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Experts recommend New Year resolutions on low-cost, protein-rich meals
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Nutritionists advised people to buy fruits and vegetables from the local polas. Pix by Sudath M. Hewa
By Nadia Fazlulhaq
Make sure your New Year resolution is a pledge to include low-cost, nutrient-filled local produce in meals, actively get involved in home gardening, and reduce food wastage, nutrition experts recommend.
Their food security advice came as the World Bank placed Sri Lanka among the top 10 countries with the highest food inflation. The country now stands in seventh place in the top ten food inflation countries along with Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Argentina, Venezuela, Turkiye, Suriname, Hungary, Iran, and Lebanon.
“The high incidence of climate shocks, depletion of foreign currency reserves, and depreciation of local currencies have kept food prices above normal levels and made healthy food less affordable in South Asia,” the World Bank report on food security said.
In an emergency appeal issued this week, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) said significantly more poor households than non-poor households had lost more than half of their income due to the economic crisis.
“People are now selling their assets, becoming indebted, and cutting down on food, and their children are less likely to attend school. An estimated 5.7 million people (26 percent of the country’s population) or more are now in need of humanitarian assistance, with at least 4.9 million (22 percent) being food insecure,” IFRC said.
Recently the World Food Programme said that in Sri Lanka fifty percent of households regularly employed coping mechanism tactics such as cutting portion sizes and consuming less nutritious meals, due to the high cost of nutritious food.
“Many households have cut down meat protein and reduced the consumption of eggs and milk due to price hikes. Families with children especially those entering puberty should get enough protein as it will have a major impact on their growth,” said consultant medical nutritionist Dr. Renuka Jayatissa.
R. Jeyaratnam
She said cost-cutting would have a major impact on the population’s health in the future.
“Those who cannot afford meat or eggs should go for soya or small fish such as sprats which are rich in protein. Fresh milk should be made available to the public at a reasonable rate,” she said.
With imported fruits beyond the reach of most people and local fruits also going up in price, nutritionists are encouraging people to engage in home gardening or backyard gardening.
Wayamba University’s Applied Nutrition Professor Renuka Silva said he would advise the people to go to the local pola (fair) and buy healthy greens and low-cost vegetables.
“It is unfortunate that the urban and rural poor still cannot afford an egg a day,” he said, noting that they could not even buy morning grains. “People are somehow managing to have rice but have cut down on vegetables and proteins,” he said.
Estate-sector workers are one of the worst-hit groups.
R. Jeyaratnam, owner of a small food outlet in Hatton, said he was witnessing a drastic drop in the demand for lunch packets.
“Since increasing the price of the packet of vegetable rice to Rs. 250 and egg rice packet to Rs.300, many people, especially the daily wage earners, are skipping meals. They just have one meal a day, mostly roti and plain tea. Once the electricity bill goes up from this month, I have no option but to increase the prices at the risk of losing more of my customers,” he added.
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