A 10-year research conducted by the National Nutrition Institute reveals what health experts say is a disturbing trend: Vietnamese eat more meat now than they did ten years ago.
Le Danh Tuyen, deputy head of the institute, talked to Tuoitre about this study, which analyzed eating habits of 7,600 households countrywide from 2001 to 2010.
What are some of the things this research reveals?
Vietnamese now eat more meat, fish and eggs than before.
Consumption of food of animal origin increases and consumption of vegetables goes down considerably.
Do these trends explain increasing health problems in Vietnam such as metabolic disorder, cardiovascular disease and diabetes?
Changes in daily food consumption have greatly affected Vietnam’s disease and death demography.
As pandemic infection has been reduced thanks to effective prevention, the numbers of patients and deaths of chronic diseases tend to rise rapidly.
This is a common trend for developing countries when they enter a new economic phase.
The living standards of a part of our population have been improved, and so have their diet’s nutritional quality.
Consumption of meat and other sources of lipid has caused an increasing number of cases of diabetes and obesity.
How should we change our diet?
Vietnamese eat more meat than needed while consumption of fish and other seafood and vegetables remains very low.
An average person needs only 50 to 60 grams of meat and meat products per day.
He or she needs 100 to 150 grams of fish and seafood and 200 to 300 grams of fruits and vegetables per day.
A daily amount of 20 grams of oil and fat products and 10 grams of salt is enough.
Although meat provides necessary animal protein and micronutrients, too much meat consumption can lead to dangerous health problems such as cancers, loss of calcium, cardiovascular diseases and rheumatism.
Children under 6 month-old should be breastfed and can continue to be so until 2 year-old, besides taking other meals.
Too much protein, even from formula milk will cause kidney problems.
How should Vietnam change its health and nutrition policies?
Besides a rising number of chronic diseases, Vietnam still has 29.3 percent of children under 5 who suffer from malnutrition, which leads to low height in adults.
The main reason is a lack of multi-micronutrients in women before, during and after pregnancy and during and after breastfeeding.
A National Nutrition Strategy for 2011-2020 tackling these nutritional and related health problems will be submitted to the government this year.
We are suggesting detailing nutrient composition on all marketed food products’ labels.
We should also develop specific nutritional guidelines for specific population groups based on their energy consumption.
The role of the media is also important to promote a healthy lifestyle of balanced diet and frequent exercising.
