More than 50% of students in Taipei eat unhealthy snacks: poll

This means that one in every two students aged 11-15 in the greater Taipei area is at risk for gastrointestinal problems because of the unhealthy foods they consume at the end of the school day, according to the survey conducted by a Taipei medical university hospital, Shuang Ho.

Some 40 percent of parents do not start paying attention to their children's diets until the students develop gastrointestinal problems, the poll found.

Yeh Tzu-chen, a family medicine doctor at Shuang Ho Hospital, said more than 60 percent of the snacks that Taiwanese students favor, such as fried chicken, french fries and pearl milk tea, are high calorie foods and tend to cause acute gastroenteritis in children. In addition, Yeh said, the pearl milk tea and similar drinks sold by street vendors are usually unsanitary.

Many local students suffer from gastrointestinal diseases because their diets lack fiber and vitamins, Yeh said.

He cited the case of a female sixth-grade student who complained of abdominal pains and loss of appetite and was found by doctors at Shuang Ho Hospital to have chronic constipation. Her parents had taken her to the hospital on suspicion that she had intestinal tumors, Yeh said.

The girl recovered within a week after receiving treatment at the hospital and was put on a vegetable-based diet, he said.

It was a clear case showing how an unhealthy diet can seriously affect a child's physical wellbeing and learning abilities, Yeh added.

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