Elderly people have a meal at a nursing home in Da Nang. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnamese are eating a lot ofsalty food. However, many people refuse to accept that excess salt in one’sdaily diet is not healthy and may cause several non-communicable diseases(NCDs) such as high blood pressure or heart diseases, participants heard at a recentworkshop.
Speaking at the event, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) ViceDirector Prof. Truong Tuyet Mai said fatalities caused by NCDs are increasingin Vietnam.
Mai said Vietnam reported 520,000 fatalities in2012, of which nearly 400,000 deaths, equivalent to 73 percent, were caused byNCDs. In 2017, deaths caused by NCDs have reached up to 411,000, making up 76percent of total fatalities. Fatalities caused by heart diseases are 33percent, followed by cancer at 18 percent, Chronic Obstructive PulmonaryDiseases at seven percent and diabetes at three percent.
The situation is caused by many factors, especially the highrate of smoking, overweight, lack of physical exercise, high blood pressure andeating fewer vegetables.
Le Bach Mai, an NIN nutrition expert, said salt intake ofover 5g per day may be harmful for people’s health, according to the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) recommendation.
“A bow of pho noodle has 3.4 to 4.6 grams of salt. It meansthat by eating just breakfast, you have completed the daily salt requirementfor one’s body,” Mai said.
Mai suggested people reduce daily salt intake for NCDprevention by reducing salt in home food, eating fresh food and vegetables andminimising the use of processed and braised food.
Do Thu Hien, a housewife in Hanoi’s Hoang Mai district, saidher family is used to eat salty food.
She said she was aware that excess salt intake was not goodfor people’s health. However, Hien and her family had trouble reducing theirintake of salty food.
“We usually add more salt to food when we cook at home. Wealso add fish sauce to food we eat every day,” Hien said.
She said she would try to reduce salt in the food her familyeats.
“A person just needs 1-2g of salt per day. However, asurvey in 2015 showed that a Vietnamese person consumed up to 9.4g daily,nearly doubling the recommendation level of WHO,” Lai Duc Truong, an expertfrom the organisation in Hanoi, said.
“Salt intake of Vietnamese has reached up to nearly 10g perday. This will lead to NCDs related to high blood pressure, stomach cancer,kidney failure and asthma,” Truong said.
He said 77 percent of salt intake in developed countriescomes from processed and restaurant food, in comparison with 20 percent inVietnam.
“Some 70 percent of salt intake comes from home cooking and10 percent is added to food while eating in Vietnam,” Truong noted.
WHO has said reducing salt intake to less than 5g per daywill save 2.5 million lives every year, according to him.
Vietnam has set a plan to reduce 30 percent of salt intake inthe daily food ration of Vietnamese people to 6.6 grams per day by 2025 toreduce risks of NCDs such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. The moveis a part of efforts to achieve nine global targets set by WHO to prevent NCDsfrom now to 2025.-VNA
VNA
