Body-image perception and dissatisfaction: acknowledging the sociocultural factors of obesity in South Africa

Abstract

This policy brief recommends that the South African Department of Health (DoH) endorses the necessary strategies directed at educating South Africans on how to correctly identify their body size, to increase awareness of a normal/healthy body size, to advocate the importance of adopting a healthy body size and to restrict the use of words like lose or gain weight in health messages as this terminology has the potential to harm people by increasing the stigma attached to being thin or fat.