The rate of overweight or obese children in primary school age in Ho Chi Minh City accounts for 38.5 percent and that of children under five in the city is 11 percent, according to the city’s Nutrition Center.

Meanwhile, over 50 percent of children in Vietnam have a deficiency of vitamins A, B1, C, D, and iron.

Ms. Do Thi Ngoc Diep, director of the center announced the information at the Friday meeting to carry out the national plan on nutritional strategy for the period from 2013-15 in HCMC.

She admitted that local residents have been facing a major challenge on health condition, especially with the increase of people in obesity, diabetics, high pressure and cancer.

The diet of the people in the city has inclined to a complicated change in nutrition. The food inputs of a large section of population are both extra and deficient in the quantity, and imbalanced in quality, she told the meeting.

She noted that people are inclined to consuming an unhealthy diet with a high content of saturated fat, sugar, and refined processing food, but a low content of fiber.