type of diet on its own.

UPS: - VOICER - Body for Life guarantees a dramatic change in your body shape - after just 12 weeks. But to achieve changes like this is very expensive. First you pay for gym. Then for supplements. Then for the very limited kinds of foods you’re allowed. You can spend anything from R500 to R2500 a month.

UPS: ANDREW BUTLER; MD EAS AFRICA - Body for life is based on weight training and cardio-vascular training. Your weight training is normally on Monday, Wednesday, Friday of forty five minutes and cardio-vascular programme Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of twenty minutes. So it is not a huge period of time that you spend on a gym it is about intensity not duration of spending hours on the gym. Then you eat six small portions of food through out he day to speed up the metabolism and to ensure the muscles in the body is getting the correct nutrient in order to make your change.

UPS: - VOICER - By now I had gone to three different weight loss programmes. I am still on my quest to find out more about weight loss methods. I meet Paula Galvao a pharmacist by profession and founder of Eden Life Weight Loss Clinic. Paula is well known to insiders in the weight loss industry. She manufactures several weight loss supplements, some advertised on television nationally. Paula’s views differ from what I have heard till now.

UPS: - PAULA GALVAO - Look at that weight kiss it goodbye because you are not going to weigh that again.

UPS: - VOICER - Paula insists that it is not enough to think that if you eat less and exercise more, you will loose weight. The whole process is far more complex than that.

UPS: - PAULA GALVAO - Eden Life believes that people are overweight because of the bio-chemical imbalance. I never seen a single person that is overweight that actually wants to be overweight. It has got very little to do with will power it is about bio-chemistry. What we do at Eden life is we will take things from the medical perspective together with our team of doctors to find out what is wrong with that particular person and help that person loose weight from the medical point of view correcting the bio-chemistry. And once the bio-chemistry is corrected the rest happens easily. You know diet is what you drink (DI) what you eat (ET) so the people who say it is a lifestyle change. If their programme is so different to what you would normally do that is not a lifestyle either it is simple a temporarily jail sentence and then you just break out. That is where you find when a programme is so very different to the way you normally eat what happens you loose weight and a year later you put on plus. The statistics are ninety percent put on all the weight at the end of the year plus. If you come to us and you are fifty overweight kilos like I was and you are not exercising, you loose the weight when you exercise because what happens is the person comes in fifty percent overweight for every five kilos that you are overweight you put on extra fifty kilos on your knee. So five kilos overweight both knees at hundred. You will not send someone like that to the gym to go running so you loose the weight first there is a lot less on your knees and everything else then you start to exercise. There is no one size all so you cannot tell everybody to eat healthy then you will loose weight. What about the person who is lap tine resistant will they loose weight definitely not. What about a person who eats like potatoes let us say releases a huge amount of insulin and store fat. There is some people if they only eat one potato a day they will still put on weight that is because if the bio-chemistry so we correct it. The truth of the matter is every single programme out there has got truth.

UPS: - VOICER - I have now heard many different theories about weight loss many of them are not that different form one another. But I still don’t know what will work for me. What I do know is that we need to take precautions when choosing to lose weight as the Department of Health keeps saying. Yet there are many diet pills in South Africa you can buy them off the shelves at pharmacies or supermarket. If I decide to use these pills, how do I know that they are effective and safe? With thousand desperate, like I am it is crucial question.

UPS: HUMPREY ZOKUFA; CHAIRMAN: MEDICAL CONTROL COUNCIL – All the products that are registered with us which are appetite suppressants I will be the last one to advocate their usage. The only reason that could make us remove that product form the market if it is not safe and if it is quality product. But we are bound to make it available but make the consumer aware that you do not have to take this product then it’s up to the manufacturer to see the market size of this product is growing or shrinking or is it worth my while to keep on making this product. So that is why ninety percent we are going the route promoting healthy lifestyle with a view that maybe there would not be a demand for these products.

UPS: - VOICER - The Department of Health says there is no need for South Africans to spend money to learn how to eat. They launched Vuka South Africa earlier this year to teach people healthy eating – for free.

UPS: - ZANELE MTHEMBU; DIRECTOR: HEALTH PROMOTION - Vuka is a Nguni word which meaning wake up. Everyone must wake because these diseases we can all prevent if we just put it in our minds and make physical activity part of our daily lives. You do not have to think about it at work you can actually move up and down the steps instead of taking the lift.

UPS: - COLLEN KAICENER – I know I have done this to myself okay and people go will you intentionally take a blade and slit your wrist no of course I would not okay. I do not know how I got as I said earlier I do not know why I am here. I know it is because I made bad choices and I need to make better choices but it is like a drug that has control of you. I do not blame fat people for being scared and I have came on your programme because I want to say to everybody stop before you get to my size it can happen quicker than you think. And if you already my size do something, do something to make your quality of life better. Try something you only fail if you stop.

UPS: - VOICER - For the past two weeks I have been following Vuka guidelines how to preserve my life and maintain a healthy weight. I already feel lighter and healthier already. Obesity levels are rising year by year we need to change otherwise we would be judged harshly by future generations.

*        Eat less fat, sugar and salt.

*        Eat more vegetables, fruit, fibre and enough protein

*        Avoid large portions.

*        Exercise for 30 minutes everyday.

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