A New Era of Senior Eating! Chiayi County Combines Mobile Medical Care to Actively Promote Nutrition Tips

Chiayi County has the highest aging population ratio in all of Taiwan, China. To provide accessible nutrition promotion services, the Chiayi County Community Nutrition Promotion Center has joined forces with the 3+1 Mobile Medical Care program to actively promote senior nutrition tips, teaching elders how to eat well and eat smart, take in balanced nutrition and stay healthy.

In conjunction with the 3+1 Mobile Medical Care program, which tours one township, village or neighborhood each day to provide services, healthcare professionals use a mobile health education vehicle to promote diverse health education topics and strengthen public health literacy. In response to issues such as nutritional imbalance and sarcopenia that may affect elders, dietitians have designed techniques for "softening ingredients and achieving balanced intake," going deep into villages so that elders can learn tips for balanced nutrition and healthy eating, while also keeping nutrition promotion services on the move.

A dietitian at the Chiayi County Community Nutrition Promotion Center emphasized that elders often have poor dental function and poor appetite, with little variety in food choices, resulting in unbalanced diets that affect their health. Therefore, a leaflet titled "A New Era for Seniors: Eating Made Easy" was designed to teach local residents how to adjust food texture and cooking tips.

The dietitian explained that, for example, pineapple can be used to soften meat, and cabbage and broccoli can be placed in the freezer for 1 to 2 days to soften the fiber in the stalks. These methods prevent elders from rejecting meat or harder ingredients due to dental problems. Combined with the 6 mnemonics of My Plate, the principle of balanced dietary intake at every meal not only adds variety to the diet, but also makes it easy to eat a balanced, nutritious meal every time.

Zhao Wenhua, acting director of the Health Bureau, said that the 6 mnemonics of My Plate - "a cup of milk in the morning and evening every day, fruit the size of a fist at each meal, a little more vegetables than fruit, rice in the same amount as vegetables, a palm-sized portion of beans, fish, eggs and meat, and a teaspoon of nuts and seeds" - are very easy to remember. People can also follow "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" in doing health exercises every morning and evening, which further helps prevent and delay disability among elders!