This is the opinion raised by many delegates at the Workshop on Comprehensive Development of Children Under 6 Years Old organized by the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education and the United Nations Children's Fund in Vietnam (UNICEF) on August 18, in Hanoi.
Overview of the workshop
Increasing rate of overweight and obese children in big cities
Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Thoa, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, said that compared to the previous period, the malnutrition rate and child mortality rate have decreased significantly, but not evenly.
Vietnamese children are facing three nutritional burdens: malnutrition, obesity and micronutrient deficiency. The rate of overweight and obese children in big cities and stunted malnutrition in mountainous areas, disadvantaged areas and ethnic minority areas is increasing. Micronutrient deficiency in children is still quite common, with nearly 1/3 of children suffering from anemia and 2/3 of children suffering from zinc deficiency.
Pointing out the cause of the increase in childhood obesity, Mr. Tran Dang Khoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Maternal and Child Health (Ministry of Health), said that the impact of globalization and urbanization has led to changes in the food environment.
"While access to food has increased, access to unhealthy food and drinks has increased significantly with cheap, processed food and drink stores increasing sales, contributing to the rise in overweight and obesity," said Mr. Khoa.
In addition to the above causes, nutrition experts at the conference said that another cause of obesity is too many processed products.
According to statistics from the Instant Noodles Association, the average person in Vietnam consumes 85 packs of instant noodles per year; on average, divided by month, that is 7 packs per month. Convenient products with eye-catching illustrations make people buy them without knowledge. Meanwhile, these products have no nutrients and are very high in sugar, salt, fat, and saturated fat.
Regarding the issue of nutrition for children under 6 years old, Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Hai Duong province, said that there are two issues worth paying attention to: malnutrition and childhood obesity. In particular, the rate of obese children is currently higher than that of micronutrient deficiencies.
Ms. Nga shared: "Currently, in the perception of parents, especially parents in big cities, they often use their child's weight as the standard. When seeing their child plump and chubby, many people are proud and consider it a sign of good parenting. Parents do not understand that this can affect their children's health in later stages."
Health warning labels are required.
Mr. Tran Dang Khoa admitted that Vietnam currently has no regulations and sanctions on nutritional labeling for processed foods to choose healthy foods.
"We do not have policies or regulations to control and limit the consumption of saturated fat, trans fat, sugary soft drinks... In particular, there is a lack of policies to limit the ways children and students access unhealthy foods such as advertising and promotions...", Mr. Khoa said.
Providing solutions for nutritional care for children under 6 years old, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Thoa suggested: "Strengthening the implementation and perfecting the system of policies and laws on food and nutrition. Including the indicators of malnutrition, stunting, overweight and obesity in children under 5 years old as one of the socio-economic development indicators of the country and locality".
Through a survey in the southern provinces, Mr. Ta Van Ha, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, said that up to now, we have been concerned with stunted children's nutrition, now nutrition for obese children needs to be researched and surveyed.
Along with raising awareness for people to choose products, some delegates said that there should be mandatory regulations on nutritional content, aiming to label health warnings such as: warning about products with too much salt, sugar, trans fat... so that people can proactively choose products. In particular, high taxes should be imposed on products that are not beneficial to consumers' health.
Agreeing with the above opinion, UNICEF representative said that to reduce the rate of child obesity, it is necessary to pay attention to ready-made foods that can make children obese. Caregivers must pay attention to this, the Government needs to have communication programs, in which caregivers need to be communicated first.
Giving recommendations to Vietnam, Ms. Lesley Miller, Deputy Representative of UNICEF in Vietnam, said that Vietnam needs to review the implementation of the National Project on Comprehensive Early Childhood Development and make necessary adjustments to achieve the goals and targets set by 2025, preparing for the upcoming period of 2026 - 2030 in line with Vietnam's sustainable development agenda.
On the other hand, Vietnam needs to improve its data system with essential indicators of young children's development to monitor progress and inform policy making and implementation; and strengthen coordination structures at all levels to improve integration of services.
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