I am currently in Danang, Vietnam. This is my first visit to this country. The first striking thing I noticed is the slimness of Vietnamese in general. When I visited Thailand in 2000, what I saw was the contrast between the thinness of women below 20s and the heaviness of older women. After a few visits, I realized the contrast was brought on by they way they added sugar to their regular diet. Once a woman gets married and have children, her slowed metabolic rate could not burn the excess sugar taken on a daily basis.
While I was petite as a foreign student in USA. Now I am grossly over weight in Vietnam. Interestingly I have only gained 15 pounds in the interim period. Girls my height here have impossibly small bone frames. According to our tour guide, Vietnamese were incredibly poor ten years ago. Most families could not even afford night lights. What they did make aplenty were babies. He came from a family of twelve children. Now the government only allowed two children per family. There is of course enough for everyone to eat in the country now as the country is opened to investors.
What I found difficult to believe is that couples who hardly had enough to eat ten or fifteen years ago could produce a baby each a year and most of them did grow up! What about malnutrition? Childhood illnesses? Childbirth complications?
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