The most common excuse I have from my clients is that healthy eating is expensive and that is the main reason for their failure to lose weight. Is it really a barrier or just an excuse?

The South African diet has become, more 'Americanized'. Most advertising on television is for high-fat, deep-fried foods and high-energy snacks.

When you think about it, most of us will rather buy a pizza or a burger as a treat for the family than a salad. You won’t get the excited glee of joy from your family if you announce that you are treating them with soup for instance.

Most of us also prefer eating large portions of protein, such as chicken, Boerewors and steak, piled up on our plate at a braai with a beer rather than eating grilled vegetables.

Fried foods are also easier and faster to cook and become our first option.

I was watching TV where a popular grill-house was offering a challenge to their customers to eat a 1.5kg steak and they could win a free bottle of wine. Why can't we have a competition to see who could eat the most vegetables?

My family in Italy having a saying the 'Slow food is better than fast food'. We should adopt this statement and start a vegetable revolution, encourage vegetable gardens at home and at school. We need to make eating vegetables 'Cool' again, if we don't we will lose our battle against obesity in SA.

For a tasty meat-free dishes click here!