Nutrition Class Shows You Low-protein Dishes

Let's cook! TFRD Nutrition Classroom Shows You How to Make Low-Protein Dishes

For patients with inherited metabolic disorders, such as Phenylketonuria, Methymalonic Acidemia and Maple Syrup Urine Disease, the main treatment is dietary control, which limits the amount of intake of meat, fish, beans, eggs, even rice and noodles. The right to "eat as much as you can" is extravagant for them. To satisfy patient's appetite, TFRD held a nutrition classroom, inviting nutritionists of National Taiwan University Hospital to cook yummy low-protein sushi and fried noodles for the patients. 

More than 20 families attended the nutrition classroom to learn how to make delicious meals with low protein rice and noodles. The nutritionist, Hui-Ling Weng, and the instructor, Jin-Feng Xu, demonstrated the way to make sushi and fried noodles. Ms. Xu shared her cooking knacks with the families and the "students" were so attentive for fear of missing any steps. In DIY session, all the families had fun rolling their sushi and enjoyed them with satisfaction. "I can't wait to make some sushi for my son!" a parent said.

Few local food companies have imported low protein food, such as rice and noodles. However, sometimes it's hard to make creative dishes with rice and noodles. Moreover, due to small market and narrow profit margin, there's little incentive for the companies to continue importing more sorts of low protein food, such as low protein flour, chocolate and cookies. This also creates a vicious circle that low-protein food remains scarce and expensive. "Low protein food is scarce and expensive in Taiwan and we expect that government to reimburse them," says Pr. Min-Chieh Tseng, vice president of TFRD "In order to improve patients' quality of life, TFRD has been purchasing different kinds of low-protein food. At the same time, we also hope that the government can consider lowering the tariff on imported low-protein food or increasing reimbursement for low-protein food." 

Patients with inherited metabolic disorders are welcome to ask us for low protein foods, including low-protein chocolate and cookies from Japan, free of charge. We hope our patients can have a wider choice of low protein food and enjoy every meal.