The purpose of this study was to estimate the relationships between dietary factors and the stress perception levels of College students. A survey was conducted in June, 2010, targeting 332 college students in Gwangju. General environmental factors, stress perception levels, dietary behaviors, and dietary action guide performance of the subjects were evaluated by questionnaire, and food intakes was determined by the 24-hour recall method. The results are summarized as follows.: The score of frequency experiencing was 45.1±16.9 for male students, and 47.0±16.7 for female students. The importance scores were 50.8±18.5 for males, and 53.3±18.7 for females. The total score for dietary action guide performance was 39.6±7.2 for males and 40.6±6.5 for females. Nutrient intake levels were evaluated based on dietary reference intake (DRI), revealing energy intakes to be 68.5% EER in males and 73.9% in females. The mean intakes of nutrient were 54.2% RI for calcium, 73.6% RI for riboflavin, and 51.2% RI for vitamin C but 203.6% AI for sodium, which indicates an imbalance in nutrient intake. Analysis of the correlations between stress perception levels and dietary factors, scholarship achievements, financial problems, future problems, value senses, and family relationships revealed significant correlations with general environment factors, dietary behaviors, Dietary action guide performance, and nutrient intakes (p＜0.05). The higher the stress perception levels of the students, the higher the energy, coffee and alcohol intake, which predicts that appropriate stress control in college students will lead to better dietary habits. It is expected that the results above will be used as basic data for the development of proper nutrition education programs and stress control strategies.

This study was conducted to measure the effect of a community-based nutritional intervention program on dietary behaviors and nutrient intakes of low-income elderly women in Korea. The subject of the study was a group of 88 elderly women using the free meal service in Dong-gu, Gwangju city in Korea. The study was carried out from April to July 2009, and the pretest, application of nutrition education, and post-test were applied in each stage. This community-based nutrition intervention program consisted of snack supplement and nutrition education provided three times a week and 36 times in total. The nutrition education was led by the nutritionists and professionals using various educational media. Snack supplement included were milk, soymilk, carrot juice, bread, yogurt, and bananas. The result of pretest showed that the nutrient intakes of the subjects were much below the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) level of Dietary Reference Intake for Koreans. Comparison of the dietary behavior score and nutrient intakes before and after the nutritional intervention program indicated that the food behavior score increased from 3.1 to 5.6 (P<0.001) and intake of energy, protein, carbohydrate, thiamin, niacin, vitamin C, iron, and potassium of the subjects all increased significantly (P<0.05). Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR) of their nutrient intakes was also improved from 0.53 to 0.64 (P<0.01). These results indicated that the nutrition intervention program conducted in this study was effective in improving dietary behavior and nutrient intakes of elderly women in local community.

The objective of this study was to investigate the consumption pattern of snacks-containing trans-fatty acid in adolescents living in the Kwang-ju area of Korea, and to analyze the relevance toward their eating behaviors, body composition, nutrient intakes, and consumption frequency of snacks-containing trans fatty acid. A survey questionnaire was developed in order to investigate general environmental factors, eating behavior, nutritional knowledge, and the consumption frequency of snacks-containing trans fatty acid. A total of 312 middle school students were surveyed. The collection rate was 97% and ultimately 282 cases were analyzed. Anthropometric measurements, body composition data, and nutrient intakes were also collected. The consumption frequencies for snacks-containing trans-fatty acid were negatively correlated with food behavior scores (p〈0.01) however, pocket money and snack intake frequency per day were positively correlated with consumption frequency. Also, snack consumption frequency had some correlation with the subjects' anthropometric measurements and body composition data such as total body water (p〈0.01), body protein (p〈0.01), body minerals (p〈0.01), and skeletal muscle mass (p〈0.01). Finally, the consumption frequency of snacks-containing trans fatty acid was significantly correlated with calcium intake (p〈0.05), it also showed correlations with vitamin A, retinol, β-carotene, and folic acid intake, although statistical significance was not verified.

An ecological survey of food and nutrition was conducted in April and May, among 278 children, 6 to 12 years old, of the Youido elementary school, which offers no school lunch program, and is situated in Youido delta of Han River side of Seoul, known as the location of one of the socioeconomically high groups; Eighteen percent and 18.3% of subjects were proven to be overweight and obese, respectively. With regard to frequency of skipping breakfast, 28.4% of the subjects skipped breakfast often and 2.5% of subjects skipped breakfast every morning. Obese children showed good appetite and the time consumed for eating was shorter than those of normal or overweight children. Most serious anxiety among the mothers for those children was food habit of `eating rapidly' and `overeating'. Another striking observation was that 14.4% of the subjects ate only one side-dish with boiled rice, and such a pattern was more often found in the normal or slim group. Most of the subjects had their snacks after being back in home from school. Thirty-one percent of the children had snacks when they felt hungry, 69% had snacks for various reasons such as `habitually', `for unwinding', and `mother gives me snacks'. Thirty-eight percent of the boys and 19% of the girls had physical exercise everyday and overweight and obese children got exercise more frequently. But the time consumed for exercise was much more shorter than that of normal subjects. Most of the children liked fruits, meats, and biscuit, in contrast, lowest preferency was for vegetables, fermented fish products, and boiled rice mixed with other grains. Obese children experienced more kinds of food than normal or slim group. The study found that habits of overeating due to good appetite and eating rapidly were recognized as one of dominant reasons causing obesity among children. On the other hand, serious dietary problem of children of normal or slim group was eating less variety of food. Active nutrition education for both children and mothers will be recommended with joint participation of teachers.

An ecological study of food and nutrition was conducted among 198 children, 6 to 12 years old, of the Songmyun elementary school and Samsong elementary school, located in remote villages of Chungchun-myun, Goisan-gun, Chung Buk Province between July 11 and 16, 1988. The results were summarized as follows. In regard to frequency of skipping breakfast, 3.3% of subjects skipped every morning; 15% often skipped; and the others never skipped. The most common reason for skipping a meal was lack of appetite. 6.6% of subjects often skipped an evening meal because of delayed meal preparation by a mother who returned home late. The survey found that 5.1% of subjects skipped a lunch at school. The reasons for skipping lunch were the mother’s being too busy to prepare a boxed lunch; a school bag too heavy to carry for a long distance to school; no adequate side-dishes for the boxed lunch. Growth patterns of those children having poor food habits, were reflected in lower figures in arm circumference and weight for height. The percentage of children having meals with their family on weekdays was 84.7% for breakfast; 85.6% for evening meal. About 7% of subjects had many dislikes and 74.1% had some dislikes in what they ate; 18.9% had good food preferences. There was a strong correlation between appetite or food preferences and anthropometric measurements or nutrient intake. Boiled rice was the predominant dietary staple, and principal sources of protein taken by subjects at home were soy beans and soy products. Regarding the boxed lunch prepared at home, most popular was one with only one kind of side-dish, including kimchee. 43.4% of the side-dishes were prepared with vegetables only. As for between meal snacks, milk and milk products, fruits and breads were popular among the subjects. The survey found that the children liked fruits, yogurt, corn, Chajang noodle; in contrast, lowest preference was for soup made with bones, curried meat with rice, and aromatic vegetables. The survey discovered a local dietary characteristics; 46.2% of the children customarily ate frog meat, an unconventional food.

Background : Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is a vegetable with pantropical distribution and contains the active ingredient, such as momordicine and charantin. Moreover, bitter gourd has been reported to exhibit antidiabetic, anticancer, cardiovascular-protective and antioxidant effects. But, the distinctive bitter taste of bitter gourd was not suitable for food preference. This study was conducted to evaluate the improvement effects of bitter taste of bitter gourd with natural fermentation and roasting process. Methods and Results : Bitter gourd fruits were obtained from Headeulnyeokae Co., Ltd.(Gang-Jin 59253, Repubilc Korea). Fruits of bitter gourd were prepared by natural fermentation process for 4h at 25℃. After natural fermentation, the fruits were dried in hot-air dryer for 15h at 49-55℃. The dried fruits were roasted in 500 g batches at 120℃ for 10 min in the electric rotisserie oven. After roasting, fruit pieces were extracted with hot water and cold water. One of them was cool-type, and the other was hot-type bitter gourd tea. In the sensory evaluation, hot tea and cold tea showed the high scores on color, flavor and overall acceptability. Conclusion : These mean that roasted bitter gourd had less bitter, and it could be utilized widely as drink and food material.