Nutrition and dietary quality in Sri Lanka: Insights from the 2024-2025 BRIGHT survey

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dc.creatorTinneberg, Pia
dc.creatorHeadey, Derek D.
dc.creatorComstock, Andrew
dc.creatorEcker, Olivier
dc.creatorMarshall, Quinn
dc.creatorSitisekara, Hasara
dc.creatorSilva, Renuka
dc.creatorHülsen, Vivien
dc.creatorMunasinghe, Dilusha
dc.creatorRanucci, Immacolata
dc.creatorSabai, Moe
dc.creatorStifel, Elizabeth
dc.creatorvan Asselt, Joanna
dc.creatorWeerasinghe, Krishani
dc.date2025-11-25
dc.date2025-11-25T14:33:28Z
dc.date2025-11-25T14:33:28Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:05:47Z
dc.descriptionKey findings and policy implications • Dietary quality in Sri Lanka – defined in terms of consumption levels of different healthy food groups – falls well short of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health’s 2021 Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) targets, with clear imbalances across food groups. • Heavy dependence on starchy staples. Starchy foods dense in calories but sparse in nutrients provide over 60% of total energy consumption, highlighting a strong over-consumption of rice. • Low consumption of nutrient-rich foods. Intakes of fruits, dark green leafy vegetables (DGLVs), and legumes are at only about one-third of the recommended levels. • Some households report zero consumption of healthy food groups. More than 30% of households report zero consumption of dairy foods in the past 7 days, while 15% report zero consumption of dark green leafy vegetables, and 5% zero fruit, indicating that important foods are absent from many household diets. • Multidimensional dietary deprivation. Nearly all Sri Lankan households are deprived in at least one food group. A typical deprived household falls below the reference threshold in six to seven of eight food groups and consumes only about 37% of the recommended amounts for the foods in which consumption is lower than recommended. • Significant dietary inequality across sectors. Dietary deprivation is most acute in the estate sector, while rural and urban areas fare moderately better. • There is a clear need to promote healthy dietary diversification, especially higher consumption of fruits, legumes, vegetables and dairy, while moderating excess consumption of starchy staples. • Institutionalize regular monitoring of diet deprivation, using the Reference Diet Deprivation (ReDD) index and other dietary indicators to guide targeted nutrition interventions. • Support further research on the drivers of dietary patterns in Sri Lanka to better understand its determinants and differences between sectors.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/178184
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/94400
dc.languageen
dc.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Institute
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceTinneberg, Pia; Headey, Derek D.; Comstock, Andrew; Ecker, Olivier; Marshall, Quinn; et al. 2025. Nutrition and dietary quality in Sri Lanka: Insights from the 2024-2025 BRIGHT survey. BRIGHT Sri Lanka Project Note 7. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/178184
dc.subjectnutrition
dc.subjectdiet quality
dc.subjectnutrient intake
dc.subjecthealth diets
dc.subjectnutritive value
dc.subjectsurveys
dc.titleNutrition and dietary quality in Sri Lanka: Insights from the 2024-2025 BRIGHT survey
dc.typeBrief

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Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI)