In an effort to combat the rising number of illnesses related to poor diet, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday said it would create a National Nutrition Act to promote healthy eating.
At a press conference yesterday, DOH Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川) said he was concerned by rising rates of diet-related problems, such as metabolic syndrome, obesity and high blood pressure.
After admitting that he himself was slightly overweight and had a high body mass index, Yeh said: “We need a campaign to deal with high rates of [illness such as] metabolic syndrome.”
DOH statistics showed a dramatic increase in the prevalence of several illnesses resulting from unhealthy diets. A national nutrition and health study conducted from 2005 to last year showed that 11.7 percent of adult males had diabetes, three times the rate between 1993 and 1996.
More than half of all adult males and more than one-third of all adult females were overweight, said Pan Wen-harn (潘文涵), a research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Division of Epidemiology and Public Health. One out of every four adult males and one out of every five adult females were affected by metabolic syndrome, she said.
“Cardiac problems, depression and learning [disabilities] all have to do with nutrition. In the past, the government has focused mainly on disease screening and treatment, but there has been a serious lack of promotion of healthy eating, which is an integral part of disease prevention,” Pan said.
Wang Chin-kun (王進崑), vice principal of Chung Shan Medical University, said the amount of government resources dedicated to promoting healthy diets has been grossly inadequate.
“In the past 10 or so years, the resources allocated to monitoring nutritional content and promoting healthy diets for the 23 million Taiwanese averaged only NT$1 per person per year,” he said.
The act, which the department hopes the legislature will pass before the end of the year, would involve regulating monitoring activities, nutritional research studies and educational programs in schools and communities, Yeh said.
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