"Vietnam is facing a triple burden of nutrition, including stunting, overweight, obesity and micronutrient deficiency,” Rana Flowers, UNICEF and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN representative in Vietnam, told a conference held in Hanoi on April 15 for the release of the main findings of the National General Nutrition Survey for 2019 – 2020.
One in every three Vietnamese children under the age of five is either malnourished or overweight as a result of poor diets and a food system that is failing them, heard a ceremony in Hanoi on October 16 to release the UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2019 report.
A lack of physical activity and inappropriate diets are to blame for the high rate of obesity among primary school students, according to a new study by the National Institute of Nutrition.
A study shows that the rate of overweight and obese primary students is 29 percent while that among secondary school students and high school students is 19 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively.
When it comes to food policy, Vietnam faces a double health burden: The country has seen a rising number of children with obesity in urban areas, while the number of malnourished children remains high.
Vietnam and Bangladesh are the two countries with the lowest adult obesity rate at 1 percent, according to the latest global study released on June 12.
Malaysia has the highest obesity rate in Southeast Asia, according to a report on obesity in ASEAN nations conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The proportion of malnourished children is reducing remarkably but the ratio of childhood obesity is on the rise, according to the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine.