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.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS