Do not be obese to have diabetes

The discovery of an 11-year-old child in Hanoi who suffers from diabetes due to obesity may be a warning about a reasonable diet for children.

According to Dr. Ta Van Binh, director of the Central Endocrinology Hospital, the best method of limiting the risk of obesity in children is to increase physical activity and create reasonable eating habits.

According to endocrinologists, obesity is the cause of type 2 diabetes in children. Normally, type 2 diabetes is only found in adults aged 30 and older.

However, at present, many families have a well-off life so feeding their children with an unreasonable diet has led to an increasing incidence of obesity in Vietnam.

Prof. Dr. Ta Van Binh said that the rate of obesity in the city is higher than in rural areas.

In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the overweight rate in primary school students has reached nearly 10%, especially in those areas where the rate is much higher.

A reasonable diet for children includes adequate protein, vitamins, and minerals in fresh fruits and vegetables.

However, not all adults have proper and sufficient awareness about this issue.

The evidence is that obese children in Vietnam mainly fall into well-off families. Besides increasing the amount of energy absorbed into the body, the obese children gradually reduce energy consumption.

According to Dr. Binh, this is the result of technological advances, sedentary lifestyles and increased consumption of high-fat and high-energy foods.

Currently reducing energy consumption is the result of using computers, remote controls, microwave ovens, car travel. Besides, less physical activity is a contributing factor to increasing the rate of obesity in children.

Many scientific works have demonstrated that obesity rates are increasing in proportion to the time spent watching radio during the day but are inversely proportional to the time spent outdoors.

According to Dr. Binh's assessment, changing the diet for a child to avoid obesity leading to type 2 diabetes is difficult because of having to adjust the diet for the whole family.

Currently, the most valuable method of limiting the risk of obesity in children is to increase physical activity and create reasonable eating habits.

However, doctors recommend that adults also need to consider carefully in children's diet because this is the object in the stage of improving and developing the body.