Supplementing micronutrients properly increases resistance in modern life

On the morning of September 18, Nhan Dan Newspaper and Felecia Brand organized a seminar "Community health care - sustainable solutions for development" with the participation of nutrition experts to analyze the current situation of micronutrient deficiency and give recommendations for appropriate nutritional and food supplements.

Paradox in modern society

"Vietnam is facing a double burden of nutrition, which means that in addition to malnutrition, there is also overweight and obesity. In reality, when examining patients, there are families where the older brother is malnourished but the younger brother is overweight and obese," Dr. Truong Hong Son, Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Medical Association, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine, opened the discussion.

According to this nutritionist, in the past, people were malnourished because of poverty, but now it is mainly due to lack of knowledge. Many people think, "if you are thin now, you will be fat later", but in reality, when nutrition is not good, children can be malnourished, not only in weight but also in height.

Vietnamese people have a high life expectancy of 74 years, but it is one of the countries with low health status. "From the age of 64, Vietnamese people often have chronic diseases and 10 years later, each Vietnamese person has an average of 3 comorbidities," said Dr. Son.

Dr. Truong Hong Son (left photo), Deputy Secretary General of the Vietnam Medical Association, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine.

Dr. Phan Bich Nga, Head of the Department of Pediatric Nutrition Examination, National Institute of Nutrition, said that currently, knowledge about nutrition as well as nutritional disease prevention is not given attention.

"Regarding the results of the national census, in the past 10 years, the rate of overweight and obesity has increased: the rate of obesity in children over 6 years old has nearly doubled: from 8.4% to nearly 16%. In clinics, we see that underweight and malnutrition are of more concern to parents than overweight and obese children. Habits and lifestyles affect metabolic disorders," said Dr. Nga.

According to Master, Doctor Tu Quang, Master of Nutrition - Physical Activity and Public Health , Military Medical Academy, it is not difficult to see the current situation of excess energy but lack of micronutrients in society. Fast meals, eaten in a hurry can ensure energy, but in terms of nutrition and meal organization, they are not guaranteed.

Micronutrient starvation is a story that experts have raised for many years. People think that eating enough energy is enough, but in reality, it is not enough because we have not paid attention to micronutrients. "When the body is malnourished, the immune system is weak, which can lead to being susceptible to infectious diseases. At this time, the body has to "mobilize" to compensate for the damage of the body, making malnutrition worse... Like that, this condition causes the body to fall into a vicious cycle," said Dr. Quang.

Depending on weight, each child has different requirements for micronutrient supplementation. The choice of food and micronutrients for children is very important. We also cannot apply micronutrient supplementation for children like the usual eating habits of adults because the needs and absorption capacity of each child are different.

Master, Doctor Tu Quang shared at the seminar.

"90% of children who come to our clinic are malnourished due to lack of fat. Adults only need 15% of fat, but children need up to 25%. When there is a lack of fat, children will lack vitamin D and K2, at which point calcium cannot enter the bones. Therefore, sometimes children are malnourished not because they do not eat enough but because of mistakes in the use of each age group," Dr. Son cited.

Therefore, experts say that in addition to supplementing food, it is necessary to find out which micronutrients your child lacks and supplement them appropriately so that your child can develop both weight and height to the maximum. This is considered a way to prevent health and improve one's physical condition.

"It is very difficult to find a "super food" that provides enough nutrients right away and our advice is to diversify your meals. Besides, you have to eat 20 types of food a day, but how to eat 20 types to avoid gaining weight requires controlling the food," Dr. Son shared.

Don't stigmatize health supplements

In an era where chronic diseases and unhealthy lifestyles are increasingly common, people have the habit of using health-supporting foods to enhance resistance and prevent diseases. However, with a number of recent exposed cases of functional foods, people have lost confidence in choosing this product to support health improvement.

Sharing about this at the Seminar, Dr. Truong Hong Son said that for healthy people, we can supplement from food. In case of needing treatment at the hospital, the doctor will prescribe medication. And when focusing on disease prevention and health improvement, we can use functional foods, vitamin and mineral supplements. If we know how to use them and use them correctly, they will bring many benefits.

In the world , the sales of functional foods are up to 300 billion USD, developed countries use a lot. Here must understand correctly and use correctly. Functional foods are not drugs, do not have a therapeutic role, so promoting this food as a therapeutic role is certainly not enough evidence. Functional foods have high content compared to normal content, so they have an important role in supporting disease prevention and treatment.

"At this stage, the medical profession and doctors are restricted from talking about functional foods, but people do not have enough knowledge and are dependent on brand advertising. Advertisements are sometimes exaggerated and there is not enough mechanism to control information related to health, so people will suffer losses.

I just want to say, everyone should not hate functional foods because they have a role in supporting disease prevention. The only thing is, we have to look for products with scientific and transparent health information," said Dr. Son.

Dr. Phan Bich Nga said that in Vietnam, knowledge about nutritional supplements and support to prevent micronutrient deficiency is very important but not widely known. The general view of many people is that they only need enough energy to move and function. But in fact, the role of micronutrients is very important, for example, protein, vitamins, minerals, some fatty acids, Omega 3..., some micronutrients support increased immunity or participate in mechanisms for the body's development.

Dr. Phan Bich Nga shared at the seminar.

Emphasizing the role of the media in raising public awareness, Dr. Phan Bich Nga said that helping people understand what a reasonable nutritional meal, a reasonable living regimen and lifestyle is a way to support health and is a very good disease prevention measure.

"For example, spirulina algae helps improve health, reduce aging... proven to increase effectiveness in fighting metabolic disorders. Or some products have high vitamin D or calcium content, currently due to people's lifestyle of staying indoors, less habit of sunbathing, so it is easy to be deficient, need to pay attention to vitamin D supplementation. If the test shows a severe deficiency, it is necessary to supplement in the form of medicine according to the doctor's instructions", said Dr. Nga.

Be a smart consumer

"Choosing the wrong product will have long-term effects and, importantly, lose the opportunity during the golden period to strengthen everyone's resistance. It will be impossible to get back. That is more important than the value you have to spend to buy micronutrient supplements," Dr. Son recommends.

At the Seminar, Dr. Truong Hong Son also cited the need to supplement protein, if you are afraid of eating too much red meat causing gout, increased cholesterol... then you can supplement with Spirulina algae. Since 1974, the World Health Organization as well as FAO and UNICEF have evaluated Spirulina algae as one of the foods that can bring many health benefits: rich in essence, rich in protein, rich in biological active substances and many amino acids.

"For example, the product PhycoVitC Avenir has health benefits. The product supplements high-quality, high-content protein; the product is suitable for children, the elderly, especially after illness, people with micronutrient deficiencies... who need to supplement protein. In PhycoVitC Avenir algae Have High iron content and iron combined with vitamin C will increase absorption, for example absorption from only 5% will increase to 15%.

PhycoVitC Avenir has a Phycocyanin content of 100mg/tube, which is a quality assurance content. PhycoVitC Avenir products are manufactured to ensure quality and undergo a rigorous inspection process to be recognized by the US FDA," said Dr. Son.

Dr. Truong Hong Son shares about the product PhycoVitC Avenir.

According to Dr. Tu Quang, spirulina combined with vitamin C... can help reduce local inflammation, increase collagen and melanin production to help skin recover, and support problems such as dark spots.

For newborns and pregnant women, colostrum supplementation is also very necessary. "Currently, the cesarean section rate is relatively high, mothers who have cesarean sections often have to wait several hours, colostrum comes slowly, the mother is weak, has less milk, so the baby is at a disadvantage. At that time, we have special foods in the form of colostrum, but extracted from cow's milk but still follows the nutritional standards of colostrum, ensuring the origin to supplement for mothers", said Dr. Nga.

Nowadays, colostrum can be extended to many other subjects such as children with weak immune systems, poor digestion, even people with malnutrition, the elderly, mothers at risk during pregnancy...

At the seminar, experts proposed that the management agency must review the approval process for functional food products sold in Vietnam according to the following process: what research is the product based on, is there scientific evidence, is there an independent unit responsible for transparency in order to grant a license.

Besides, when people read advertisements on mass media, they must improve their understanding when choosing products.

THIEN LAMB

Source: https://nhandan.vn/bo-sung-vi-chat-dung-cach-tang-suc-de-khang-trong-cuoc-song-hien-dai-post909007.html