The purpose of the present study is to clarify the existence of problems related to eating habits and nutritional insufficiency in Vietnamese urban and farm village inhabitants, and to get information that can aid in making nutritional improvements. From the food-frequency questionnaire and household economy survey, we learned that households in a Vietnamese farm village are different from those in an urban region in several ways: 1) they have relatively big families, 2) there are few seniors, 3) they have few kinds of kitchen utensils, 4) they dont have electrical appliances such as refrigerators and electric rice cookers, 5) they use well water and rainwater for washing, drinking and cooking, 6) their staple food is rice, 7) they tend not to eat tubers, peanuts, corn, and wheat, 8) they customarily eat pork and chicken but hardly consume any beef or dairy products, 9) they eat tofu comparatively frequently, 10) they eat vegetables every day but do not eat fruits frequently, 11) the average body mass index (BMI) of residents between 10-19 years old was low: 16.2±2.0. Using these results, we considered the risk of inhabitants of the farm village area falling into malnutrition during periods of economic growth. No apparent risks were observed in the urban region. Nutrition education and nourishment guidance for the inhabitants in the farm village to improve their nutritional status are necessary. In particular, it is necessary to increase the intake of potatoes, corn, wheat and grains other than rice in adulthood, and it is necessary for infants to take more calories and animal protein
