What do Sri Lankan men, women and children eat? Certainly not the food they should be eating day in, day out but “unbalanced meals”, a national survey has revealed.
This is not due to poverty alone, the Sunday Times understands, for 87% of the households surveyed countrywide just last year were “food secure” with only 1% facing “severe food insecurity”.
The type of food people eat or give their children is the problem, says Dr. Renuka Jayatissa, Head of the Department of Nutrition of the Medical Research Institute, disclosing some startling data collected under the ‘Nutrition and Food Security Survey’ in nine districts, one from each province.
Only three children in 10 under five years of age had been given an egg in the day preceding the survey, while it was just 36% of households that ate egg. Even in the five days just prior to the survey, only 7% of households had taken egg. This was across the board from the poorest to the richest, it is learnt.
Is it a cultural taboo or some kind of belief for it didn’t seem to be based on income or wealth, she asks, explaining the importance of the humble egg which is full of nutrition. “The choline in egg is a memory booster and very good for children.”
With regard to other types of food, fruit, essential as part of the diet to gain vitamins and minerals did not fare much better. From among the poorest segment, only about 15% of the households and from the richest only about 48% had eaten fruit in five or more days per week. Pulses and nuts ranged from 18% (poorest) to 35% (richest) while vegetables ranged from 68% (poorest) to 81% (richest), says Dr. Jayatissa, stressing that most Sri Lankans filled their stomachs with rice, coconut and sugar.
They did eat rice, nearly 100%, covering all segments from the poorest to the richest, either not being aware or forgetting about the need for “food diversity”, the survey has found.
With only a national average of 70% of children under five being ladled a portion of iron-rich meat, fish, poultry or dried fish, anaemia has become a major issue. Even among the children from the richest category only 83% got such proteins, the survey has found.
Attributing the very slow decline in the figures of anaemia to not much diversity in food, this nutritionist points out that whereas it was one in three (30%) in 2001, even now it is not much better at one in four (25%).
What is needed, Dr. Jayatissa says is aggressive intervention to prevent a sick nation emerging. “The easiest way to overcome anaemia is to fortify our staple food, which is rice, with iron,” she explains, adding that in the United Kingdom the bread is being fortified and trends of anaemia among the people are showing a drastic decline.
This should be done while making a shift in the eating patterns of Sri Lankans, she says, urging that a plate should have only about 60% rice and not 95% with colourful vegetables and green leaves being eaten in larger quantities.
“Food diversity,” is the key with four or more food groups such as cereals; fruits; vegetables; dairy products; meats, fish, dried fish or pulses; nuts; fat and sugar being eaten to get basic nutrition.
Unfortunately, only 73% of children are getting all this while in the estate areas the figure drops to a low of 47%, the Sunday Times learns.
The survey was conducted in the districts of Ratnapura, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Trincomalee, Jaffna, Badulla, Nuwara Eliya, Colombo and Hambantota.
Wife getting fat sign of husband doing well
Some interesting trends have been shown with regard to weight.
While there are only 1% of overweight children among those under five years of age, the same cannot be said about the fairer sex in the country.
Twenty-two per cent of non-pregnant women in the 15-49 year age group were overweight with 7% being obese. The weight of 50% was just right while 18% were underweight. The highest overweight percentage was in the urban sector while the highest underweight percentage was in the plantations, the survey found.
The deciding factor of the wife’s weight seemed to be the kind of job her husband did -- the better the job of the husband, the more weight the wife gained.
“What can be deduced is that when the husband did a good job or rose in his career, there are more facilities for those around him, including domestic help which prevented the wife from getting exercise doing daily chores such as sweeping the house etc.,” smiles Dr. Jayatissa.
Who’s getting food relief?
The country is doing fine with regard to food security but where has the system gone wrong?
Food security, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization is when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.
How is it that with many a welfare and poverty alleviation programme not only by the government but also other agencies, Sri Lankans are not getting the right food? There is the Samurdhi Programme for the impoverished in addition to which food baskets are being given under the Mahinda Chinthanaya to keep starvation at bay. The Health Ministry, meanwhile, provides Triposha not only to expectant mothers but also to under-nourished children, while the Education Ministry serves children in 1,800 schools the mid-day meal. The World Food Programme is providing supplementary food to undernourished children and food-for-work in some food insecure districts.
But the survey has revealed that only 60% of the poorest of the poor households are in fact benefiting by all these poverty alleviation programmes with 40% not receiving any food-aid.
An eye-opener has been the figures collected under the ‘Food-related coping strategies adopted in the last 30 days’ – 84% relied on “less preferred food”; 55% borrowed food; 44% reduced the number of meals per day; 7% sent children to live with relatives and 12% consumed seeds held for the next season.
The irony, however, is that 16% of the richest households are also receiving “food relief” under some programme.
It is crucial to re-think the criteria when selecting the beneficiaries of welfare programmes, stresses Dr. Jayatissa, adding that the needy must be specifically targeted. |
E-mail
