In May, Hunan Province adopted a three-year action plan for cutting back on salt and oil in people's diets and formulating a new standard system for cooking Hunan cuisine, famous for its spicy taste. Previously, in March, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly released guidelines on food and nutrition development (2025-30). The guidelines propose capping the intake of salt, oil and sugar and popularizing portion control tools. 

The transformation of food consumption to be more nutrition-oriented is one of the major features of the Healthy China Initiative launched by the Chinese Government with a focus on disease prevention and health promotion. In the past, people tended to focus more on whether food was delicious and filling but now many are realizing the importance of a science-based diet. As people are becoming better educated about health, they have come to recognize that unhealthy eating habits, such as long-term high intake of salt, fat and sugar, may lead to chronic diseases like obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. They are therefore beginning to actively seek healthier eating habits to prevent these diseases.

In addition, changes in the social environment and people's lifestyles have led to an increasing awareness of healthy eating. With faster pace of life and higher work pressure, many people sit for long periods at work, lack physical exercise and tend to have irregular diets. Not cooking at home has become a pitfall to good health because the food in a polystyrene box is likely to deliver a large dose of oil, salt and sugar. Urbanization may have brought people more diverse food choices, but at the same time, foods that are more processed or otherwise unhealthy are becoming more readily available.

Increasing access to information is also improving people's understanding of health. With the development of nutrition-related websites, online services and apps, and increasing number of nutritionists sharing information on social media, it has become easier for people to have a better understanding of healthy eating.

Caring about how to eat more healthily reflects changes in social trends and the values of health. With today's relatively abundant material wealth, sights are now firmly set on health, and people are willing to spend more time and energy learning healthy eating habits as part of pursuing a better life. BR