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. (Illustrative image. Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – One in every three Vietnamese
children under the age of five is either or as a result
of and a 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.
The report provides a comprehensive assessment of 21st-century
child malnutrition in all its forms. It describes a triple burden of malnutrition,
namely undernutrition, hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients,
and overweight among children under the age of five.
The report warns that poor eating and feeding practices
start from the earliest days of a child’s life. This finding was highlighted by
a landscape analysis carried out by the Vietnam National Institute of Nutrition
in 2019 on complementary feeding and maternal nutrition as part of the Regional
Initiative for Sustained Improvements in Nutrition and Growth (RISING). The analysis
showed that complementary feeding practices and maternal nutrition in Vietnam
are largely inadequate and inappropriate, contributing to the burden of
malnutrition.
In Vietnam, inadequate maternal diets lead to underweight
and overweight women who are more likely to have low birth weight babies. Meanwhile,
inadequate diets during the complementary feeding phase, when the first foods
are introduced to young children aged between 6 months and 2 years, are common
in the country.
According to the 2015 national nutrition surveillance, 18
percent of the children do not have a diet that is sufficiently diverse and 36
percent are not fed frequently enough.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said
malnutrition among Vietnamese, particularly children, remains at a high level
compared to other nations in the region.
He added that there is 57 percent of the local population
eating a diet that lacks of vegetables and nutrition but contains high sodium and
starch intake.
The official tasked the Ministry of Health with boosting
measures to tackle the issue, particularly at alarming areas like the northern
mountainous and Central Highlands regions as well as working with relevant
agencies to improve the diets of women and young children.
On the occasion, Dam, UNICEF representatives, and other
delegates signed a commitment to improving the diets of women and young
children during the complementary feeding period./.
Source: VietnamPlus
