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.
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