It's interesting that Vietnam has the lowest rate of obesity in the world at only 2.1% Why is this the case and is it all down to diet? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Vietnamese people don't walk alot or exercise but they do alot of manual labor..Viet people don't like walking, it's true, espcially in vietnam. Like you said because of the heat and motorbike culture. But also, if you do alot of manual labor, you don't need to do "excercise", when your work is exercise. That in conjunction with diet. In january 2022, i came back to vietnam and lost 10 lbs without even trying or exercising. I ate out every day too. I came back to the USA and gained back 12lbs. Then i visited vietnam last month, July 2022, and lost 10lbs again, now as of august 23, 2022 at the time of this writing, i've gained back 7lbs already

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. Portion sizes here definitely smaller as well, and are more vegetable based (so lower calorie overall)

@thumtlnguyen3626

9 ай бұрын

I am Vietnamese living in Canada more than 20 years. May I add some of my observations why people here are overweight. 1. Food culture. Caucasian folks love dairy products like milk and cheese. We rarely cook our meals with these ingredients. Secondly Vietnam is agricultural country where vegetables are not hard to plant and there are plenty. Vietnam has been a poor country for thousand years and we had to substitute vegetable for meat and it became our cuisine. 2. Lack of choice. Breakfast here is boring and limited. Just flakes, bacon, egg, sausage..and that's it. There more more than 10 choices of breakfasts to choose if you are in Vietnam. 3. Lack of street food. We don't need license to set up a stall on the sidewalk. It's your own risk to consume. 4. Climate. Winter here is long. What is better than eating when it snows and cold outside. Vietnam is tropical I still remember hot summers when I was there that I could sleep and sweat profusely. It's an automatic gym. Here people have to pay to exercise in winter time. 5. We are of small frame and we don't have to eat as much as big Caucasian folks to be full. 6. Fruits and vegetables are expensive in winter compared to Vietnam they are inexpensive and available all year round.

Vietnam embraced quality over quantity, I always wanted to visit these beautiful markets. Those garlics look like they would be amazing for pan con tomate. Much love from Spain 🇪🇸 ❤️

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

The markets are great, very cheap and plentiful.

no one knows about the heavy fat shaming in vietnam. everyone is obsessed with losing weight even when they looked slim

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

That's interesting. I often find the opposite here though-people want to gain weight and i've been asked what's the best way to do it.

I didn’t know that. Thanks forever sharing. Be safe on the road!

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, have to drive carefully out there!

If you order a bowl of Pho, the vendor gives you a bucket load of vegetables, spices, and herbs. If any restaurants in America or Europe do the same thing, they will go bankrupt by the end of the week. In addition to that, Vietnamese do walk a lot more than anyone. Lastly, Vietnamese foods are fresh and healthy. Each dish is a marvelous combination of everything into one. Anthony Bourdain is correct when he took a bite of Vietnamese Banh Mi and said to the camera that it is like an orchestra in his mouth.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

Definitely! I think it's a bias toward fruit and vegetables plus smaller portion sizes that does it. Bourdain loved Vietnam, one of his favourite countries apparently.

I lost 10lbs when I was there for a month. The thing is in VN I dont eat junk food nor fast food. If you can stay away from junk food, you're good .America is so hard to stay from fast food. They're everywhere. While normally , I would eat local food.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

It's definitely healthier food here on the whole, plus portion control is much better i think.

They ate lots of fresh vegetables. Active (they works so exercise not necessary). Hot weather too I think.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, the diet definitely revolves around smaller portions of food, particularly fruit and vegetables

Never been more proud to be Vietnamese!

Healthy eating and it's in our genes.

Things are changing for sure. Lot of little chubby kids here in Saigon. Diet has changed over the last 15 years as more sweets, junk food, and western food has become popular.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

Some of the bad western eating habits are definitely creeping in.

5:48 Great bag, took me a while to process the message😊

there're just so many alternatives, options that're much better than Western fast food take Vietnam's version of 'fast food' for example, they're basically normal meals that you'd be cooking yourself say you're an office worker, when you take a lunch break and go to the company's canteen, you'd likely be eating the same type of meal you'd eat at home, some rice, some meat/fish, coupled with some vegie, finishing with a bowl of soup ("canh"), instead of having a massive serving of fried chicken wings or a massive hamburger with a dozen layers of beef in between say you've just returning home after a day of exhausting works, there're options you could take before ordering some pizza or KFC/Mac. -You can either cook an extremely simple meal with barely some rice, soup, fish/meat & vegie then call it a day. -Or if you're lazier than that, just boil some water and have a pack or 2 of instant noodle, every home in Vietnam stocks up some instant noodles in the kitchen, not for natural disasters, no, mostly in case they happen to get lazy some day or want a quick breakfast. -Or...you can just order a meal from some restaurant or family-owned shop/store, who'd cook the same meal you're too lazy to make yourself -----Only after all those options become unavailable would people probably think "well, let's just get some pizza/hamburger"

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

Western fast food restaurants dont do that well here mainly for the reasons you've described. Portion control is also another thing here, people just don't seem to eat the big plates of food that we do in the west.

I think the number one reason is Vietnamese Food contains less carbs and a very very large portion of Veggies (almost every Viet dishes has veggies). Vietnam is country of growing much variety of fresh veggies, Herbs and fresh fruits. Eating veggies/herbs in every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) really makes a huge difference than consuming all the junk food (chips, snacks, cheese).

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

Good points!

@plebianking

Жыл бұрын

It's the exact opposite, actually. Vietnam has one of the highest carbohydrate-as-percentage-of-intake rates in the world. All of the other countries above Vietnam on this list have very low obesity rates as well (with the exception of Egypt). Countries with rice as a staple, in particular, all top the low obesity list, with carbohydrates making up anywhere from 70% to over 80% of caloric intake, with the vast majority coming from rice and noodles.

@musicful7036

Жыл бұрын

@@plebianking The Vietnamese don't eat junk food/snack food/ insane fast food like the Americans, westerners: Mcdonald/Burger King/chocolate/ice cream/chips/cheese/butter/fried junk food this is why many American fast food chains couldn't expand their business in Vietnam. Your research is WAY OFF.

@plebianking

Жыл бұрын

@@musicful7036 You're correct that they don't eat as much trans fat and high-fructose corn syrup common to the American diet. You're wrong if you don't think that a high carb, rice-based diet isn't the commonality among the least obese countries in the world. Not only is my research spot on, but it's also uncontested, since you literally just guessed on yours because you don't like what the data shows.

@musicful7036

Жыл бұрын

@@plebianking You're deadly wrong again. The Vietnamese don't eat LARGE PORTION of high carb, rice or anything with LARGE portion like the Americans/Westerners. It's not WHAT you eat, its HOW MUCH you eat. Explain to me why majority Vietnamese women weight under 110lbs (49.8kg) and majority Vietnamese men weight under 150lbs (68kg) ? Is that what you call eating the so called "high carbs". I don't care what stupid data you're looking at, but go to Vietnam and live there, take a took at for yourself and see if you be able to find an OVERWEIGHT/OBESITY Vietnamese. Jesus! I feel like I'm talking to a rock or someone from another planet. These are the cities/towns of Vietnam you should visit to educate your knowledge about the Vietnamese: Da nang, Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Ha Noi, Saigon/HCM, Hai Phong, Ha Giang, Phu Quoc, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Can Tho, Long An, Hau Giang, Tuy Hoa, Vinh Long, Ben tre, Quang Ngai, Binh Chau, Phuoc Tinh, My Tho, Quy Nhon..the list goes on...go from South to North and back to open your eyes.

I reckon it's due to the low consumption of fried processed carbs, such as flour.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

I think that's definitely a big part of it.

@ThanhNguyen-pb1rw

Жыл бұрын

No :))) because you will get body shaming by everyone if you are fat. Literally everyone you can think of your friends, your siblings even your mom and dad. And no one will cancel you for fat shaming someone. It is part of our culture

Your video is so interesting and it gives me new knowledge. Please allow me to share the link of your video and elaborate it for my assignment purpose. Thank you :)

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

Yes sure

It has to be portion sizes and frequencies of meals and amount of protein/carbohydrates. I know a lot of Vietnamese who are obese here in California.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

IMO smaller portion sizes are the biggest factor alongside high consumption of vegetables and fruits. Big plates of pasta, pizzas and fries not really a thing here at all.

@brucewayne2773

2 жыл бұрын

@@expatnam Funny that most westerners expect big portions for their money, they want value for their money too. Everything is super sized as compared to South East Asia.

@um8440

2 жыл бұрын

@@brucewayne2773 The western food are starting to come into vn, like kfc, dominos, burger king, mcd and other, the kids love to eat kfc, the data might not hold up for long.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

It is, although it's still not very popular here. Only a handful of McDonald's etc around

@musicful7036

Жыл бұрын

@@um8440 MCD has already been in Vietnam for number of years but it only attracts the small children/kids. The Vietnamese adults mid-age don't eat MCD.

You almost always meet Physics. Physics, the universal laws of matter and energy stop us from having may theories, opinions and speculations about the nature of food. 'Fast Food' is a word without any real meaning. Fast, made quickly for the customer. If that is the meaning then Vietnam is full of 'Fast Food' and you can instantly get a dish of hot food at street cart now, in 2 seconds it's dished and in your hand. Keeping in mind, the moniker 'Junk Food' is NOT A SYNONYM with 'Fast Food' so just switching 'Fast' into 'Junk' is fun but then becomes an untruth since any 'KFC/McDonalds' has all the nutrition of ANY common dishes on earth, protein, carbs, fats, vitamins etc. Now the hard truth of physics slams us to a stop: the measure we use is 'Calories'. A measurement of energy and there are no 'magic calories' either. It's so simple that any living human can easily test and prove it out: Don't eat any calories and watch as your energy goes down and down and actually we call this 'starving to death'. You can even die from it. Now eat things that produce 'Calories' and watch as you don't die. For this we could pick an average person and let's just go with 3000 calories. (maybe an adult man) okay. The person would eat 3000 calories a day and physics will kick in: They 'burn' as much calorie energy as they put in. Even. Eat more than 3000 calories of energy and your body does a cool thing: battery storage. It stores extra calories as 'Fat'. Wait a minute.. but are McDonalds calories different? Nope. This is why an athlete was able to LOSE FAT eating ONLY at McDonalds: kzread.info/dash/bejne/dZ1lp6yrm6u0eco.html There is zero magic involved because physics dictates this. This is also how plenty of tourists left Vietnam FATTER than when they arrived while almost exclusively eating traditional Vietnamese dishes. Of course, they ate more calories of 'Pho' than they were burning up each day and voila the fat accumulation. To be sure I noticed you mention 'Fast food Culture' and now that's something else. IF one of the attractive aspects of 'fast food subculture' is that you're encouraged to eat and 'feast' and keep adding more treats then that's a behavior, a 'cultural' thing which, in itself, has nothing to do with the actual food. There is nothing intrinsically fattening about Chinese 'Hot Pot' in itself but Hot Pot culture among Beijing's business class insists on eating and overeating and then try and show you need to eat more Hot Pot and now you have a million Beijing business class people with 'buddha bodies' and 200 lb children in tow. Vietnamese could never have a single 'fast food' restaurant and meet the same fattening fate tomorrow if they wanted and change not a thing in their traditional diets. *I really need to say, we keep saying 'eating' but of course this includes drinking. Bubble tea, beer, soft drinks are also 'calories'.

I knew it! I'd consider losing a bit of weight if I can before going to Hanoi in a few weeks so I don't stand out too much... Hahaha!

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

Haha, everytime i get off the plane back in London it's a shock...

Veggie. Too much green stuffs.

Rate of hair loss in men are very low I noticed.

It's the bread...I do not see a lot of bread anywhere on their diet.

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

Might be some truth to that! They do eat refined carbs similar to bread here like white rice and noodles but not really in large quantities.

Lots of fishes and veggies will keep you thin

a bowl of pho in the us is twice that of vietnam. you never get so full from one bowl that you feel bloated. never a doggy bag

in vietnamese meal atleast have a protein dish a vegetable dish and a vegetable soup dish and everything fresh, if u want to eat fish go to market they will kill an alive fish for you

Yeah they’re eat a lot.

có cái bọn kia vô là thấy thum thủm cái vieo của người ta liền

I think it is too hot so you sweat it out. 🙂

@expatnam

Жыл бұрын

That's definitely a possibility!

@main2333

Жыл бұрын

Never sweat. Don’t see any Vietnamese sweat either unless doing hard labor like building their home.

The answer is simple. POVERTY!

@09.hoangminhhai74

Жыл бұрын

Hóa ra Kha còi là tại Kha nghèo

@usa_kha_coi2097

Жыл бұрын

​@@09.hoangminhhai74 Well, I don't see any fat poor guy walking around Vietnam so I pretty sure I was right

@09.hoangminhhai74

Жыл бұрын

@@usa_kha_coi2097 it's really irrelevant. There are fat people in Vietnam, but not everyone of them are rich. In fact, most rich people are pretty lean since they put lots of money in gym and healthy diet

1945💀

saying vietnamese are inactive is like dissing vietnamese fitness....do you have any idea the brutal conditions they lived under and endured during the vietnam war? People need to show some respect....the vietnamese walked 100s of KMs in dense jungle terrain, lived off of rice and salt, dug massive tunnel networks, carried dissassembled artillery for miles....the average westerner wouldve been mentally broken early into the war had they endured the same conditions. will of fucking iron these people. Try fighting them when they are well fed and have air support to fight back.

@expatnam

2 жыл бұрын

Of course i understand the history of the country living here and have great respect for the Vietnamese. My video is focussed on the current demographic, the study i mentioned in the video highlighted that in regards to daily steps taken Vietnam was one of the lowest countries at present. Of course this wasn't the case in the past, especially during wartime.

@alexantran

2 жыл бұрын

He's correct mate. Most Vietnamese ride bike even 300 metres from home, they don't want to walk. The war was over, he talked about this generation and you live in the past.

@brucewayne2773

2 жыл бұрын

@@expatnam Good point mate👍