The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) on Wednesday urged children and teenagers to observe healthy habits during the upcoming summer vacation.
The latest Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan, conducted by the HPA from 2017 to 2020, showed that the level of overweight and obese children was 26.7 percent among seven-to-12-year-olds, 30.6 percent among 13-to-15-year-olds, and 28.9 percent in the 16-to-18 age group.
HPA official Chen Li-chuan (陳麗娟) said that bad habits, including lack of exercise and consuming excessive amounts of sugary drinks, contributed to the results.
Studies have shown that students’ habits change during the summer vacation, with their daily sedentary time increasing by about 5 percent, Chen said.
In addition, the number of students using devices with screens for two hours or more a day rises by about 6 percent, consumption of vegetables and fruit falls by 0.6 servings and 1.1 servings respectively, and sugar intake increases by about 10g per day during the summer, Chen said.
The body mass index of those aged 7 to 18 also continues to rise, she added.
Parents need to ensure their children observe good habits such as increasing their fruit and vegetable intake, consuming less processed food and drinking more water than sugary drinks, Chen said.
As young people are less likely to drink water, sliced lemons can be added to water to ensure that it is more flavorful, she said.
It is also important for young people to remain active, Chen said.
The WHO suggests that children and teenagers need to engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate to high-intensity exercise daily and limit screen time to less than two hours per day, Chen said.
She encouraged students to exercise with family or friends in their free time, for example by playing basketball, brisk walking or cycling.
The HPA said a research paper published in the Advances in Nutrition academic journal in 2020 showed that more than 50 percent of obese children become obese adults, and while about 70 percent of obese adolescents remain obese in adulthood.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
A former member of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), formerly known as SEAL Team 6, said in an interview with Business Insider that the elite unit’s role in a Taiwan Strait conflict would be more limited than some might expect. The report follows an earlier one in September by the Financial Times, which said the “clandestine US Navy commando unit” has been training for missions to help Taiwan if it is invaded by China. “You don’t use a scalpel for a job a hammer can do,” the former Navy Seal said to Business Insider on condition of anonymity.
RSS