Partner Content: Do our children know what’s good for them?

The State of Nutrition in South Africa 2021 report highlights improvements and challenges to our national health and wellbeing in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a strong focus on how the foods youth eat affect their health, development and functioning throughout every life stage.

Making healthy choices is often confusing, expensive and time consuming, especially if you’re a time-strapped parent trying to make ends meet.

This year’s State of Nutrition in South Africa 2021 report includes an extensive section on children, which aims to help inform their understanding of nutrition, health and wellness.

Almost two out of five (38%) South African parents believe their children do not have a good understanding of the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods. This is despite the fact that parents themselves – followed closely by family, friends, and school teachers – believe to have the most influence on children’s views on food.

Almost a third (32%) of parents, however, indicated that their children significantly influence the purchase of healthy food.

This is double the number of respondents who indicated that their child has a significant influence on purchasing unhealthy food (16%).

This year’s interactive report, commissioned by Tiger Brands’ Eat Well Live Well Institute, guides parents with practical advice and easy-to-follow tips and affordable recipes to help keep their children healthy.

The report also highlights the importance of an active lifestyle on their creativity, problem-solving abilities and overall development, while providing a guide to age-appropriate exercises and fun activities.

“We are acutely aware that adequate nutritional nourishment from a young age, coupled with an active lifestyle, has the potential to positively impact our society and its future economic outcomes,” says Becky Opdyke, Chief Marketing Officer at Tiger Brands.

Download the annual State of Nutrition in South Africa 2021 report here.