The International Association for the Study of Obesity has come up with research that shows that the obesity epidemic apparent in South Africa is partly due to the high prevelance of AIDS in the country. South Africa has a very serious obesity epidemic that is particularily apparent in women with as many as 33% of them being obese and many more being overweight.

The reason that the AIDS epidemic has an effect on the obesity levels is due to cultural assumptions that perceive that black women could be suffering from AIDS if they are not chubby and that if they lose weight people will think that they also are suffering from the wasting disease. There is also the old tribal custom and tradition that being overweight means that you are rich and affluent.

These old fashioned and misguided ideas means that thin women are not highly prized in South Africa and people even go as far as to say that thin women must have poor husbands that can't afford to feed them. Being overweight is basically assocaited with health in many African countries and not with bad health as it is in Europe and the United States.

There are also high levels of violent crime that means that many women prefer to stay indoors because they feel safer there and this leads to sedentary lifestyles that are in themselves a cause of obesity. South Africa has recently opened its first obesity clinic and the country is slowly beginning to realise the health implications of obesity on the nation. The levels of heart disease and diabetes are very high in South Africa and the number of cases is rising every year.