Taipei (The China Post/ANN) - Almost 50 percent of a total of 2.67 million tired office workers in Taiwan suffer high cholesterol due to staying up late, a lack of exercise and bad eating habits, according to survey conducted by a local preventive medicine institution.
The institution recently released its analysis of 5,216 office workers polled in the past two years, finding that there are around 2.67 million salaried people whose work hours exceed 10 hours per day, accounting for 25 percent of total employees on the island. They are termed tired office workers by the institution.
It was also found that one out of every two tired office workers has suffered from high cholesterol; one out of out of four such workers has got arteriosclerosis; and one out of every three has seen his/her waistline exceed standard levels, mainly due to bad eating habits leading to an accumulation of too much fat and cholesterol.
In a survey of 480 office workers aged between 25 and 59 concerning their eating habits, the institution found that up to 63 percent of those who work over 10 hours per day usually dine out, and they prefer to eat lunch or dinner boxes.
The same survey also showed that up to 93 percent of those who dine out frequently eat red meat, offal or shelled seafood. Some 75 percent of them fail eat enough high-fiber food, and 78 percent have their dinners at 8:00 p.m. or later.
In addition, many of them eat midnight snacks, with the top three snack foods being fried chicken, meat or fowl stewed with soy sauce, and crisps. As a result, they absorb too many calories and a large amount of cholesterol.
Institution officials said that tired office workers are likely to suffer low blood glucose as a result of working too hard and laboring under high pressure. This, coupled with unstable emotions, usually causes them eat too much and bad eating habits are likely to make them develop coronary heart disease or even suffer strokes in the long term, the officials warned.
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