From dal-bhat to fast food: How Nepali eating habits are changing

For young people, food is increasingly connected not only to hunger but also to social life. Meeting friends over momo or coffee, ordering pizza for a gathering, stopping at a café after college or buying snacks during a school break can make eating outside the home part of everyday social behaviour.

Marketing has added another layer to this transformation. Packaged foods and sugary drinks are widely promoted, while young consumers are exposed to food advertising through television, shops and digital media.

UNICEF has previously warned that increasing access to fast food and highly sweetened beverages, combined with inappropriate marketing and the growing availability of ultra-processed foods, is influencing children's food environments in Nepal and elsewhere.

The changing food environment is not entirely negative. Greater access to restaurants and different foods has also expanded consumer choice. Urban Nepalis can find foods from different regions of Nepal as well as Indian, Chinese, Korean, Italian and other international cuisines. Traditional Nepali dishes themselves have also become more widely available through restaurants and food businesses.

The concern arises when convenience foods begin replacing nutritionally diverse meals too frequently.

Nepal's food-based dietary guidelines recommend eating a variety of foods every day, increasing whole grains, vegetables and fruits, consuming pulses and animal-source foods regularly, having milk or milk products daily, limiting fat and salt, reducing sugar and sweetened drinks, and balancing food intake with physical activity. The guidelines also specifically encourage locally available traditional foods and advise people to avoid junk foods.

This is important because a traditional Nepali meal is not automatically a perfectly balanced meal. Dal-bhat can provide important carbohydrates and plant protein, but the nutritional quality of the overall meal depends on what accompanies it, including vegetables, pulses, dairy, eggs, meat, fruit and other foods.

At the same time, replacing a home-cooked meal with highly processed snacks or fried fast food does not necessarily improve dietary quality simply because it is more convenient.

The 2022 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey provides an indication of the nutritional challenges facing the country. Among women aged 20–49, 35 percent were overweight or obese, with the proportion higher in urban areas at 38 percent compared with 26 percent in rural areas. Among men aged 20–49, 32 percent were overweight or obese.

The same survey found that 56 percent of women consumed foods from at least five of 10 food groups in the previous 24 hours, meeting the survey's minimum dietary-diversity threshold. But two-thirds had consumed sweet beverages and 54 percent had consumed foods high in sugar, salt or unhealthy fats, including items such as biscuits, sweets, ice cream, chips, instant noodles, samosa, pakora, puri and other fried foods.

These numbers do not establish that fast food alone is causing overweight or obesity. Body weight and health are influenced by many factors, including total calorie intake, physical activity, genetics, age, income, occupation and broader living conditions. But the figures demonstrate why changes in food consumption deserve attention as Nepal faces both undernutrition and diet-related problems associated with excess weight.

The transition is particularly significant among adolescents. A 2025 UNICEF regional nutrition report drawing on Nepal's 2022 Demographic and Health Survey found that 77 percent of adolescent girls aged 15–19 had consumed fast food in the previous week, while 71 percent had consumed sweets, fried foods or salty foods in the previous 24 hours. The same analysis found that 53 percent met the minimum dietary-diversity threshold.

The figures also show why the phrase "dal-bhat to fast food" should not be taken literally. Many young Nepalis are not choosing one over the other. They may eat dal-bhat at home and momo, chowmein, burgers or packaged snacks outside the home on the same day or during the same week.

The more significant change may therefore be the emergence of a mixed food culture.

Breakfast habits provide one example. Traditional breakfast foods such as chiura, roti, tarkari, eggs, milk, tea and other homemade foods continue to be eaten, but packaged cereals, bakery products, instant noodles and commercially prepared snacks also compete for space. In the Kathmandu adolescent study, breakfast was the meal most frequently skipped among those who reported skipping meals, with 36.2 percent identifying breakfast as the skipped meal.

School and college environments can reinforce these choices. In the same Kathmandu study, 69.9 percent of participants reported the school canteen as their main source of lunch during school hours, while 78 percent received pocket money for lunch. Fast food and junk food therefore become not only household choices but also part of the food environment surrounding young people.

The economic side of the transformation is also important.

Food choices are shaped by price as much as preference. A household may choose a particular meal because it is affordable, filling and easy to prepare. Packaged foods can be attractive because they are widely available and require little preparation, while fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products and animal-source foods can become difficult choices when household budgets are tight.

UNICEF has noted that processed foods are often affordable, readily available and heavily marketed, while nutritious foods can be more expensive or less accessible to some families.

At the same time, rising household incomes can increase the ability to eat outside the home. For some families, restaurant meals that were once reserved for special occasions have become a more regular part of urban life.

This creates a paradox: economic progress can expand access to a greater variety of food while also increasing exposure to foods high in sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.

Nepal's nutritional challenge is therefore no longer simply about whether people have enough food. It is increasingly about what kind of food is available, affordable and routinely chosen.

The country continues to face undernutrition alongside overweight and obesity. The 2022 Demographic and Health Survey found that 25 percent of children under five were stunted, 8 percent were wasted and 19 percent were underweight. At the same time, 35 percent of women aged 20–49 were overweight or obese.

This combination is part of what nutrition experts describe as the double burden of malnutrition: undernutrition and overnutrition can exist within the same country, community, household or even individual life course.

Traditional food, therefore, should not be romanticised simply because it is traditional, nor should modern food automatically be treated as unhealthy.

Nepali cuisine itself offers considerable diversity. Dal, vegetables, legumes, fermented foods, dairy products, eggs, meat, fish, fruits, millet, maize, buckwheat and other locally available foods can form part of a varied diet. Many traditional foods are also well suited to local ingredients and cultural preferences.

The challenge is maintaining that diversity while adapting to changing lifestyles.

A healthier approach does not necessarily require abandoning momo, chowmein, pizza or burgers. It can instead mean paying attention to frequency, portion size and what else makes up the overall diet. A person who occasionally eats fast food while maintaining a varied diet is in a very different situation from someone whose regular meals are dominated by fried foods, sugary drinks and packaged snacks.

The same principle applies to dal-bhat. Eating rice and lentils every day is not inherently unhealthy, but relying heavily on refined rice while eating very few vegetables, fruits or other food groups can leave the diet less diverse than recommended.

Nepal's own dietary guidelines emphasise variety rather than dependence on one staple. They recommend more whole grains, vegetables and fruits, regular consumption of pulses and protein-rich foods, moderate fat intake, limited salt and reduced consumption of sugar, sweets and sweetened drinks.

There are also signs that awareness can influence behaviour. UNICEF Nepal has documented school-based nutrition initiatives in which adolescents promoted homemade lunches and encouraged peers to reduce their reliance on processed packaged foods.

The future of Nepali food culture is therefore unlikely to be a simple story of dal-bhat disappearing and fast food taking its place.

Instead, Nepal is developing a hybrid food culture in which traditional meals, street food, restaurant dishes, packaged snacks and international cuisines coexist.

The important question is not whether Nepalis eat momo, pizza or burgers. It is whether convenience and changing lifestyles are gradually reducing the variety and nutritional quality of everyday diets.

Dal-bhat may remain at the centre of Nepali food culture for generations to come. But the plate around it—and what people eat before and after it—is changing.

For Nepal, the challenge will be to ensure that this change brings greater choice without sacrificing nutritional diversity, traditional food knowledge and healthy eating habits.