Illustrative photo (Source:CDC) Hanoi (VNA) - The average height of Vietnamese young people is 1.644 metres for men and 1.534 for women, increasing by only 1-1.5 centimetres than that of a decade ago, experts said at a workshop on nutrition in Hanoi on March 2.
Meanwhile, the average height globally is 176.8cm for men and 163.7cm for women.
Vietnamese youths’ stature is also shorter than the averages in regional countries, such as Japan , Thailand and Singapore , according to Deputy Head of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) by Le Bach Mai. According to Mai, one of the reasons for the problem is the low consumption of milk and milk products in the country.
Surveys by NIN indicated that Vietnam ’s annual milk consumption per capita reaches only 11 litres, as against 38 litres of alcohol and 53 litres of soft drink recorded last year.
With this rate of average height growth, it will take the Vietnamese people 60 to 80 years to reach the current stature of the Japanese, according to experts at the workshop.-VNA
