Vietnamese people's height is still in the short group.

Sharing at a recent nutrition seminar organized by the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine, Dr. Truong Hong Son, Director of the Institute, said that the rate of stunting in Vietnamese children has improved significantly, from 50% (1 in 2 children is stunted) to 20%. However, about 50% of children still do not reach the standard height.

Being short doesn't just affect appearance.

He emphasized that being short not only affects appearance but also increases the risk of non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular, diabetes, bone and joint diseases and obesity). For example, with the same weight of 60 kg, a person who is 1m70 tall has a normal BMI, but if he is only 1m50 tall, he falls into the overweight group. Obesity is one of the three biggest risk factors for non-communicable diseases that are increasing rapidly in Vietnam.

According to the latest research, the average height of young Vietnamese men is 168.1 cm, and that of women is 156.2 cm. In 10 years, men's height increased by 3.7 cm, and women's by 1.4 cm.

On the global height map, Vietnam is currently ranked 153/201 countries. In the Southeast Asian region, Vietnam has risen to 4th place. This is a big step forward compared to 10 years ago, when we were in the bottom half of the region.

However, the average height of Vietnamese men is still much lower than the global average (176.1 cm for men and 163.1 cm for women). Vietnamese people are still short.

Missing a day in the golden period means losing that day.

Parents' height will determine a range of height for their children, but maximizing their children's height (within their genes) depends mainly on nutrition.

Dr. Son gives an example: if the father is 1m68 tall and the mother is 1m56 tall (the average height of Vietnamese people today), then the son can reach a height of about 1m68 to 1m74. To be taller, the deciding factors are nutrition, environment/disease, exercise and sleep.

In Vietnam, nutritional supplementation programs and improved living conditions have also helped increase height significantly over the past 20 years. However, many barriers remain.

The main reason why Vietnamese people have not achieved their desired height is due to a lack of micronutrients from an early age, starting in the womb. The rate of low birth weight babies is still high, and micronutrient deficiencies are common among pregnant women. When children grow up, most families only focus on eating enough and gaining weight, without paying due attention to important micronutrients for height development.

Another mistake is that parents do not take advantage of the golden stages of growth. “Height only develops until about 19 years old. The most important stages are the first 1,000 days of life (including pregnancy and the first 2 years after birth), pre-school and puberty. Missing any stage means losing the opportunity to grow taller at that stage,” Dr. Son emphasized.

Doctors recommend focusing on supplementing essential minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, vitamins A, D, K2... to improve children's height.

"To absorb calcium, vitamin D is needed, especially D3. When entering the blood, vitamin K2 plays an important role, bringing calcium to the right point in the bones," Dr. Son analyzed when talking about the relationship between micronutrients.

Nutritionists recommend that parents should feed their children a variety of foods. Vitamin D is abundant in eggs and milk; vitamin K2 is abundant in fermented foods such as Japanese natto, and is also found in chicken, duck, and goose, but the content is not high. In some cases, it is necessary to consider using micronutrient supplements.

However, Dr. Son warns that supplementation must be consulted with an expert. Avoid buying floating products of unknown origin because the content may not be guaranteed or affected by poor storage conditions such as light and temperature.

TH (according to Vietnamnet)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/chieu-cao-nguoi-viet-dang-van-trong-nhom-thap-be-414605.html