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 foodbased
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.