Go easy on sugar, salt: WHO advices Vietnamese
Vietnam has a delicious array of sweets to indulge into. A sweet tooth won’t get enough from helpings of ChèTrôiNước, or ChèSương Sa HạtLựu. But too much sugar is also bad for the health.
Each Vietnamese currently consumes about 46.5 g of free sugar every day, which is close to the maximum daily intake of 50 g and almost doubles the recommended daily intake of under 25 g.
The information was revealed at a workshop in Hanoi held June 22 that announced the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s recommendations for controlling sugar-sweetened beverages to prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Deputy Director of the Health Ministry’s Department of Preventive Medicine Truong Dinh Bac said an unbalanced diet with much salt, sugar-containing products and saturated-fat and little vegetables and fruits, along with a lack of physical activities are risk factors of NCDs. Notably, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is growing, especially in developing countries, he said.
In Vietnam, overweight and obesity rates are increasing rapidly, he noted, elaborating that about 25% of the adults are overweight or obese. The rate of obese children under five years old soared from 0.6% 2000 to 5.3% in 2015.
According to the National Hospital of Endocrinology, the rate of persons with diabetes doubled from 2.7% in 2002 to 5.4% in 2012. The lifelong care for and treatment of these patients is said to pose burden on the economy.
At the workshop, a WHO representative said sugar-sweetened beverages are the main source of sugar in meals, and the consumption of these drinks has been on the rise on almost all nations and, especially, among children. If a child drink a can or bottle of sugar-sweetened beverages in one day, his or her intake of free sugars has been much beyond the recommended level as one can of soft drink usually contains about 36 g of free sugar.
The WHO recommended that the intake of free sugar, including monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods, or sugar naturally present in honey, syrups, and fruit juices should account for not higher than 10% of each person’s diet and be reduced to 5% of the daily calories, equivalent to about 25 g of free sugar or six teaspoons.
Along the same vein, a similar workshop held in March underscored Vietnamese’s high-salt diet. Their intake is nearly doubling the WHO recommend level of 5g per day, it was said. Bac cautioned that the high amount of salt intake results in an increase in the rate of people with high blood pressure and heart diseases. It was found that a Vietnamese adult consumed an average of 9.4g of salt a day, citing a 2015 national survey.Salt made up a large part of daily cooking and cuisine of Vietnamese, while salt intake in advanced countries mostly comes from processed food or restaurant meals, he said.
A WHO representative said if everyone consumes salt at the recommended level, about 2.5 million lives will be saved worldwide.
To address this health issue, the Department of Preventative Medicine said it is drafting a national communication plan on salt intake reduction in a bid to prevent heart diseases and other non-communicable diseases. Meanwhile, the WHO urges countries to boost communications to raise public awareness of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and control the advertising of these products, especially at schools. They also need to encourage producers to put health warning labels on sugar containing products and hike tax on these products to raise budget revenue and limit abuse.