More than one in five Sri Lankan schoolchildren are affected by malnutrition, Health Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe said on Thursday, warning that early-life undernourishment is increasingly bleeding into adult obesity.
Ada Derana reported Dr. Jasinghe was speaking at a media briefing at the Health Promotion Bureau marking National Nutrition Month. Citing recent survey data on children under and over five years, he placed stunting at 10.1% and underweight at 16.1%, with overweight at only 0.5% — figures consistent with the international “double burden” pattern in which malnourished children later face elevated risk of diet-related disease.
“These figures indicate that nearly one-fifth of our children are affected by malnutrition,” Dr. Jasinghe said. “In such a context, children often transition from early-life malnutrition to obesity in adolescence and adulthood.”
On the adult side, the Health Ministry flagged a sharp escalation in obesity. Forty-seven percent of women and 30% of men are currently classified as obese, with projections showing further increases over the medium term. The ministry framed the data as the basis for a renewed nutrition policy focus this month.
The briefing widens the diagnostic picture sketched out in the May 17 Nutrition Society and Family Health Bureau joint warning on child malnutrition delivered by paediatric nutrition consultant Dr. V.P. Wickramasinghe-Jayawickrama, which framed the problem as a “triple burden” of stunting, micronutrient gaps and overweight.
