Food Habits of Nepali City Kids
Bhawana UPADHYAY (Nepal)
A few months ago I was invited by a close friend of mine for a dinner in a newly
opened Pizza hut in the country. I was amazed by the voracity of the eight old year sonof one of my friend. Despite my friend persistent requests to limit his intakes, the boy,her only baby, ate one medium size thick crust chicken pizza with extra cheese toppingand gulped a large Pepsi. Besides, he took two ice-creams as dessert. Although his momfelt very embarrassed witnessing this, I seriously doubted the food habits she inculcatedin him.
A recent study finding which used data from more than 200 countries between 1980
and 2008 showed steadily increasing prevalence of obesity epidemic in countries ofevery region. The trend is evident in high, middle and low income countries. Nepal isexperiencing growing urbanization and associated changes in lifestyles. City kids arequickly disappearing from playgrounds, rather to be found as couch potatoes in front of
their television screens for hours, or glued to their computer chairs. Their fiber, protein
and carbohydrate rich usual diets are gradually being replaced by readymade high-fat
and high- sugar content foods.
Studies have indicated that the concept of instant ready-to-eat foodstuff has led toproliferation of processed foods stuffed with unhealthy ingredients like added sugar,
fats, salt, enhancers, etc. The cheap marketing tactics, common in countries like Nepal
where regulatory and enforcement mechanisms as still weak, have been proven to bevery effective especially among children—the most vulnerable lot to obesity.
For instance, the instant noodle advertorials claiming that they are loaded withvitamins and other nutrients have been successful in wooing school children to secure aguaranteed space for noodles in their tiffin boxes. The government’s recent decision of
imposing a ban on junk food in schools shall therefore be applauded. Inclusion ofnutrition, physical activity and obesity prevention in the school curricula could just be
an immediate step to complement obesity prevention. Given the fact that most of thedevelopment

organizations

arecurrently

following

approaches

suchastheCommunity-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and School-led Total Sanitation (SLTS) in theirsanitation projects, obesity-related interventions can easily be aligned with theseapproaches.
Governments have a crucial role to play in order to prevent people food habits. Lackof visioning of the Nepal government was evident when we missed the opportunity ofgathering data on physical activity and dietary intake by excluding these items in thenational census of 2011.
Another threat for Nepal is, non-communicable diseases are not high on our agenda.
Nepal’s health policy prioritizes infectious diseases due to the fact that these are themajor causes of child mortality.

There still exist rooms for improvement, as a certain

studies have found that food habits, particularly during childhood disappear later
depending on the eating behaviors and physical activities subsequently followed. The
challenge, thus, largely remains with all others who have the responsibility to ensurethat we and our children keep healthy.