Kyrgyz street food: high in salt, fat and sugar

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People are drawn to street food by low prices, short waits and the sheer variety available. A loaf of bread at this vendor costs as little as €0.25. Bread is one of the main sources of salt in a diet of staple foods.

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Medical students, fully aware of the harm of unhealthy diets, still eat street food. “We only have short breaks between lectures,” comments one student. “When we get older, after our studies, we will eat healthier.” 

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Street food often has high levels of salt and trans fat. WHO recommends that the intake of trans fat should be as low as possible, and that the daily amount of salt should not exceed 5 g, the equivalent of a teaspoon.

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This portion of manty, a pasta-wrapped snack usually filled with a spicy meat mixture, contains 128.9% of the recommended maximum intake of trans fat and 82.9% of the recommended maximum intake of salt.

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“We eat everything, and the main condition is that it should be quick and saturated to keep us full for a longer time,” explains this group of friends when asked why they choose street food.

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Street food in Bishkek is not only rich in salt and trans fat; sugar is also freely available in large amounts.

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These friends usually have street food for lunch, and would like more healthy options. “There is not enough accessibility to healthy food,” they say.

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In addition to the unhealthy foods on offer, soft drinks with high sugar content are sold at more than half of all sites selling drinks.

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Food sold on the street is not always unhealthy. This vendor has sold fruit on the street for more than 20 years. She says that her customers buy fruit based on dietary recommendations from their doctors.