Three people received cash prizes for their healthy, low-sodium dishes at a cooking contest organized by the Bureau of Health Promotion yesterday.
The first-place winner, Chen Cheng-wei (陳正緯), received NT$50,000 for his low-salt, low-fat spring rolls.
“I used everything I learned and put it into this dish,” Chen said, beaming with pride upon receiving his award.
Of the 72 people who entered the first round of the contest by submitting their low-sodium recipes, five made it to the final round for nutritious meals that contained very low levels of sodium and fat.
During the final round yesterday, the five finalists prepared their dishes before a panel of judges, which consisted of chefs, bureau representatives and nutritionists.
The activity also featured magic shows and health-related trivia games, attracting hundreds of families.
Chef A-gi (阿基師), a famous chef in Taiwan, was among the judges who tasted the finalists’ dishes and evaluated them based on various criteria including taste, creativity and healthiness.
“You don’t have to add a lot of salt to make food taste good … Eating less salt is also better for your health,” he said.
The bureau recommends less than 6g of salt, or 2,400mg of sodium, per person per day. A diet high in sodium can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, it said.
Chang Hsing-chen (張幸真), a researcher at the bureau’s Division of Adult and Elderly Health and also one of the judges, offered many tips on lowering sodium consumption
Although it may be difficult to calculate the exact amount of sodium consumed during a meal, a good way to start is by adding less sauce or spices when preparing the foods, she said.
Chang said that when eating out, one can still lower the amount of sodium consumed by dipping food into a cup of water first.
Sauce or juice made from fruits such as mango, lemon and orange are good substitutes for salt, soy sauce, vinegar and MSG, which are less healthy as they contain high amounts of sodium, she said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS