Thai Kids Suffer From Poor Nutrition: Newspaper

Thai kids suffer from poor nutrition: Newspaper

BANGKOK, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) — Thai children are suffering from poor nutrition with most of them, particularly those in the Northeast, eating fewer vegetables and more junk food, Thai newspaper the Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday.

Sa-nga Damapong, a health expert and adviser to the Nutrition Association of Thailand, said Thai eating habits had changed greatly. He said that in the old days, fresh home-grown vegetables were the main ingredients of Thai dishes. Today people tended to depend on food products bought from shops, convenience stores or supermarkets.

Statistics showed most Thai children, particularly those in the Northeast, shunned vegetables and favored ready-to-eat food and soft drinks, Mr Sa-nga told a seminar held in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.

Discussing nutrition problems in the Northeast, he said northeastern children aged 1-5 years old were eating far fewer vegetables than youngsters in other parts of the country.

Children in the South ate the most with vegetables making up an average 53 percent of their daily diet, followed by those in the North, the Central Region and the Northeast.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people should eat 500 grams of vegetables and fruit daily. Thais eat only 186.6 gm per day on average.

On soft drink consumption among children aged 1-5 years, it was found that children in the South formed the largest group of consumers, followed by those in the Northeast, in the North and the Central Region.

Instant noodles were found to be most popular among northeastern children, making up 61 percent of consumers, compared to 32 percent in the North, 25 percent in the South and 5.5 percent in the Central Region.

An average of 39 percent of children throughout the country ate instant noodles.

“Because of rapid cultural changes associated with eating, the eating habit of northeasterners has changed. In the past, poor northeastern children were malnourished. Now they have enough food but don’t know how to eat healthily,” said Mr Sa-nga.

“As a result, they have become unhealthy, fat and short and suffer a decline in their intelligence quotients (IQ) due to the lack of iodine, iron and protein intakes needed to feed their brain cells.”

Mr Sa-nga said poor nutrition as a result of bad eating habits had caused Thai children to have low IQs.

According to the accepted standard, children aged 6-13 should have an average IQ of 90-100, he said.

Thai children, however, had an average IQ of 88.8, with those in Bangkok having the highest level at 94.6, followed by those in the Central Region at 88.8, the South at 88.1, the Northeast at 85. 9, and the North at 84.2.