Keeping oneself healthy is a sure way to help decrease national health insurance expenditures, said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Chien-huei (
At a press conference held by Huang to promote better public health awareness, Chen Lu-hong (陳陸弘), director of the Bureau of Food and Safety under the Department of Health (DOH), said, "We are what we eat."
Chen reminded people that a balanced, nutritious diet is one of the best ways to maintain good health.
Chen said that on average people should consume around 25 different types of foods per day and emphasized that maintaining a regular lifestyle and exercising were also important.
"Good health is everybody's right; maintaining health is everybody's responsibility," Chen said.
Pan Tzu-ming (潘子明), professor at the Life Science College of National Taiwan University, said that as people's living standards increase, food no longer fulfills just a basic need, but can also be a way of improving public health if nutritious foods are produced.
"The health food industry will become very important in the next few years," Pan said.
According to Pan, investment in health-food products worldwide is US$73 billion, with Japan consuming 26.5 percent of that amount.
"Before the promotion of health food products in Japan, health insurance costs from 1945 to 1990 increased 355 times," Huang said. "But from 1995 to 2005, after laws were passed promoting health-food products in 1991, national health insurance rates have not increased."
In Taiwan there are currently 68 types of health food products which have been approved by the Department of Health.
These include products to lower cholesterol, help digestion, improve liver function, protect the immune system and decrease fatigue.
Products to help digestive functions and to lower cholesterol are most common, with the former constituting 35 percent of the market and the latter 32 percent.
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