How healthily Taiwanese teenagers eat has been linked to their family’s socioeconomic status, and comparative studies have found that young people eat more high-calorie and deep-fried food, but less fruit and vegetables than their counterparts 15 years ago.
Researchers at the National Defense Medical Center and Chunghwa University of Medical Technologies found that the diets of junior and senior-high-school students are positively correlated with their fathers’ education and employment levels, and their household income.
One of the contributing authors of the study, He Meng-chun (何孟純), said children living with both parents tended to have meals at home more often.
She presented her findings at a seminar sponsored by the Taiwan Public Health Association.
The survey results showed that teenagers who smoked, lived in eastern Taiwan, watched TV for more than four hours a day or had an Aboriginal father did not have balanced diets in comparison with other teenagers.
He’s research also made comparisons between the national health and nutrition survey results of 1993 to 1996, and those of 2010 and 2011. She found that while the diets of junior-high-school students have improved, the diets of senior-high-school students have become poorer.
“The difference might be because junior-high-school students have lunch provided by their schools and senior-high-school students do not, and given the choice, they favor sugary beverages and deep-fried foods,” she said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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