Nowon-gu Nutrition Plus Education for Infants, Toddlers, Pregnant, Postpartum, and Breastfeeding Mothers

Utilizing Vegetables and Protein Foods, Providing Healthy Recipes to Follow at Home... Join Creating a Healthy 'Nowon' by Sharing Your Own Healthy Recipes

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Nowon-gu (Mayor Oh Seung-rok) is conducting the ‘Nutrition Cooking Two Plus’ education program for mothers and children who are at risk of nutritional imbalance.

This program, aimed at promoting balanced meals through eating habits that are less salty and less sweet, is an enhancement of the existing project.

Currently, under the health insurance premium criteria, the ‘Nutrition Plus’ project provides 11 types of supplementary foods such as formula, rice, potatoes, carrots, seaweed, gim, and milk to households with infants and toddlers whose income is below 80% of the median income, along with monthly nutrition education.

However, nutrition status tests on the beneficiaries revealed that 12.5% of women continue to suffer from anemia due to excessive intake of salt, sugar, and oil from processed foods and eating out.

To address these issues, the district added a new component to the project. Protein foods such as duck meat, pollock meat, and low-sodium soy sauce are additionally provided to the existing Nutrition Plus beneficiaries, along with easy-to-follow low-salt and low-sugar cooking methods for daily life. The foods are delivered by courier, and for quarantine purposes, booklets containing the educational content and recipes are sent by mail.

Participants are required to submit photos along with their impressions and requests every month. If they submit their own ‘personal healthy recipes’ developed or adapted from the cooking methods, these will be used as educational materials to share information with other participants.

Applications are accepted at any time and can be made through the Nowon-gu Public Health Center.

Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, said, “Since this project provides practical help in daily life, I hope as many people as possible will benefit from it,” and added, “We will do our best to improve health equity for nutritionally vulnerable groups who are easily exposed to nutritional risks.”