Many countries around the world are concerned about the risk of food insecurity, along with the emergence of new forms of nutritional insecurity in diets and nutrition, affecting people's lives and health due to the impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity, emerging pandemics including COVID-19 and market fluctuations. Faced with global challenges of food security, nutritional security, climate change and negative impacts on the environment due to the wasteful use of natural resources, including the wasteful use of water resources, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) issued a message for World Food Day (October 16) this year: "Water is life; Water is food. Leave no one behind!" (Water is life; Water is food. Leave no one behind!).
Responding to World Food Day (October 16) this year, the Ministry of Health launched a communication campaign for the "Nutrition and Development" Week from October 16 to 23, 2023 with the theme "Using and protecting clean water properly to improve nutrition, health, and quality of life".
Today, a quarter of the world’s population, 2 billion people, use unsafe water and 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries. Competition for this invaluable resource is increasing, even leading to increasing conflicts over water scarcity.
About 600 million people depend on seafood for their livelihoods, and they are suffering from the impacts of pollution, ecosystem degradation and climate change. The diversity of seafood products is a source of essential and biologically valuable nutrients. Seafood products contain many essential nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins and minerals that are essential for human health and prevent malnutrition.
According to Tran Thanh Duong, Director of the National Institute of Nutrition, to ensure food security, we need to produce more food, diversify other essential agricultural products but use less water, with the goal of “better production, better nutrition, better environment, better life”. What we eat and how we produce food affects water. We can make a difference by choosing local, seasonal and fresh food, wasting less – even reducing food waste and finding safe ways to reuse it.
Over the years, Vietnam has made great progress in improving the nutritional status and health of its people. The rate of child malnutrition (MD) has decreased significantly and sustainably, and the food security and diet of the people have improved markedly.
Vietnam has achieved remarkable achievements in improving the nutritional status of its people, such as the rate of malnutrition in children under 5 years old has decreased rapidly and sustainably (the rate of underweight malnutrition decreased from 14.1% in 2015 to 11.5% in 2020). Although the rate of stunting in children under 5 years old has decreased by 1% each year, it is still high (19.6% in 2020) and there is a difference between regions, especially in mountainous and disadvantaged areas compared to cities and plains. This rate in the Northern mountainous region is 27.1% and in the Central Highlands is 29.8%.
Poverty and lack of knowledge are among the causes of malnutrition. Therefore, to improve the health and nutritional status of mothers and children in disadvantaged, mountainous and ethnic minority areas; The Prime Minister has approved the sustainable poverty reduction target program in Decision No. 90/QD-TTg dated January 18, 2022 for the period 2021-2025 with the goal of maintaining a reduction of 1-1.5%/year in the multidimensional poverty rate.
Currently, the country has 1089 poor communes, especially poor communes in poor districts of ethnic minority areas. Poor people in ethnic minority areas still suffer from food shortages, lack of food, lack of information, etc., which are the causes of high rates of underweight and stunted children, as well as micronutrient deficiencies and lack of health services for mothers and children.
Looking back over the past 10 years (from 2010 to 2020), the structure of Vietnamese meals has changed significantly, the diet is more balanced, approaching the recommended needs for energy-producing substances from carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids at 63.1%: 15.8%: 20.1%. However, the balance of the diet is still not guaranteed, the daily diet in many places still has too much animal protein, the average meat consumption is 134 grams/person/day, of which red meat is 95.5g (recommended need 70g/person/day), poultry 36.2g, meat products are 4.7g. In urban areas, the meat consumption is higher at 154 grams/person/day, red meat is 155.3g, poultry 36.5g and meat products are 3.9g. In rural areas, although conditions are still difficult, meat consumption is 126.2g and red meat is 85.8g. This leads to more animal lipids than plant lipids (the ratio of animal lipids to total lipids is 51.4%).
Unhealthy eating habits and nutritional imbalances (lots of meat, animal fat, few vegetables and fruits) of Vietnamese people have increased chronic diseases related to nutrition such as: overweight, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, gout, dyslipidemia, etc. The rate of overweight and obesity in school-age children increased from 8.5% in 2010 to 19.0% in 2020, of which urban areas were 26.8%, rural areas were 18.3% and mountainous areas were 6.9%.
Responding to the "Nutrition and Development" Week, the Ministry of Health has made a number of recommendations: Developing safe gardens (VAC) to create a source of available and safe food; Organizing family meals and school meals well to ensure diversity, balance and adequate nutrition; Implementing proper nutritional care in the first 1000 days of life to help children develop comprehensively in terms of stature and intelligence; Choosing foods with clear origin, ensuring safety in processing and preservation; Reading nutritional information on food labels before buying and using; Using safe clean water in eating and drinking. Drinking enough water according to the body's needs./.
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