The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization, proudly presents the below research by Thiloda Wijayaratne, Whyteleafe Junior Researcher (Sri Lanka), in support of the 2022 #WorldScienceDay theme’s #BasicSciencesForSustainableDevelopment, along with encouraging students toward further research-based projects.

The theme of World Science Day on 10 November 2022 is Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development. It is being celebrated within the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, which kicked off on 8 July 2022. Scientists, science communicators, and science enthusiasts are encouraged to prepare their events to celebrate #WorldScienceDay.
“The annual observance of theInternational Week ofScience and Peace, 9-15 November (A/RES/43/61), is making an important contribution to the promotion of peace. The Week encourages greater academic exchanges on a subject of universal importance while also generating greater awareness of the relationship of science and peace among the general public. Based on observances of Science and Peace Week to date, it may be expected that participation each year will increase, contributing to greater international understanding and opportunities for co-operation in the applications of science for the promotion of peace throughout the year.” #ScienceForDevelopmentAndPeace 
Source: https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-science-day/week

Whyteleafe Junior Research Series

How do we prevent wrong dietary patterns of the working community in Sri Lanka? 
by Thiloda Wijayaratne, Whyteleafe Junior Researcher, Sri Lanka

29/09/2022

Introduction

[LMGlobal.Org] Food is very important to our lives. It can lead to a healthy life or it can destroy one’s health. As well food dietary patterns play a vital role to live a healthy life.

This research is about the dietary patterns of the working community in Sri Lanka, to find the correct or incorrect behavior of their dietary patterns.

This research helps to understand how the correct or incorrect dietary patterns affect our health.

When we look at the dietary patterns, we see that some dietary patterns are difficult to be followed by busy employees.

It is a widely known fact that every human should carry out correct dietary patterns to keep themselves healthy. Also, that is needed to stay away from non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks. Information given on the website of Delaware’s Government (n.d.) shows that healthy eating provides the sustained energy you need to be physically active.

Additionally, they suggest reducing the intake of saturated fats and trans-fats (such as partially hydrogenated oil), using vegetable oils (like olive or canola oil) instead of solid fats, reducing the daily intake of salt or sodium, and restricting or eliminating the consumption of junk food, sodas, and other sugar-added drinks can make people healthy.

Research Question

“How do we prevent wrong dietary patterns of the working community in Sri Lanka?”

 Structure of the Research

To carry out the research, the research primarily introduces the research objective and the research question. Secondly, it explains the existing discussions about the topic. To conduct this research, questionnaires have been sent to a selected group of the working community in Sri Lanka and that has been analyzed quantitatively.  

However, because this research contains personal views, this research may not be generalized and because the majority of the responses to the questionnaires were from the Colombo district, there are limitations within this research.

In conclusion, the research suggests that it has been able to find the correct and easy-to-follow dietary patterns for the busy working community in Sri Lanka to lead a healthy and happy life.  

Further about Research Question

In today’s society, we see many working professionals skip their breakfast or other meals and mostly they eat junk food. That may be due to time issues or maybe they are too tired after work or lazy to get up to make their meals daily. So, the research points out the wrong dietary patterns and ways to correct them with some easy-to-follow methods. 

Objectives of the Research

As the primary objective, the research has identified the correct and incorrect dietary patterns followed by the working community of Sri Lanka.

Then it has shown some widely known and easy methods to address incorrect dietary habits and how the community can use them to correct their wrong dietary patterns so they can live a healthy life.

Theoretical Framework

In the research of Lara et al. (2019), they have indicated their dietary patterns as Plant-Based, Southern, Convenience, Sweets and Alcohol, and Salads. As they figure out, Plant-Based dietary patterns lower the risks of heart failure while Southern patterns increase such risks. However, there is an association with heart failure risk for other patterns.

In a global study by Stewart et al. (2016), on dietary patterns and the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, they stated that the association between a healthy diet which includes foods from a ‘Mediterranean dietary pattern’ and a lower risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular events has also been reported in several large general population cohorts. They further state that there is a reduction in cardiovascular events in the individuals who consume high consumption of fruit and vegetables in the EPIC trial.

Another study by Sanchez-Villegas et al. (2003), states that Mediterranean dietary patterns are healthier than Western dietary patterns and there is fewer coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, diabetes, and cancer cases with such patterns. They say that there are fewer such diseases in Mediterranean countries compared to the USA or Japan and this dietary pattern has been in Mediterranean countries for so long. They say it is worth trying too. They further state that younger people or single males who do not cook for themselves tend to follow Western dietary patterns often.

Materials and Method

As the research was based in Sri Lanka, it collected as many respondents from all over the country. However, there were limitations and hence it was not possible to collect data from all of Sri Lanka.

For the data collection, the researchers used the widely known quantitative method, the pre-designed questionnaires. The research gathered responses from 103 participants, both male and female, between the age of 20 – 65 years and who are working in Sri Lanka.

For the data analysis process, the research used quantitative methods and analyzed them with charts and tables to prove the results.

Results

Demographic factors

The majority of the respondents are from the Colombo district and that is 79% of the total sample. 13% are from the Gampaha district. 64% of the respondents are females and 36% are males. 59% of the respondents are between the age of 30 – 39, 22% are between 40 – 49, and 13% are between 20 – 29.

Breakfast habits

77% of the respondents skip breakfast as a habit. Reason, some respondents stated that they are too busy with their work schedules and they have no time to have their breakfast leisurely. A noticeable factor is, 66% of the total breakfast skippers do it either daily, every other day, or a few times a week. Further to the above, there is an indication of late breakfasts after 10 am from 16% of the participants in the survey.

Eat-out habits and junk or fast-food eating habits

21% of the respondents to the survey eat out daily or a few times a week. This was mainly due to them not bringing food from home and having a quick meal during work. 20% of the respondents to the survey eat fast-food daily or a few times a week. 49% of the respondents to the survey eat street food. This was mainly due to having a short snack between work hours and to get relief from the “podi badaginna” as per them. 18% of the respondents who eat street food consume them daily, a few times a week, or weekly. Because of the same reason stated above, they consume street food more often during work.

Willingness to consume healthy food

Based on the results, it is seen that 8% of the respondents do not try to consume local rice, 4% of the respondents do not try to consume healthy fruits and vegetables, 9% of the respondents do not try to consume different kinds of green leaves, 26% of the respondents do not try to consume healthy drinks and porridges and 16% of the respondents do not try to consume dairy and meat products.

The reasons for this lack of consumption were, that they do not have enough time to prepare them, they do not like their tastes of them, and they cannot carry them to the workplace at ease.

Engaging in physical exercises

59% of the respondents do not engage in exercise or fitness activities regularly or at all

Discussion

Scientific discussions and findings show that Western food types and patterns lead to unhealthy lives and may cause non-communicable illnesses.

Out of the respondents who eat out weekly or more often, 39% are males. Further, 80% of the population who eat out are below 39 years. 42% of the population who consume fast food are males and that percentage for the age below 39 is 80%. Out of the street-food consumers, 46% are males and 82% are below the age of 39.

Accordingly, it is seen that the younger generation in Sri Lanka who are working, tend to follow Western diets because of their convenience or for their taste. This alert of a problem the younger generation might face in the future.

Additionally, out of the 61 respondents who do not or rarely exercise, 45 are below 39 years and that is a percentage of 74%. And many of them do full-time desk jobs at banks, and educational and government institutes at managerial or executive levels. So, all the carbohydrates they consume may stay in the body without burning up. This too can lead to health issues at later ages.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2021), more than 15 million people die from an NCD between the ages of 30- and 69-years years over a year, and 85% of these “premature” deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. They further state that the use of tobacco, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol, and unhealthy diets all increase the risk of dying from an NCD.

Limitations

Although this research attempts to look at the wrong dietary patterns of the working community, the research was unable to look at that on a global scale. Hence, this research is limited to the findings from Sri Lanka.

Further, the research was unable to collect responses from all 25 districts of Sri Lanka due to time constraints.

Additionally, these responses are based on personal views on each element of the question.

Conclusions

This research was done to find out the wrong dietary patterns followed by the working community in Sri Lanka.

From that the research found out many of the younger generation community who are below 39 years of age practice incorrect dietary patterns and unhealthy eating habits along with less engagement in physical exercises.

Hence it concludes that they tend to neglect healthy eating habits due to lack of time for themselves, due to convenience, and because of taste.

Hence, the research points out some easy-to-follow healthy eating habits, correct dietary patterns, and ways to engage in exercises while engaging in their day-to-day lives. Choosing whole-grain bread instead of refined, increasing the protein intake, drinking enough water and replacing sugary beverages with water, replacing your favorite fast-food restaurant with one with healthier options, eating fruits and greens, cooking at home more often, becoming more active, and finally getting a good night’s sleep is to name some.

_ . _

Declaration

“I certify that the content of this research is my own study findings. The information and data given in the report are authentic to the best of my knowledge.”

Thiloda Wijayaratne

29/09/2022

The list of the e-published research papers by Whyteleafe Junior Researchers

Biography of the Whyteleafe Junior Researchers

Whyteleafe Academy

Dedicated to the 2022 World Science Day & International Week of Science and Peace byThe Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization (LMGlobal.Org; 2001, New York); associated with the United Nations Department of Global Communications (formerly, UN.DPI) since 2005. www.lmglobal.org

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