However inane the fuss surrounding the hazards of over eating during the Mid-Autumn holiday period might appear, especially considering the Chinese preoccupation with food, health officials are currently extremely concerned with the nation's ever-expanding girth.
The most recent nationwide survey showed that a staggering 30 percent of Taiwan's population of 22.44 million recorded a Body Mass Index (BMI) weight of between 27kg/m2 and 31kg/m2 ... in, layman's terms, they're obese.
Daily cholesterol intake is at an all-time high, averaging out at 357mg per person as opposed to the nation's 1981 level of fat ingestion, which stood at 299mg.
According to the American Heart Association the daily intake should be less than 300mg. Today, however, the average Taiwan male aged between 25 to 34 ingests roughly 405mg of cholesterol while females of the same age group have a daily intake measuring on average 308mg.
These are intake levels that Chen Pey-rung (
While cancer remains the nation's biggest killer -- accounting for 26.05 percent of deaths a year -- cardiovascular diseases have replaced infectious diseases as the second major cause of death. High-blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks represented 26 percent of all deaths nationwide in 2001/2002.
"Over the past decade deaths from cardiovascular diseases have risen sharply," the nutritionist said. "All of which can be put down to health education taking a back seat to social and environmental development."
Although not solely a Taiwanese problem -- obesity rates and deaths from cardiovascular disease have risen throughout the developed world -- the nation does have its problems, namely: too many calories, too little exercise, too little space.
Taiwan's high-density population and constant urban development has left little room for places to exercise. Back yards are virtually non-existent and public parks offer little the way of legroom. Lax zoning laws also mean that food joints, predominantly of the unhealthy fast food ilk, are everywhere.
"Eating has and always will be an important part of our culture," Chen said. "In recent years our diet has changed quite radically from one that was mostly rice based to one that includes vast amounts of oil, sugar and fat."
While loathe to put an exact date on when Taiwan's eating habits changed, Chen, like many doctors believes that it was the sudden economic upturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s that saw the nation's diet take a radical high cholesterol turn.
"The national diet has changed immensely. It's like we've become a fast food culture. Whereas sugar-less tea or water were once the norm we're now inundated with cartons of every imaginable type of beverage," said Chen. "Few young people eat fruit these days. They drink the cartons of juice thinking its OK, but without realizing that drinking a carton of orange juice is not the same as eating an orange."
The National Taiwan University Hospital sees between 200 and 300 patients a month who are suffering because they are overweight. In order to educate both the young and old as to the dangers of obesity nutritionists like Chen now hold regular classes and run special counseling sessions for the overweight.
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