Pigthick

"Reports have it that Hanoi has up to 15% of 7-9 year old children are considered obese compared with 3.3% in 1995. At some elite schools, the rate is as high as 17%. About 4.9& of 4-6 year children are obese." via Intellasia.

I live in a fairly affluent Vietnamese neighbourhood and nearly all the sprogs around here are total porkers. Every nanny, mother-in-law or occasionally a mother, can be seen trailing after their little one -  bowl and spoon in hand stuffing their fat kid to the gills with chao, rice and soup. There's one very podgy girl from a posh house whose parents tell me they have real trouble feeding her, but the poor thing looks fit to burst, like an over inflated balloon. They also say she doesn't want to walk. The thing is I don't think she can walk, she's carrying way too much ballast for a two-year old. I've been watching the neighbours very closely and noticed we're the only parents who do not carry substantial food supplies when out for a walk.

We once took our toad for a routine check up. His regular French doctor was unavailable, so we saw a Vietnamese doctor instead. This doctor insisted we feed the toad constantly throughout the day and not at set meal times, "Didn't your mother teach you anything?" she asked somewhat shocked at our idiocy. We ignored her and the toad is healthy, not obese. Advice like that isn't good, but it's the parents I don't get. When they see little Hoa get so fat she can hardly walk, do they think it's a good thing? do they think it's healthy? normal?

I've come to the conclusion the parents are just thick.

Technorati Tags: obesity, Vietnam

Comments

[Lei/cottontimer]

My helper often says my toddler doesn't eat enough. When she told me that I should force him to eat more, I flipped out and said, "How would you like it if I forced you to eat more?!?!?!" With any luck, he'll turn out to be a bean pole like his dad instead of a pudge like his mom. :P

[pieman]

But where does this stuff them till they're sick mentality come from? I'm guessing it harks bark to a time when things were far harder, but that still doesn't make it excusable. What I cannot get through my own thick skull is how parents can't see the damage they are doing to their kids. After all, obesity isn't the most difficult thing to spot. Not like say diabetes which is commonly the last stop for these kids.

[Lei/cottontimer]

It's only get worse when McDonald's enters the market here.

[OMIH]

Strange, one of my first experiencs in Hanoi was being invited into a Vietnamese families house for lunch - as we got stuck into the regulation hotpot the kids arrived. The boy was a bit hefty to say the least and while we ate our noodles and assorted boiled meat he tucked into biscuits, chocolates and jam butties. "He doesn't like Vietnamese food" they explained to me.

No healthy option though - just lardy stuff instead. The attitude to weight here is funny. Being a bit of a big lad myself I get all the usual comments but it almost seems a like a grudging respect thing. I mean there is no sense of it being abusive. At best its teasing. At worst its a jocular attempt for me to pay an extra 10,000 for a xe om ride (it doesn't work). In addition, a couple of the kids here put on a few pounds - well you would, going from living on the streets to being able to stuff yourself with leftovers from cookery classes. Anyway, they start calling each other fat but I reckon if you said that to a teenage girl back home they'd burst into tears. Here it is water of a duck's back.

If Vietnamese people are not entirely weight obsessed and neurotic then perhaps that in itself isn't a bad thing - but then again if you could couple that with a bit of education as to what is, and what isn't good for you, then that has got to help.

Hey...supersize that Pho Bo.

[pieman]

That Vietnamese family you visited didn;t go by the name of Wayne & Wanyetta Slob did they?

It is often water off a duck's back, but I have also heard some pretty abusive language behind a few people's backs about their size and their colour out here. Comments which could get you into 'bother' back Blighty way. All in Vietnamese of course and about non-Vinas, but there certainly was no jocularity in it.

[OMIH]

Ah well - probably just as well I don't understand that much of it then.

I'll remain happy in my ignorance.

[Michelle]

Hi Pieman and OMIH, don't be offended, we Vietnamese got it worse from our own relatives (not even talking about strangers here!).

My aunts and uncle made a great effort to spell out pretty clearly to me that they think my boyfriend is ugly and old (?). They think that it's good for me, opening my eyes and whatnot :).

[Doug]

Seeing as how I am older than any of you (sad, but true) let me chime in to say I think PieMan is on to something about "times were harder." I am 61, and that means my parents' generation grew up in the Great Depression. To do this day, my 89 year old mother scrimps and saves everything, even though she does not need to. My generation throws everything away, but hers does not.

I think there is a generation here in VN that is still very close to hard times, and over-reacts by stuffing themselves. The VN docs you talked to probably came of age right at the beginning of doi moi, and probably remember when they could get nothing to eat.

But Cottontimer - it ain't genetics, is it? (grin)

[vinhthekid]

it definitely harkens back to old times, and the attitude is seen even in Asian American households. parents who were raised up where it was almost impossible to find food are more likely to want you to eat and eat and eat because in their minds, it is still too close to the bad old days when you don't know if you'll be able to eat tomorrow or not. that's the way it is, and it's understandable.

[pieman]

I wouldn't take me too seriously OMIH. Not really worse than anywhere else I suppose. One thing that often opens a lot of white folks eyes is if they have a Vietnamese/Oriental looking boyfriend or girlfriend - one of whom can understand the lingo - It's like rasing the curtain to hell... Hahaha. Just kidding. Unpleasant though certainly :( Good way to learn swear words :0

Michelle I've heard many similar stories. One French Viet Kieu woman I know with a white boyfriend (now husband) was asked by her aunt, in front of both of them, what they planned to do: get married, have kids etc.? The uncle interjected saying, "What do you expect them to do. He's a tay, it's just a game to him till he finds another shag." No beating around the bush at all :0 What cracked me up though was the moral high ground of the uncle. He was having affairs all over the shop.

Doug/Vinhthekid I think you're probably right. But I have also seen this in the younger generation too, at least the 30 something set. Not just limited to the 40+ crowd. Mind you, my grandmother used to be much the same as yours Doug, wartime, rationing and all that. Plus she was Scottish :)

While the logic of your arguments is understandable, I still don't think it's excusable to stuff your kid into obesity. Not to the extent it's hapenning in Vietnam anyhow. I mean we're not talking just a few pounds here...

High blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, higher risk of cancers and kidney failure. I don't want that for my kid and I find it wierd that parents encourage their kids into a potential early grave.

[OMIH]

One of the big problems here is exercise. As a result of dodgy tummies, healthier food, smaller portions etc I have actually lost quite a bit of weight since I moved here.

Unfortunately what remains has turned into even worse levels of lard. For the most part Hanoi is just too hot to exercise in. And, I guess for the locals, since the popularisation of the motorbike there is no reason to walk or cycle (can't say I blame them - it's too damn hot).

It's okay for rich tays (richer than me) to join an air conditioned gym. But if you haven't the time or inclination to play your 6am badminton then exercise isn't possible in the summer months.

[spinkick]

my VN friends here don't say map or bou (fat)... they say giau (rich)...

to be be fat is to be rich and able to afford enough food to be fat... similar to their desire to have "white" skin... rich people don't have to work outside in the fields, so their skin doesn't tan, and therefore everyone wants to have light skin so that they look rich...

it stays with them even when they are here in the US... my girlfriend is gay gay, xuong xuong, and her friends are always saying eat! eat! you are so poor!...