<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d193e9c7e80680e0ac80cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/>Now that Nepal has been ranked 76th out of 116 countries in the UN’s World Hunger Index, and we seem to be more fed-up than India and Pakistan (yay!)  this is a long-overdue recognition of the rapid strides this country has taken to ensure junk food for all by 2025.That is the year when Nepal attains Middle Kingdom Status, and the average person's consumption of cracker curls, chips, cookies, and chau-chau will propel the Nepalis’ economic growth, if not girth.The other indicator that Nepal’s economy has taken off like a rocket is the growth of the advertising industry. Commercial Break: this week’s Backside Column has been made possible because of generous support from Crackpot Cheeseballs (“Do you have the balls?”) and with the sponsorship of Virgin Gin (“Forget the tonic!”). At this juncture the Ass would like to pay tribute to the junk food industry without whose valuable support we journalists would not be able to peddle this junk. If the fast snack folks did not fill these pages with ads, we would not be able to ram our opinions down your throats.Nepal’s fast-moving consumer products are now moving so fast that there is no time to loaf around. (This last sentence was sponsored by Sagarmatha Loaf: ‘You Got the Dough? We Got the Bread.’) And that is why this week’s Backside column gives a whole new meaning to the notion of 'native advertising' by listing the hottest food items with zero nutritional value (yum!) that are on supermarket shelves:<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d19429c7e80680e0ac80djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="104" height="227">E-coli Bottled Water‘Bottled at source from the Bagmati at Teku and fortified with micro-organic nutrients. Quench your thirst, and simultaneously lose weight from loose motion.’Housewife Cooking Oil‘The cooking oil that all Nepali housewives swear by. (Actual housewife quote: “@#$%&amp;*?!” Move from the fire into the frying pan with Housewife. Good for the Heart, Bad forEverything Else.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d19449c7e80680e0ac80ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="227" height="227"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d19469c7e80680e0ac80fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="227" height="227">Poodle Instant Noodle ‘No, Nepal has definitely not run out of instant noodle brands. Here comes Poodle Noodle, which despite its name has nothing to do with a pooch (it just rhymes), but is the country’s first noodle with permitted colours and flavours of uncastrated goats.’Computer Chips‘Enjoy Nepal’s first onion-and-cheese flavoured semiconductor chips prepared especially for computer programmers, medical transcription inputters, back office staff, and call centre workers to munch during their midnight snack break.’<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d194a9c7e80680e0ac810jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="216" height="227"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d194e9c7e80680e0ac811jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="108" height="227">Sloth Beer ‘Drink all you can to be the lucky winner of a weekend stay for two at Sauraha, and help in the conservation of Nepal's laziest endangered bears.’Burger BunsGet a pair of these badass buns with compliments of:<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d19519c7e80680e0ac812jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="227" height="208">Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/we-are-what-we-eat/">We are what we eat</a>, Aruna Uprety

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<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18d39c7e80680e0ac7e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"/><figcaption>Photo: SAGLO SAMAJ/HIMALMEDIA</figcaption></figure>Earlier this year, as the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-pandemic-of-hunger/">sec</a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-pandemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ond wave</a> was subsiding in Nepal’s far-western mountains, I noticed the kind of dramatic change in the diet of families that I had earlier only seen in semi-urban settings.In Achham district’s Bayalpata Hospital, I came across a one-year-old who weighed just 5kg. She was being breastfed by a mother who was herself undernourished. “The child only eats noodles and biscuits, that is why I am still breastfeeding,” said the mother.The family has cows and a patch of land where they grow vegetables. There is enough lentil and flour at home. <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-tall-order/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">So why was the child not eating a healthier diet?</a>“Noodles have all the nutrition to give her strength but my baby is still losing weight which is why I have brought her to the hospital,” the young mother tells the doctor.The traditional practice of growing and consuming locally grown lentils, soybean, millet and buckwheat is being replaced even in the remotest parts of Nepal by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-binge-on-junk-foods-the-west-rejected/">junk food</a> in throwaway plastic wrappings.Locals here have been misled by tv commercials that have glamourised noodles and biscuits, and convinced many parents that they contain <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/">vitamins and micronutrients that will make their babies healthy</a>. The instant food in plastic packs are also convenient for parents who are usually busy all day in the fields.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/living-to-eat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Living to eat</a>, Aruna UpretyChild specialist Ramesh Kant Adhikari says that, on the other hand, most urban children who grow up on junk food tend to be obese and malnourished, and certain parents are proud that they are raising well-fed children.“Parents don’t understand that such foods are harmful to the health of their children,” Adhikari told me. “They don’t believe me even when I try to explain.”As long as tv commercials and social media ads continue and the government does not regulate, the problem will persist and continue to grow. Even in the food-deficit regions in the remotest corners of Accham and Doti districts where families cannot even get basic medicines, packaged junk foods are now easily available. This is evidence enough of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/hunger-for-governance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the state’s misplaced priorities</a>.Children of subsistence farmers, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">already undernourished</a>, are consuming low-nutrition junk foods. The children then suffer health consequences, which means expensive consultations with doctors who then prescribe costly bottled vitamins, further impoverishing the family, and thus completing the vicious cycle.“There is absolutely no evidence that supplemental vitamins are good for growing children,” adds Adhikari. “All they need is a proper, balanced diet found in traditional home foods.”Read also: <a style="font-weight: 600;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2409#.W2L-r9UzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Junk food epidemic</a>, Aruna Uprety<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/promoting-nutritious-local-food-for-post-quake-children,524" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Local is best</a>, Aruna UpretyBut parents are so swayed by unethical commercials that public health experts are fighting a losing battle to convince them of the dangers of junk foods. Indeed, some health care workers share part of the blame: they prescribe vitamin supplements to young children instead of counselling parents on the nutrition available in the traditional Nepali diet.The Ministry of Agriculture has for decades been publishing booklets and posters to promote local produce such as buckwheat, millet, potato, lentils, latte, tarul, and beans. But lack of coordination between the health and agriculture ministries means that information rarely gets out into the hinterland.The Health Ministry also distributes packets of Balvita at health posts to treat children with malnutrition, but it does not have the sense to inform parents that the same calories, proteins and vitamins are found in abundance in fresh homemade food.Children everywhere are easily swayed by commercials, they demand what they see on tv, and parents often comply. There is also a status symbol associated with young students who take packets of instant noodles with them to school for snacks.Junk food commercials can be countered by attractive infomercials about a healthy diet. Following the pandemic, some television and radio stations started to broadcast programs on nutrition, but their reach is limited.When I was working in East Africa 10 years ago, an Ethiopian doctor shared his experience of combating childhood malnutrition in his country. “We made flour from dry-sprouted soya beans and chickpeas so that it had protein, vitamins, calcium and other micronutrients. It was cheap, easily available, and very easy to disseminate information about.”I keep sharing this information with health workers all over Nepal. But there is resistance because the Health Ministry in Kathmandu is not serious about promoting local food products aggressively enough.For example, sesame seeds have good fat, calcium, and mineral content, and can be given to children and pregnant mothers. Flax seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids and fibre. But we do not advertise these locally available superfoods, or use them in fighting malnutrition. Instead doctors prescribe imported capsules packaged by multinationals that contain the very same ingredients.Federal Ministries, especially Agriculture and Health, must coordinate with their provincial and municipal counterparts to fight malnutrition. It is not an exaggeration to say that the epidemic of junk food in Nepal is now emerging as a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">public health crisis</a>.Aruna Uprety is a public health specialist and author of the 2017 book on nutrition, खाना खानुभयो?Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/diabetes-in-south-asia,3018">More exercise, less soft drinks …</a>, Sonia Awale

We are what we eat

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110151112/636d06f59c7e80680e0a5f92jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"/><figcaption>Photo: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>The past year-and-half since the Covid-19 outbreak, Nepal’s limited health resources all had a singular focus. But now that the second wave is waning and the lockdown has been eased, hospitals are once again flooded with patients with <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/diabetes-in-south-asia,3018" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">diabetes</a>, cardiovascular diseases and kidney ailments.Many of these patients had left these conditions untreated, and doctors say nursing them back to health will be more complicated. One of the most common disorders is hypertension or high blood pressure, which has become an epidemic.Hypertension is a silent killer and one of the most common causes of chronic conditions like <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/A-mysterious-rash-of-kidney-failures,3639" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">kidney damage</a> that are often too costly to treat for the majority of Nepalis. Now, mental stress due to Covid has also added to the problem.“Hypertension makes up for the majority of patients in hospitals these days now that the lockdown has been relaxed,” says cardiologist Prakash Regmi. “Also worrying is that many of these are new patients coming in due to Covid-related stress, a large number of people who had their blood pressure under control previously after treatment are also relapsing.”To be sure, Nepal has been seeing a dramatic rise in hypertension patients even before the pandemic – some of them in their teens and 20s. <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijhy/2021/6610649/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A paper published in March</a> in the International Journal of Hypertension, shows that since 2000, the hypertension rate in Nepal has been increasing at 3.5% per decade, and 44.7% of Nepali men will be suffering from hypertension by 2025.The study also found that high blood pressure is disproportionately affecting men, the elderly, those without formal education, and those who reside in urban areas, and seems to be most common in Gandaki Province.Worldwide, an estimated 1.13 billion people have hypertension, and it is responsible for 9.4 million deaths globally every year. In 2015, 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women had elevated blood pressure.In Nepal, close to one-third of the adult population has some form of hypertension, but in urban centres the figure is as high as 40%, with 25% in rural areas suffering from it.There is no specific cause of hypertension, but its biggest risk factor is high sodium intake. A survey in 2020 revealed that on average, the mean dietary <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jch.13813#:~:text=Overall%2C%20estimated%20mean%20salt%20intake,d%20(SD%20%C2%B1%204.7)." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">salt intake of a Nepali</a> per day is 13.3 mg. Most of the world consumes double the WHO recommended 5g of daily salt intake, increasing the risk of heart disease and strokes, which kills some 3 million people annually worldwide.“Traditionally Nepalis have a preference for salty food, but now with higher consumption of processed and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-binge-on-junk-foods-the-west-rejected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">junk food</a>, our salt intake has grown,” says public health expert Aruna Uprety, adding that the sodium content in packaged foods is often much higher than what companies claim.In May WHO (World Health Organisation) released a new set of <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2021/05/05/default-calendar/launch-event-who-global-sodium-benchmarks-for-different-food-categories" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">global benchmarks for sodium levels</a> that will act as a guide for countries and industry to reduce sodium content in more than 60 categories of processed foods, in line with the global target of reducing salt intake by 30% and hypertension by 25%, both by 2025.Another prominent risk factor is mental stress and lack of physical exercise, both of which have been exacerbated with people staying at home for months and under the uncertainty of the pandemic. Family history of hypertension also plays a significant role in an individual developing high blood pressure, as does smoking and drinking alcohol.Undetected hypertension, and non-medication to control it, can lead to other disorders like stroke, heart disease, kidney failure, etc.Despite the huge burden of the disease on public health and the economy, treatment of hypertension is ill-managed. Patients are never diagnosed because often times there are no prior symptoms.And of the 50% who are diagnosed with high blood pressure, half ignore their condition and get no treatment. Of the remaining, 25% do get some kind of treatment but half of them again do not follow-up or take the correct dose of medication.“All in all only about 10% of hypertension patients get proper treatment in Nepal. Lack of proper health monitoring system, as well as misconceptions about life-long medications, hasn’t helped,” says cardiologist Prakash Regmi. “This often leads to a point where treatment is either too expensive, or even unmanageable.”Hypertension is first and foremost a lifestyle disease with strong ties to a possible failure of crucial organs in the human body. Its prevention and control are heavily dependent on an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">individual’s choice of diet</a>.A state-sponsored robust awareness campaign to focus on preventive measures and a strong healthcare system are urgently needed to reduce the epidemic of hypertension.Says public health expert Aruna Uprety: “Mandatory blood pressure check-ups for certain age groups at fixed intervals is a good place to start. It goes a long way in reducing the cost of the disease and human lives.”Stages of hypertension<ul style="font-weight: 400;"><li>Normal: Less than 120/80 mm Hg</li> 	<li>Prehypertension (Elevated): Systolic between 120-129 and diastolic less than 80</li> 	<li>Stage 1 (Moderate): Systolic between 130-139 or diastolic between 80-89</li> 	<li>Stage 2 (Severe): Systolic at least 140 or diastolic at least 90 mm Hg</li> 	<li>Hypertensive crisis: Systolic over 180 and/or diastolic over 120</li></ul>Types of hypertension<ul style="font-weight: 400;"><li>Primary or essential: Most common high blood pressure among adults. No specific cause but risk factors include diet, age, physical activity and genetics.</li> 	<li>Secondary: Up to 10% of hypertension is secondary. Most often caused by another medical condition or the use of certain medicines.</li></ul>Risk factors<ul style="font-weight: 400;"><li>High salt/sodium intake</li></ul>WHO recommendation: 5gm/day<ul style="font-weight: 400;"><li>Mental stress</li> 	<li>Lack of physical exercise</li></ul>WHO recommendation: at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity<ul style="font-weight: 400;"><li>Family history of high blood pressure</li></ul>

Sonia Awale

Why do so many Nepalis have high blood pressure?

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95689c7e80680e05dc07jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="758"/><figcaption>Mother's group in Accham feed home-cooked meal to their children. Photo: MARTY LOGAN</figcaption></figure>For the first two decades after 1990, Nepal took great strides in reducing malnutrition. But progress has stalled.Nepal registered one of the most dramatic reductions in undernourishment among children and women after the government and international agencies took action in recent decades to reverse shocking statistics that showed <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=570#.XcJAUtIza70">half of under-5 mortality in the country was due to insufficient nourishment</a>.“Nepal is the best country to showcase how political will can implement a multisectoral nutrition program,” says Brenda Kellen, director of Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN), which is holding a global nutrition conference in Kathmandu this week.“From being one of the countries with the highest malnutrition in the 1990s, with stunting at 57%, to have reduced it to 36% -- Nepal can offer lessons for the rest of the world and its model can be replicated elsewhere,” says Kellen, who added that holding the fifth SUN global gathering in Kathmandu was recognition of this achievement.Over 1,000 delegates from 61 countries are attending the conference to discuss the progress, challenges and priorities ahead to ending malnutrition by 2030, a target set by the United Nations’ World Health Assembly.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a956b9c7e80680e05dc08jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="901" height="786"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a956e9c7e80680e05dc09jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="794" height="223">However despite initial progress, figures for stunting, wasting and anaemia in Nepal have plateaued. UNICEF’s report, State of the World’s Children 2019, released last month, stated that 43% of children under five in Nepal were malnourished.“Malnutrition is still very much prevalent in Nepal, mainly among young children, adolescents and new mothers. We are not satisfied with the progress and there is still much to do,” says Anirudra Sharma at UNICEF Nepal.According to the 2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) wasting (low weight for age) among Nepali children under 5 still hovers at 10% -- a mere 1% decrease from 8 years ago. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require Nepal to reduce wasting to less than 5% by 2030. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Interesting-Times/Having-enough-to-eat-is-not-enough,340">Stunting</a> needs to be well below 15% in 10 years to meet the global target -- it is about 36% now.Says Swarnim Waglé, former vice-chair of the National Planning Commission who helped draw up Nepal’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Plan: “While a 20% reduction of chronic malnutrition in two decades is quite impressive, 36% stunting is still very high and unacceptable in this day and age. Conventional approaches will not help achieve targets.”<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a956f9c7e80680e05dc0ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="940" height="629">Anaemia among Nepali women has always been very high, but instead of declining it actually increased from 35% to 41% between 2011 and 2016. Anaemia in children below 5 rose dangerously in that period: from 46% to 53%.Exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months also declined, and is now 65% against a target of greater than 90%. There has been no significant change in low birth weight either, which declined only 2%, to 27%, in five years. The SDG target is below 5%.“Improvements in nutrition levels are stagnant because we have not reached the most vulnerable communities such as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/the-face-of-hunger-debt-malnutrition,3604">Dalits</a> and people in remote far western Nepal,” says <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/we-are-what-we-eat-aruna-uprety,3954">public health expert Aruna Uprety</a>. “I see no reason to boast about our past achievements when the present level of chronic malnutrition is so serious.”Nutrition levels are affected not just by food intake, but access to safe drinking water and education about the right selection of food. Underweight children in cities and the rise in obesity are a result of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-binge-on-junk-foods-the-west-rejected/">proliferation of junk food</a> replacing traditional nutrient-rich grains. Childhood obesity has decreased from 1.4% in 2011 to 1.2% but the figure needs to drop below 1% to meet the target.https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&amp;v=c-EPzTXSikw<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/">An article in The Journal of Nutrition</a> earlier this year found that infants in Kathmandu were getting 25% of their calories from junk food and instead of being fat, those who consumed the most junk food were on average shorter than their peers.Brenda Kellen agrees that while there is a lot of concern about hunger and food security, there is not as much awareness about whether food is nourishing or not.“Let’s look at all the tools available to reduce malnutrition. Fortifying foods can mean that people get micronutrients but it should go hand in hand with promotion of locally produced foods,” Kellen says.Nutritionists believe that Nepal is on the right track, but it needs to make nutrition a <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/let%E2%80%99s-go-ahead-with-local-elections,3593">political priority</a>, scale up its programs throughout the country and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/malnutrition-stunting-wasting,3603">target groups susceptible to malnutrition</a>.UNICEF’s Sharma says: “Nutrition should be universal, households should not be left behind. The government has to increase national investment on raising nutrition standards.”<h2>Private sector for nutrition?</h2>Do the private sector and nonprofits have a role in reducing malnutrition? Does their involvement allow the government to shirk its responsibility of ensuring equitable nutrition?<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95719c7e80680e05dc0bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="452">The issue arose this week at a global conference on nutrition in Kathmandu. Among the 1,000 delegates attending the global gathering are representatives of <a href="https://scalingupnutrition.org/">Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)</a> Business Network, which tries to build strong <a href="https://scalingupnutrition.org/sun-supporters/sun-business-network/">alliances between the private sector and government</a> to reduce malnutrition.“There are many small scale enterprises that are looking for opportunities to provide local solutions to nutrition-related challenges,” says Brenda Kellen (pictured left) of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, which is behind the global gathering in Kathmandu, 4-7 November.In fact, Nepal’s Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Plan 2018-2022 underlines the need for government to partner with business. Experts say that while it makes sense to involve food manufacturers and traders to improve nutrition, there is an inherent contradiction between businesses that are out to maximise profits and the need to ensure nutrition for communities that cannot afford adequate food.<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13246#.XcJC79Iza70">Nutrition activist Aruna Uprety</a> is against private sector involvement in ensuring proper nutrition for all. “If you involve businesses they will look first for profit, not adequate nourishment. It is 100% the government’s job to reduce malnutrition.”Uprety says last week she left the Baliyo Nepal Nutrition Initiative, which is supported by the <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/what-we-do/global-development/nutrition">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMFG)</a>, because it would mobilise Nepal’s private sector food companies to raise nutrition levels among Nepalis. Baliyo Nepal was launched by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on 1 November (pictured below).<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108181144/636a95739c7e80680e05dc0cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3600" height="2400">Baliyo Nepal’s Chair <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/guest-editorial/guest-editorial-Nepal-economic-growth,923">Swarnim Waglé</a>, former vice-chair of the National Planning Commission, says the organisation is not trying to take the place of the government but complement its efforts precisely because of the persistence of chronic malnutrition in the country.Baliyo Nepal was dragged into controversy recently after one of its backers, the Chaudhary Foundation, told the media that BMFG funding would be used to fortify its popular instant noodle brand Wai Wai. <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/how-do-you-help-break-cycle-poverty-nepal-s-poorest-region">BMFG did test instant noodle fortification</a>, but Waglé says the initiative was not taken any further.He told Nepali Times: “We are not touching any junk food. We want to make nutrition affordable for all Nepalis and collaborate with companies to meet the demand. We are creating a sustainable and independent approach to meet malnutrition targets.”Some experts argue that nutrient fortification of food brands has been successful in Nepal in the past. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12452#.XcJFodIza70">Iodisation of the Ayo Noon</a> brand of salt helped eradicate goitre and cretinism in Nepal in the 1990s.Whatever the merits of involving the private sector in ensuring nutrition for all, the real scandal is one in three Nepali children are still malnourished.

Nearly half of Nepali children still malnourished

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131144/636a4ffb9c7e80680e04fd36jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1191"/><figcaption>Photos: MARTY LOGAN</figcaption></figure>The publication of a paper last week in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jn/nxz140/5530103">The Journal of Nutrition</a> that infants in Kathmandu were getting 25% of their calories from junk food shocked many. But what is even more worrying is that instead of being fat, those who consumed the most junk food were shorter than average.Stunting is a vital measure of malnutrition. It is also one of the indicators used to track a country's path to development. Infants who are short for their age can have impaired brain development and increase the risk of developing nutrition-related chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Its causes include poor access to nutrient-dense foods and lack of dietary diversity.Nepal has done well at reducing stunting in recent years, cutting it from 57% in 1996 to 36% in 2016. However, the country is still not on track to reach the World Health Assembly stunting target of 24% by 2025, or the Sustainable Development Goal target of 15%.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-binge-on-junk-foods-the-west-rejected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepalis binge on junk foods the West rejected</a>, Duksangh Sherpa<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/living-to-eat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Living to eat</a>, Aruna Uprety‘The current average annual rate of reduction of stunting needs to accelerate to meet these targets,’ points out a 2018 report of Nepal's National Planning Commission, <a href="https://www1.wfp.org/publications/nepal-zero-hunger-strategic-review">Towards Zero Hunger</a>. ‘Addressing inadequate maternal, infant and young child feeding practices, untreated episodes of acute malnutrition, infections, and deficiencies in micronutrients, all of which constitute immediate and underlying causes of stunting in Nepal, is of critical importance.'<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131144/636a4ffe9c7e80680e04fd37jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="758">Looking at the findings of the recent study published in The Journal of Nutrition carried out by Helen Keller International, raises the question of whether growing junk food consumption is contributing to the proportion of stunted children not going down.'Our results suggest that rapidly changing food environments and subsequent dietary patterns in LMICs (low and mid-income countries) might curtail recent achievements in the reduction of childhood stunting,' says the The Journal of Nutrition <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jn/nxz140/5530103">study</a>.However, the researchers, from Helen Keller International and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, note that their results do not prove a direct link between eating junk food and the children's growth but 'present a plausible biological pathway for this relationship'.Read also:<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/we-are-what-we-eat-aruna-uprety,3954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">We are what we eat</a>, Aruna Uprety<a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/promoting-nutritious-local-food-for-post-quake-children,524" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Local is best</a>, Aruna UpretyThe survey, which set out to study links between junk food consumption and nutritional health, looked at 700+ children aged 12-23 months, in Kathmandu Valley. The group that consumed the most unhealthy food and beverages – excluding breast milk – got nearly half (46.9%) of their total calories from those items, compared to 5.2% for the group that ate the least.Researchers found that those who ate most junk food were at risk of having inadequate levels of eight nutrients: calcium, zinc, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, and folate. 'Our dietary results suggest that 1–2-year-old children living in the Kathmandu Valley are at high risk of multiple micronutrient deficiencies, which are further exacerbated by high intakes' of junk food, the report concluded.The study also warned about other long-term impact of eating junk food: 'In Nepal, the prevalence of adult obesity and diabetes is increasing, which indicates that these unhealthy eating patterns in young urban Nepali children urgently need to be addressed.'Researchers noted that although some of the junk foods had been fortified, the high amounts of sugar and sodium that were also added to the processed foods made them overall unhealthier.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108131148/636a50029c7e80680e04fd38jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1014"><h2>Junk food consumption among infants, 12-23 months, in Kathmandu</h2><table><tbody><tr><td width="100">Group</td><td width="85">Junk food calories as % of total diet (excluding breast feeding)</td><td width="91">At risk of inadequate protein</td><td width="91">At risk of inadequate calcium</td><td width="86">At risk of inadequate iron</td><td width="82">At risk of inadequate Vitamin A</td><td width="82">At risk of inadequate Niacin</td></tr><tr><td width="100">High consumption</td><td width="85">46.9%</td><td width="91">11%</td><td width="91">80%</td><td width="86">100%</td><td width="82">24%</td><td width="82">60%</td></tr><tr><td width="100">Medium consumption</td><td width="85">21.5%</td><td width="91">6%</td><td width="91">65%</td><td width="86">100%</td><td width="82">14%</td><td width="82">55%</td></tr><tr><td width="100">Low consumption</td><td width="85">5.2%</td><td width="91">6%</td><td width="91">49%</td><td width="86">97%</td><td width="82">14%</td><td width="82">52%</td></tr></tbody></table>Read also<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2409#.XTWO-_IzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Junk food epidemic</a>, Aruna Uprety

Marty Logan

Junk food is making Nepali children shorter

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902ce9c7e80680e037c86jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1014"/>Walk down the aisle of any supermarket in Kathmandu, and there they are arrayed along the shelves: tetrapacks of juice claiming to have the goodness of whole fruits, instant noodles promising to make you more intelligent, chips and cheese balls in flashy foil packing, and fizzy sugar drinks piled high.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=10611&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Living to eat</a>, Aruna UpretySupposedly fortified with iron, vitamins and vital minerals, the attractively packaged processed foods have become symbols of a modern ‘Western’ culture. Families are moving away from agriculture and nutritious traditional foods to an urban lifestyle with its quick on-the-go meals, setting off an alarming rise in chronic diseases.“The majority of our medical problems these days are directly linked to poor diet and lack of information about nutritious food created by false advertising,” asserts public health specialist Aruna Uprety, and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/we-are-what-we-eat-aruna-uprety,3954" target="_blank" rel="noopener">author of a recent book</a> on nutrition. “There is a damaging notion that it is expensive to be healthy because packaged food in fancy wrappings are more nutritious. This is completely false.”The figures say it all. The incidence of anemia among women increased from 36% in 2006 to 41% ten years later. Children with anemia rose from 48% in 2006 to 53% in 2016. Prevalence of hypertension has also increased from 13% of women and 18% men with high blood pressure in 2006 to 17% and 23% respectively ten years later.Recent research has shown that 2.5 million Nepalis suffer from Type 2 diabetes, which is 8.1% of the population. However, the prevalence rate for diabetes in rural areas is only 1%, while it is as high as 14% in some cities where people lack exercise and have <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/diabetes-in-south-asia,3018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">higher intakes of sugary sodas</a> and processed foods.Health experts say the line between good and bad food is getting blurred because of misleading advertising and promotion, influencing Nepalis subconsciously with claims that fast, junk foods are healthy.The first challenge for regulators is to curb false advertising of junk food, and strictly implement a policy to reduce misinformation and unquestioned consumption. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is especially worried about the exposure to children of such targeted marketing.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-EPzTXSikw&amp;feature=youtu.beIn the absence of strict labelling criteria, nutritionally void products can claim to be enriched with vitamins, minerals, calcium and iron, while conveniently overlooking the fact they are laden with preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial colours and flavours, excess salt, sugar and unhealthy fats.For decades, most industrialised countries have been cracking down on junk food manufacturers and fast food companies. Increased health consciousness in the public has also forced them to use more wholesome raw materials. However, self-regulation by the advertising industry is not working.London is phasing out junk food ads from the city’s public transport network. Mexico, a country with the second highest rate of adult obesity in the world, saw consumption of fizzy drinks drop by 7.6% since a tax on soft drinks was imposed two years ago. Other countries are watching the Mexico experience closely to see the impact on Type 2 diabetes of taxing sugary drinks.The UK has also banned advertisements of a health drink that claimed to make children ‘taller, stronger and sharper’. However, the same company continues to air TV commercials with similar content in South Asia, including Nepal.Nepal has no strict policies or advertising standards to regulate outlandish health claims made by manufacturers of packaged foods, fizzy drinks and franchised fast food outlets. Public awareness of the health impact of sugar consumption is growing in the West with books like The Case Against Sugar, but there is no such campaign in Nepal.Arjun M Bhattarai of the Advertising Association of Nepal says the government has no code of conduct governing marketing of harmful foodstuff, and the industry cannot act until there is. Nepal has followed the international trend in regulating cigarette advertising, but there have not been similar restrictions for alcohol and processed foods.“Advertisements for junk foods should be strictly regulated just like ads for cigarettes,” says nutritionist Sophia Uprety. "Junk food tastes good only because it contains layers of addictive flavour enhancers, which are not good for our health. The traditional Nepali diet is a goldmine of nutrition, we do not need to look anywhere else. Let us not wait for the West to tell us what we already know.”Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=10606&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Could Nepali cuisine go global?</a>, Thomas HeatonTraditional Nepali whole foods like buckwheat, barley, corn, millet and a variety of legumes and spices such as turmeric are fresh, organic and wholesome, having medicinal properties. Ironically, however, consumers in Western societies now regard these foods Nepalis are discarding as superfoods, while Nepalis buy junk food that the West has rejected.Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/promoting-nutritious-local-food-for-post-quake-children,524" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Local is best</a>, Aruna UpretySunita Rimal of the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre which conducts classes for mothers and children about how to make nutritious meals from available ingredients, says wholesome food need not be expensive.“There is a notion now that supermarket food is better and more nutritious, that has to change,” Rimal says.Health food practitioner Sharada Jnawali has sought to revive the popularity of fresh, healthy Nepali dishes with her book, Nepali Home Cooking for Healthy Living. She says: “Eating healthy is not complicated. We can even make common snack items like momos healthier by simply using unprocessed flour, reduce the excess spice in the meat. We can replace instant noodles in chatpate with bean sprouts and beaten rice. The little changes will make all the difference.”

Nepalis binge on junk foods the West rejected...

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902cc9c7e80680e037c85jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="480"/>The 15-year-old boy weighs 54kg, much more than an average Nepali his age. He is malnourished.His breakfast and lunch consist of biscuits, instant noodles and other packaged foods. His uncle buys him <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/diabetes-in-south-asia,3018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fizzy, sugary drinks</a>. The boy does not like home-cooked meals, and when he does they are oily and deep-fried.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-binge-on-junk-foods-the-west-rejected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepalis binge on junk foods the West rejected...</a>, Duksangh SherpaWhen he came to me, the boy was already suffering from a sore back, he could not run, and found it difficult to climb the stairs to the third floor.There is a strong chance he will suffer from diabetes and hypertension by the time he is 25. His grandmother is worried about his addiction to sugar-sweetened sodas and packaged foods.While in the US, 15 years ago, I saw many obese adolescents, and remember thinking we had the opposite problem in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/malnutrition-stunting-wasting,3603" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal: under-nourishment</a> and stunting. Not any more, however, because urban Nepal is now seeing an American-style epidemic of malnutrition.It used to be rare to see an overweight child in Nepal’s schools, but today it is a common sight. In a recent informal survey of a school in Sindhupalchok, I found students mostly bring money from home to buy packaged food for lunch. Teachers themselves consumed junk foods for snacks, and had no idea about the lack of nutritional value. They purchased the packets out of convenience.The mothers of the students told me they always believed instant noodles were nutritious. They liked the fact that it was cheap, didn’t need to be cooked, and their children loved it. They were aghast when I showed them pictures of children gaunt with malnourishment. Some mothers asked: if junk food was so bad , then why were there so many celebrity-endorsed TV advertisements? If the government does not care about your health, we have to think of it ourselves, I answered.A three-year-old in Far Western Nepal was dying from malnutrition: not because she had nothing to eat, but because she had been eating the wrong food. Her mother took the child to a health centre, where she admitted her daughter only ate instant noodles and cheese balls. The girl was referred to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Center in Nepalganj, and was nursed back to health.I have an acquaintance who works in one of the instant noodle factories in Nepal, and he says he wouldn’t touch the stuff - he knew what went into it. “I would never eat it, and never give it to my children,” he told me.The junk food industry is all about creating demand through marketing and branding. It equates packaged foods with modernity, affluence, and a trendy lifestyle. What it is really all about is putting them in non-biodegradable single-use plastic into our landfill sites, and robbing our people of their health. Junk food is another symptom showing we are becoming a throw-away society, and if we are not careful we will throw away our children’s futures.Aruna Uprety is a public health specialist and co-author of the book 'Khana Khanu Bhayo'?Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=10606&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Could Nepali cuisine go global?</a> Thomas Heaton<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2409#.W2L-r9UzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Junk food epidemic</a>, Aruna Uprety<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/promoting-nutritious-local-food-for-post-quake-children,524" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Local is best</a>, Aruna Uprety

Living to eat

The newly-formed Himalayan Art Council is set to launch Nepal’s National Art Protection Platform that seeks to preserve <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage">Nepal’s unique cultural heritage </a>using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/artificial-censorship"> AI-powered tools</a>. The Council seeks to safeguard <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-art-going-places">Nepali art works</a> from neglect, theft and counterfeiting as well as preserve existing artwork and celebrate living masters by giving them a cultural space to continue the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/sacred-survival">sacred art traditions</a>. "We are introducing a new digital platform designed to preserve, verify and elevate <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">Nepal’s art for generations to come,</a>” says a statement from the Council, adding that the digital platform will use AI told for authentication and blockchain to keep track of works of art. Artists can now be protected by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/ayo-ai?fbclid=IwAR1uwmTVq4gUB70ljfRezjzukD9ArWXPuMnUikopeQ8PoiZMjicToPSwhKE&amp;=1">AI tools</a> that detect forgeries, identify their work even when unsigned, and ensure they receive proper recognition and credit. The archives will be searchable with translated inscription and interactive guides. Says curator Meena Lama: “AI and blockchains are tools that give us the power to detect fakes and identify unsigned paintings and track every piece. With these tools we can restore trust, secure authorship and give artists the dignity they deserve.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250514170544_2ab58f6313c0458f75114a692b0016bd9efb3b59d5f8f07f0da72e1e37b82f53" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum."> <figcaption>Artwork at the Traditional Art Exhibition at Patan Museum.</figcaption> </figure>  The Council is also holding an exhibition of Nepali cultural masterpieces with 50 historical <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671">thangka and paubha </a>by past masters and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/between-the-sacred-and-everyday">contemporary works by current artists</a>. This curated collection is a living tribute to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/when-yaks-go-so-does-culture">Himalayan culture</a> with economic depictions of deities, mandala and sacred narratives. The exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">Patan Museum</a> also provides an opportunity to meet painters and custodians of art and culture. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/golden-deities">Golden deities</a>, Sewa Bhattarai ‘The exhibition is only the first step in a long journey to ensure that Nepali art is no just seen but fully understood, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Narratives-of-Faith-and-Memory-Remembering-the-Lost-Sculptures-of-Kathmandu-exhibition,987">protected and remembered</a>,’ the Council says. Artist Kailash K Shrestha of Artudio has spent decades promoting thankha and paubha traditions because of their beauty and devotional meaning. But he also says artists are underpaid, exploited and ignored. He adds, “AI and blockchain are not just buzzwords, they are powerful tools that can protect Nepal’s artists from fraud, verify authenticity and build a permanent record of provenance.” Traditional Art Exhibition Till 17 May Patan Museum

Digital protection for Nepal’s art

India and Pakistan are twins separated at birth. Tensions between them have been at a hair trigger ever since independence and has erupted into full scale conflict at least four times in the past 80 years.
The 22 April terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 25 Indian tourists and a Nepali citizen, threatens to escalate tension between the two nuclear-armed nations. India has squarely blamed Pakistan for the attacks, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given his military “operational freedom” to respond. Pakistan has said it has credible intelligence of an Indian military strike and its officials have promised a “full spectrum” response — a code for a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/thinking-the-thinkable">nuclear retaliation</a>.
For Nepal, the killing of its national in the Pahalgam attack comes as another stark reminder that in conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq, from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-to-agree-an-armistice-in-ukraine">Ukraine</a> to Israel, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/10-nepalis-from-one-town-fighting-in-ukraine">Nepalis are getting caught in the crossfire</a>. The last time full-scale fighting broke out between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/peacemongers-at-india-pakistan-border">India and Pakistan</a> on Kargil in 1999, at least 22<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/india-s-trial-by-fire-for-soldiers-from-nepal?%27%5C%22="> Nepalis fighting for the Indian Army</a> were killed in action.
Three of Nepal’s immediate neighbours (China, India, Pakistan) have nuclear weapons, and they do not have good relations. With China supplying weapons, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/war-and-warming">missile technology</a> and other support to Pakistan, this triangular friction could set off a regional conflagration.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00573-0" target="_blank">Research at Rutgers University</a> has calculated that even a week-long tactical nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would throw up so much smoke and debris into the atmosphere that it would block out the sun for years, and lead to a collapse of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/grow-nourish-sustain-together-world-food-day">global food system</a>. This does not take into account the radioactive fallout that prevailing winds would blow up to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">the Himalaya</a>, contaminating glaciers that are the sources of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-what-is-left-of-himalayan-rivers">Asia’s main rivers</a>.
The impact of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown </a>on High Asia was already ringing alarm bells about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/himalayan-icecap-melting-faster-than-thought">shrinking ice cap</a> reducing the dry season flow of water downstream. Water was going to be the next strategic commodity, geopolitical experts warned, and the next wars in Asia would be over water.
That water war is already happening. India retaliated to the Kashmir attack by suspending the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/world/asia/india-pakistan-indus-waters-treaty.html" target="_blank">Indus Waters Treaty</a> of 1960 mediated by the World Bank that has withstood at least three wars between India and Pakistan. The treaty gives India control over the three eastern tributaries of the Indus (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beas_River" target="_blank">Beas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_River" target="_blank">Ravi</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutlej" target="_blank">Sutlej</a>), while Pakistan got water from the Indus and two of its western tributaries (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River" target="_blank">Indus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenab_River" target="_blank">Chenab</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhelum_River" target="_blank">Jhelum</a>.
Pakistan was assured of 70% of the annual flow, and India could use a reasonable amount of water for<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15231"> irrigation and hydropower</a>. &nbsp;Within days of its threat, India stopped water flowing down to Pakistan from the Chenab river and is reportedly preparing to do the same on the Jhelum.
The sabre-rattling has reached a crescendo. Besides threats and counter-threats there are also symbolic drills, with the Indian Air Force practicing landing on an expressway in Uttar Pradesh by its Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar fighter jets to demonstrate ‘operational readiness’. In response Pakistan test-fired its Abdali ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and has a range of 450km.&nbsp;
The danger is that with ultra-nationalist rhetoric and the beating the war drums by both sides, India’s government and Pakistan’s military may have to ‘do something’ to appease domestic public opinion. But any tactical strike, an artillery exchange, or territorial incursion could quickly escalate out of control.
Expecting an Indian retaliation for the Pahalgam killings, Pakistan is using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/interfaith-collaboration-for-nuclear-disarmament"> nuclear deterrence </a>and warning of “catastrophic consequences”. The two neighbours came close to a nuclear exchange in 2019 after an attack on the Indian military in Kashmir, and prompt international intervention led by the United States cooled tensions.&nbsp;
This time, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trump-shock-wave-hits-nepal">Trump administration</a> is too distracted and not as engaged. Pakistan has denied it was responsible for the terrorist attack and called on Washington to stop a possible Indian retaliation. India and Pakistan have stopped overflights by each other’s airlines, and some international carriers have even stopped flying over Pakistan fearing an air war.
Washington, Beijing, the UN and the EU have all urged restraint. Iran, which has good relations with both India and Pakistan has sent its foreign minister to urge both countries not to go into a tit-for-tat war. Iran has its own nuclear flashpoint to worry about with tensions in Israel, &nbsp;Yemen and Syria.
India and Pakistan both share similar problems of joblessness, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/why-nepal-s-poverty-rate-is-stuck">poverty </a>and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-change-new-threat-to-nepal-s-rhinos">environmental threats</a>. Neither side needs the threat of a senseless war, and we in the neighbourhood do not need it either.&nbsp;
Kunda Dixit
This Editorial is brought to you by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">Nepali Times</a>, in collaboration with <a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/" target="_blank">INPS Japan</a> and <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/" target="_blank">Soka Gakkai International</a>, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

Nukes in the neighbourhood

Most Nepalis thought they had seen the last of it after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/11-56-25-april-2015-wkc9q2an">the 25 April 7.8 magnitude </a>earthquake ten years ago. But the Himalaya had more surprises in store. On 12 May, another 7.3 magnitude tremor that some said was an aftershock, but was strong enough to itself be a major earthquake, struck Dolakha.&nbsp; Not many people had heard of Singati till then — a cluster of houses by the Tama Kosi River along a narrow gorge that is the roadhead to Rolwaling Valley.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_57b6e316656851f71eca56ca6f98d9bbcc820c1a00d62af3c990725b4361244d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250508110520_57b6e316656851f71eca56ca6f98d9bbcc820c1a00d62af3c990725b4361244d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_016534fb2b6a79957402281cda768efb83a146786377e39e11df3e251d37159e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250508110520_016534fb2b6a79957402281cda768efb83a146786377e39e11df3e251d37159e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>  It was here that dozens were killed on 25 April in the first earthquake. Hundreds of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Singati-rising-from-rubble-rebuilding,3703">Singati survivors</a> had lined up for food and relief supplies in the morning of 12 May when the second earthquake triggered a rock slide that buried a nearby camp. At least 50 people were killed. &nbsp; Three hours later, a US Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom helicopter landed in a nearby cornfield to pick up the wounded, and flew off. The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control in Kathmandu and its wreckage was located high on Kalinchok four days later. Six American servicemen, two Nepal Army soldiers, and five wounded civilians from Singati were killed. Today, Singati bears little physical scar of the multiple tragedies that struck the town ten years ago. Most <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/bungamati-builds-back">houses have been rebuilt</a> as urban-style concrete structures, and Singati has become an economic hub on the road leading up to several hydropower plants and a<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/off-the-beaten-trek-in-nepal"> popular trekking destination</a>.&nbsp; The town looks less like a village and more like a suburb of the Dolakha district headquarter of Charikot, 47km away.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_196f341d1df1403ba133e5dfeb837eec20d7cbcb4c8c56b17cc5598810de5df2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250508110520_196f341d1df1403ba133e5dfeb837eec20d7cbcb4c8c56b17cc5598810de5df2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110524_ae66c4a92430f67db51b5e11e017059eedfbac4cb18c8e073f2a50cca1fe904e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250508110524_ae66c4a92430f67db51b5e11e017059eedfbac4cb18c8e073f2a50cca1fe904e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>  “The demand for construction material, cement, iron rods and bricks peaked after the earthquakes,” says Suresh Khadka, who owns a hardware business here and now supplies material to the 456MW Upper Tama Kosi hydropower project that is undergoing repairs after it was damaged by a landslide last year. The demand for cement boomed since most residents believe, not necessarily correctly, that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/in-a-disastrous-state">cement houses are safer</a>. Although Khadka did well selling construction material after the earthquake, he worries that most new structures do not follow seismic-resistant building codes.&nbsp; The construction boom financed by bank loans has in turn forced many from Singati to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/making-overseas-migration-better">migrate overseas for work</a> so they can service their debt.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110524_50caa4530bd5ff9120cf7ab70a62173846d337ef448ff8bac339f3faa375a9e2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250508110524_50caa4530bd5ff9120cf7ab70a62173846d337ef448ff8bac339f3faa375a9e2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> <figcaption>Suresh Khadka</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_ef8b7d3993fc3b5df852bbf952feb3fbabc96d6883b0d5eb74ee5c60f4123b83.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250508110520_ef8b7d3993fc3b5df852bbf952feb3fbabc96d6883b0d5eb74ee5c60f4123b83" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> <figcaption>Phu Doma Sherpa (right)</figcaption> </figure>  “My family had no choice but to borrow money to rebuild our home since the government compensation was not enough, and ten years later we are still paying off the loan,” says Phu Doma Sherpa, 60. Because of the shortage of qualified masons and proper seismic engineering, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/structural-problems">many of the buildings are of questionable building standards </a>and the traditional architecture has been abandoned, admits Kul Bahadur Budathoki, deputy chair of the municipality. “But these buildings were more expensive than what the government grants could cover, many people here are heavily in debt and the men have <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/every-day-is-closer-to-pay-day">migrated to the Gulf to pay their loans</a>,” Budathoki says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_32f89e97b7e757fc9286c0bbb671f48ea8d4468e9634fa646d7247c650ad8480.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250508110520_32f89e97b7e757fc9286c0bbb671f48ea8d4468e9634fa646d7247c650ad8480" data-rendition-name="original" width="1501" height="1079" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> <figcaption>Kul Bahadur Budathoki</figcaption> </figure>  Singati is in a multi-hazard zone. The <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Singati,3091">12 May 2015 earthquake </a>could have led to the collapse of Nepal’s largest glacial lake, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/stairway-to-heaven">Tso Rolpa</a>, upstream. Due to global warming, the glacier has turned into an expanding lake 3.5km long, and its collapse would have unleashed a catastrophic Himalayan tsunami down the Tama Kosi Valley, with Singati directly in its path. Singati has literally risen from the ashes of 2015, with its residents beginning to recover from the trauma and financial toll. But it is not out of danger as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown </a>magnifies the risk from future earthquakes.

Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/prabalgurung/" target="_blank">Prabal Gurung</a> left Nepal for New York in 1999 to escape years of bullying, sexism and homophobia, and to pursue his dream of becoming a fashion designer. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqN0VaoAI5w" target="_blank">realised his dream</a>, but did not escape discrimination and racism in the new world. Propelled by passion for fashion, Gurung overcame everything America threw at him. He has attained <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/prabal-gurung-recalls-his-first-met-gala-when-zoe-saldana-was-at-his-side?srsltid=AfmBOooy-H0oGgxMit864FnW_Pmw8mUnV8rYrh-co-f6OyYK6m2ip5hP" target="_blank">fame and recognition</a> for his haute couture dress designs while remaining true to his Nepali roots, and is even more resolute in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSmNauyzACk" target="_blank">fighting prejudice</a> in all its forms. Prabal Gurung’s newly-released memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Walk-Like-Girl-Memoir/dp/B0DG11HCDQ?fbclid=IwY2xjawKZfpxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuZcIJO2OXyXcRm1oq1iG6wzeoF7VJFrQ7GXOFI0YxuZZ4id_CNvSZSZZIna_aem_pG_mOKG73RTnYvN8JaC4fA">Walk Like a Girl</a> is a saga of harrowing abuse in boarding schools in Nepal and India, only finding himself facing a different kind of bullying in the US. He prevails over it all to be where he is today: an award-winning American fashion designer with his own label. Walk Like a Girl was launched last week in New York at a time when everything Gurung fought for — tolerance, inclusion and diversity — are in retreat in his adopted country because of a president who has espoused a culture of bullying. The book is a searing, raw exposé of how cruel and abusive people can be even at a young age in school. On the other hand, it also shows that there are generous, compassionate and open-minded souls out there. In his book, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4le_uWX7YE">Prabal Gurung</a> calls out those who tormented and tried to hold him back (some of their names have been altered). The moral of his story is: resist, never stop believing in yourself, do not let others define you, never lose sight of your dream, and help those who have been kept out. “Walk like a girl” was a slur used by bullies back in school in Nepal and India for Gurung’s effeminate ways. He fought back then, and he is still resisting by turning those words into something to be proud of.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250519170544_4ffc9c3f565dd2cfa754d10b224816897b82bb31ebaee91b6d79d469fc96f14e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1253" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung NT"> <figcaption>Prabal Gurung at home in Kathmandu in the 1990s.</figcaption> </figure>  “Living through it all was one thing, but writing about it is one of the hardest things I have done in my life,” admitted Gurung during the launch. “I broke down constantly during the six-year writing process.” He continues: “I did not want this to be a victim’s book. I did not want to burden my readers with my emotions. I wanted my struggle to be an inspiration for others facing what I faced. I am grateful to those who bullied me in school, they made me a stronger person ready to face the world.” Indeed, this book is a departure from his earlier one titled simply, Prabal Gurung (Abrams, 2019), which was a lush pictorial autobiography of his career in fashion. Walk Like a Girl is not a typical fashion book, it is an intimate tale of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16997">Gurung’s travails and triumphs</a>, and how he willed himself to succeed. Prabal pays a lavish tribute to his mother Durga Rana. We find out she is a descendant of the first wife of the eldest son of Jang Bahadur Rana who was banished to Palpa in the late 19th century. Prabal’s father served in the Singapore Police and that is where he was born before the family returned to Nepal when he was four. Gurung relates with brutal honesty about the violence his mother endured from his father. Durga raises three children as a single mother in Nepal, and Prabal credits her for his fierce determination to resist patriarchy and injustice, which in time manifests itself in his hyper-feminine and subversive dress designs. Writing the book has been a cathartic experience for Gurung, who says he is now relieved of the burdens of his past. It no longer haunts him, and he does not have to prove anything to anyone anymore. Walk Like a Girl has life lessons not just for the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DJmOcSgxdWz/" target="_blank">fashion industry</a>, but for every other profession. How can my job serve a greater cause? Gurung tells us his work is <a href="https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/why-designer-prabal-gurung-doesnt-want-just-stick-fashion" target="_blank">bigger than just making clothes</a>, it is about making the world a better place because it could do with a lot of improvement.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b.png" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250519170544_d75296ad8bfdc00d88935f40d23543c6fea3d4d6a10e61a99d6cfc6127f2ee5b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1516" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung"> </figure>  This story of chasing the American dream may sound familiar to many immigrants: knocking on doors for jobs, rejections, trying to survive from day to day on expensive rent, and dealing with subtle racism in white America. Gurung finds racism is rife, and he is often mockingly called ‘gaysian’. He writes: ‘There was a strong hypocrisy — this idea of independence felt like a marketting ruse … and for all the talk of feminism in America, these high society women were trapped by the patriarchy just like in Nepal and India.’ After a trek to the Khumbu region in 2013, Gurung is inspired to use the colours, palette and textures of Nepal for his collection exhibited on Manhattan’s 8th Avenue. A major buyer tells him bluntly: “Stick to making pretty dresses … if I need to see a collection like this, I could buy a copy of National Geographic.” The New York Times was equally dismissive: ‘The designer tries to draw connections between blistered techo-fabric used to construct it and the topography of his homeland, Nepal. But, at the moment, he has lost his map.’ One potential investor tells Gurung he cannot design for Americana because “you do not look American”. Gurung wants to use expletives, but restrains himself. After a fundraiser in New York for the Nepal earthquake in 2015, some belittled his effort, saying: “Here comes the saviour."&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/prabal-gurung-by-prabal-gurung">Prabal Gurung by Prabal Gurung</a>, Kunda Dixit The Gurkha DNA must be dominant in Prabal Gurung’s genes because he does not take such mistreatment lying down. When asked by a fashion publicist why he was designing clothes for fat people, he snaps back: “Because of people like you.” He joins the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, launches the Shikshya Foundation charity in Nepal, and has powerful allies among celebrities who wear clothes he designed: Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Jessica Parker, Kamala Harris, Deepika Padukone … it is a long list.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250519150556_48a5f4211991a23fa85b64bbd5377575ca7081d97309d7542035591dda5180fe" data-rendition-name="original" width="1114" height="1534" loading="lazy" alt="Being Prabal Gurung by design"> <figcaption>Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wearing Atelier Prabal Gurung’s design for Met Gala 2025 in which the theme was ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’. </figcaption> </figure>  “I don’t dress women to look beautiful, they already are,” Gurung says. “I try to bring out their innate strength and grace.” <a href="https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17908766880140171/" target="_blank">Admirers</a> tell Gurung he makes it all look so easy, but he used to put up a strong facade to not show his own vulnerabilities in public. “I was closed because of my childhood experiences,” he says. “I was always on guard to defend myself because I never knew where the next punch would come from.” But in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVepzPA210" target="_blank">Walk Like a Girl,</a> Gurung comes to terms with his vulnerability, and bares his soul. It has not been easy, it took sustained will power and support from his mother, sister Kumudini and a circle of close friends. “I made unbelonging my power,” he says. “Nepal is where I still have my heart and soul. Nepal grounds you. It is where people go to find themselves. But I escaped.” Recently appointed vice-chair of the <a href="https://cfda.com/about-cfda" target="_blank">Council of American Fashion Designers</a>, Gurung says: “I can’t believe I am here, it feels like it is happening to someone else. Writing this book, the healing has finally begun.” <h2>‘Everything is better in color’</h2> The Met Gala was two weeks later, and my table was an example of everything I’d been fighting for all these years as my guests represented everything I believed in: dynamic, powerful, influential women who were unapologetically original and unabashedly graceful. I was grateful to Anna for inviting me to host and dress a table that reflected my ethos—and for her guidance in doing so. I was also aware of the privilege as one of the first-­ever Asian fashion designers—not just from Nepal, but from the entire continent— to get the opportunity to do so. That fact was not lost on me. I reached out beyond the expected Hollywood celebrities and well-­known socialites to curate a table of exceptional women who inspired me. I invited Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt for their first-­ever Met Galas, as well as Michelle Yeoh, Mindy Kaling, Camila Cabello, Ashley Park, Denée Benton, KiKi Layne, Quannah Chasinghorse, and Grace Elizabeth. Together we checked many boxes: Asian, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous, each woman undeniably chic and powerful, a dazzling array of skin tones and experiences that proved my decades‑in‑the-­making hypothesis: everything is better in color. Excerpt from Walk Like a Girl Viking © 2025 by Prabal Gurung  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="20250519170520_6b91d560e9f072c37d16876901058c073a51ffa05e7ad1b9461d19e1c9c28215" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250519170520_345240c21be400e2ce2ec629b52bd82bb53890e5bd86fe95b48340d84b5f1748" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="Prabal Gurung book details NT"> </figure>  &nbsp;