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.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
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.
Along with public hospitals, local governments and private medical associations have been constantly monitoring the problem and establishing their own health awareness programs.
Web sites belonging to Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Tainan City governments are now filled with pages of information stressing the merits of physical fitness and healthy diets.
According to the most recent survey carried out by Liu Hwa-yen (
"You have to bear in mind that diseases such as diabetes and the female menopause can lead to expanded weight, but of the [436] people I examined a very small number fell in either category," he said. "They were overweight simply because they have bad diets and do too little exercise."
Like Chen, Liu feels that it is the change in lifestyle that has led to the rise in cases of obesity.
"It all comes down to today's social environment. Whereas when I was young you'd go outside to play and see your friends, nowadays social interaction revolves around computer games and the television," said the Hsinchu based doctor.
A telephone survey in April last year, which saw 1,097 or roughly 0.4 percent of the city's 2,641,856 residents questioned about their weight, found that 31.9 percent of males and 20.8 percent of females, or a total of 26.2 percent of 20 to 64 year olds polled were overweight.
The constant stream of media covering Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"The mayor plays an active role in our program," said Taipei City Government Department of Health Deputy Commissioner (
According to Hsu, on Mayor Ma's orders all department heads now have to undergo a regular physical test. If they are found to measure in at over the BMI mean, of between 24 kg/m2 to 27kg/m2, they have to lose weight.
As part of its ongoing health
education program the city government recently initiated a five-point plan aimed at slimming the city's population. Along with holding free classes in nutrition and diet awareness at 25 city government run hospitals, the program has also been adopted by a large number of the metropolis' restaurants, cafes and bakeries.
To date 81 restaurants and eateries have joined the campaign and monitor the cholesterol levels in their food, 36 buffet joints sell only healthy food and upwards of 80 bakeries have reduced the oil, sugar and egg contents of the products.
While sounding upright and noble the program has not been without its critics. Some feel the drive could lead to people getting the wrong idea and resort to slimming aids and medicine in order to lose weight. All of which Hsu feels is criticism that has been unduly leveled at the City Government.
"Our program is aimed at educating people to the dangers of being overweight, but we are certainly not saying thin is beautiful and nor are we acknowledging or promoting the use of slimming aids," said the health department's deputy commissioner. "What we are doing is asking people to watch their diets and take regular exercise."
Although those who participated in the recent Taipei City poll were all adults, the problem of obesity is not solely confined to the nation's older generation. Over the past decade obesity in Taiwan's schools has also become a weighty issue.
A report recently published by the Taipei City Government's Department of Health found that one in five or 20 percent of all elementary and secondary students aged between 13 and 17 are overweight.
Of the 30,981 primary school students in Taipei 15.9 percent were found to be obese. The percentage of the city's middle school students who were overweight proved much the same, with 15.76 percent of the 32,226 students being pronounced medically obese.
The capital's high schools, however, fared a little better, with only 11.63 percent of the 36,205 students weighing in at well over the BMI norm.
"The problems with obesity in children are two-fold. Firstly the pressure to achieve in the academic field has meant that students are forced to spend long hours at a desk studying and secondly the affluence of their parents means they can afford to purchase food anytime they want," Liu said.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Education 200 elementary and junior high schools established weight-control programs for obese students' two years ago. Since then nearly all of the nations schools have set up their own classes. Physical education classes in all of Taipei's primary schools are now mandatory, with schools required to run at least two 30 minute classes twice a week.
Even with the recent changes in both community and school health education the slimming down of Taiwan could, according to some, take quite some time, if it materializes at all.
"I think it's a fact of modern day life anywhere. As the economy grows people get lazy and want for more, which is something that is not going to stop overnight," Chen said. "I mean, even going for a walk has become something of an effort ... you sit at home and receive emails instead of walking to the post office and when people go on holiday they sit on a bus and look out of the windows."
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