About 60 percent of people aged 65 or over have dental, chewing and swallowing problems, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday, adding that it has collaborated with hotels, restaurants and community centers to offer instructions on making soft-textured food that is suitable for elderly people.
The 2017 National Health Interview Survey showed that 70.6 percent of elderly people had missing teeth, 21 percent considered their teeth — including dentures — in bad condition, and 63.2 percent had teeth, chewing or swallowing problems, limiting the food they can eat, HPA Community Health Division head Lo Su-ying (羅素英) said.
“Eating a healthy diet is of vital importance to the health of elderly people,” HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said.
The HPA in 2019 published the first edition of its healthy diet and texture for seniors handbook, which includes simple instructions on how to prepare food of different textures, plan meals for a healthy diet, as well as including a few recipes for recommended meals.
The HPA has instructed more than 100 hotels, restaurants and community centers, and these facilities have attended courses to learn about food textures and how to cook meals, Lo said.
The agency’s menus have been reviewed by specialists to meet required standards, Lo said, adding that hopefully a certification could be offered to these facilities to recognize and encourage more facilities to provide such meals.
Wu Wei-te (吳威德), a chief executive officer of a hotel in New Taipei City’s Shenkeng District (深坑), said that about one-quarter of visitors at the hotel are elderly people, and that not only might they have chewing or swallowing problems, some young children or people with dental braces might also need to eat food with softer textures.
He said that the hotel worked with the HPA to provide a special plan that includes two meals with soft-textured foods, and it recently rolled out specialized rice dumplings — or zongzi — that elderly people can easily eat during the Dragon Boat Festival.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS