Healthy Taiwan Forum Lai Qingde: In the future, I will no longer drink high-sugar milk but instead drink low-sugar milk | Lifestyle News | Lifestyle

Before taking office, quasi-president Lai Ching-te invited his mentor and former director of National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Chen Zhihong, to serve as the convener of the “Healthy Taiwan Forum”, hoping to have more dialogue with the medical community and absorb more opinions as 520 health policy guidelines after taking office. Lai Qingde laughed and said that in response to the health concept mentioned by someone on the forum before, he would no longer drink full sugar when drinking precious milk, but would switch to low sugar drink as the first step in response.

The Healthy Taiwan Forum was convened by Chen Zhihong, Lai Qingde’s mentor, and came to its final venue today. It had previously held five forums including National Taiwan Medical University, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Changhua Christian Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, and New Taipei Yadong Hospital. Chen Zhihong pointed out that the Healthy Taiwan Forum is based on the people, collecting opinions and bringing everyone’s ideas closer to a consensus. He hopes that the guests in the audience can enjoy the next medical feast.

Chen Weiming, president of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, said that Lai Ching-te is my country’s first president with a medical background. A healthy Taiwan is the common expectation of the people and the medical community. He heard the speaker on the stage at the previous Healthy Taiwan Forum, director of the Nutrition Department of National Cheng Kung University. After sharing that “low-sugar diet can reduce high blood pressure and obesity,” I immediately thought about the lunch box for today’s meeting. Today’s lunch box is Taitung Chishang rice with seafood. There are no sweets, and the coffee prepared does not have sugar packets. He even shouted that Beirong would not prepare sweets for future meetings.

Lai Ching-te then responded during his speech. On the one hand, he thanked the representatives from the medical community for their support, and also said, “In the future, we will not drink full sugar when drinking precious milk. We will first switch to drinking ‘low sugar’ as a response.” This caused the audience to burst into laughter.

Lai Ching-te left medicine in 1996 and joined politics. He said, “I have never forgotten in my heart that I am a member of the medical community.” One of his dreams is that if he is elected president, he must combine the medical profession to make Taiwan better and let the world embrace Taiwan; However, it was not enough on its own, so he asked his former teacher Chen Zhihong to help. Not only did he help him campaign before, but he also facilitated this series of forums. He laughed and said, “The after-sales service at National Cheng Kung University is very good.”

Lai Ching-te praised the Healthy Taiwan series of forums for having three characteristics. First, in the past, health forums rarely focused on the national vision. In the past, they mostly focused on individuals, families, communities, and at most, even cities. Second, the forum has the widest scope of discussion, not just a single disease or impact, but everything from talent cultivation, mental health support, to smart medical care combined with long-term care. Finally, it had the largest number of participants, with a total of more than 1,200 people attending the six events.