Foundation, 7-Eleven launch health rewards program for food redemptions

Taipei, Aug. 4 (CNA) The Taiwan Millennium Health Foundation and 7‑Eleven launched a rewards program Tuesday to encourage healthy habits such as walking, balanced diets and health monitoring, allowing participants to redeem points for food and drinks.

At a press conference emphasizing early disease prevention, Taiwan Millennium Health Foundation Chairman Wayne Sheu (許惠恒) said the program aims to help people at high risk of metabolic syndrome improve their lifestyle habits.

Sheu, who also serves as vice president of the National Health Research Institutes, said the foundation's initiatives helped about 600 high-risk individuals receive better care last year, while 153 participants improved their diets, lost weight, and normalized their blood pressure through an earlier rewards program.

Building on last year's collaboration with 7-Eleven, the foundation decided to expand the initiative into a larger rewards program running from Wednesday through Dec. 31 to encourage healthier lifestyles, according to the foundation.

Participants can earn points in the "Health ACE" section of the 7-Eleven-affiliated uniopen app by recording healthy activities, such as walking, checking their blood pressure, and uploading photos of their meals. These points can then be redeemed for food and drinks at 7-Eleven or used to enter prize draws, the foundation said in a news release.

Rewards available in August include tea eggs, coffee, salads, soy milk, tea and apples. Participants can also enter prize draws to win a blood pressure monitor or gold worth NT$10,000 (US$308), with prizes for subsequent months to be announced later, the foundation said.

Anyone who registers as a member through the uniopen app can participate in the program regardless of nationality, the foundation added.

"To reduce the medical burden caused by chronic diseases, we have actively promoted the prevention and management of metabolic syndrome in recent years," Health Promotion Administration Director-General Shen Ching-fen (沈靜芬) said at the event.

Shen said that healthy lifestyle habits are more effective than medication in reducing the risk of chronic diseases and managing metabolic syndrome.

Citing a study published in Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews in January, Taiwan Association of Lifestyle Medicine Chairperson Lin Hung-jung (林宏榮) said adults who increase their daily steps from 3,000 to 5,000 can lower their risk of death by 37 percent. Increasing the daily step count to 7,000 lowers the risk by 51 percent, he said.