Galactosemia is a rare, hereditary metabolic disorder caused by the accumulation of galactose and its metabolites in the body due to a lack of enzymes that convert galactose to glucose. This study aimed to investigate the dietary behaviors and nutritional statuses of patients with galactosemia and to provide basic information on the development of nutrition education programs to improve quality of dietary life. A survey was conducted on 13 parents of (<11 years of age) children with galactosemia and 26 parents of (<11 years of age) children without galactosemia. Mean body mass index was greater for school-age children with galactosemia (18.77 kg/m2) than for corresponding normal children (16.55 kg/m2). Underweight and obesity rates of children with galactosemia were greater than those of children without galactosemia. In addition, children with galactosemia had a higher food neophobia rate and thus consumed less food. Normal children exhibited a greater range of food preferences than those with galactosemia, especially for milk and dairy products (p= .001) and fats and sweets (p= .04). Reliable food databases and appropriate dietary recommendations are required to ensure the proper growth of children with galactosemia.

This study aimed to investigate the association between interest in beauty care and dietary behaviors of 581 (analysis rate 96.0%) high school girls in Incheon using a survey done in May 2019. Based on the degree of interest in beauty care, subjects were classified as “Beauty care group (n=346)”, and "Non-beauty care group (n=235)”. The mean age of the subjects was 16.5 years old. The beauty care group had significantly lower BMI than the non-beauty care group (p<0.01). The beauty care group showed a significantly higher interest in weight control than the non-beauty care group (p<0.001). The most time-consuming preschool morning activity in the beauty care group was beauty care, while that of the non-beauty care group was eating breakfast (p<0.001). The beauty care group had significantly higher frequency of exercise than the non-beauty care group (p<0.05). The number of individuals who skipped breakfast was significantly higher in the beauty care group. In addition, the beauty care group had a significantly higher frequency of taking morning snack, convenience food (p<0.01), sweet snacks (p<0.05), and processed beverages (p<0.05) than the non-beauty care group. Our result findings provide important information on the priority groups for nutrition education based on beauty care interest.

This study was conducted to compare differences in dietary habits and snack consumption behaviors according to level of job stress among 20- to 30-year-old office workers. Subjects were 205 office workers working in companies located in Seoul and the metropolitan area. Self-administered questionnaires written by the subjects were statistically analyzed by the SPSS 20.0 program. Subjects were classified into a high-risk job stress group (n=102, High-RSG) or low-risk job stress group (n=103, Low-RSG) by level of job stress. For dietary habits, the duration of meal time before suffering from job stress in High-RSG was significantly faster compared to Low-RSG. Appetite after suffering from job stress in High-RSG was significantly higher compared to Low-RSG. For snack consumption behaviors, the reason for snack intake was ‘job stress’ for 42.2% in High-RSG and ‘hunger’ for 31.1% in Low-RSG (p<0.05). Energy intake in the form of chocolates, castellacakesmuffins, and flavored milk during working hours was significantly higher in High-RSG compared to Low-RSG (p<0.05). Therefore, this study suggests that dietary guidelines to ameliorate job stress should be developed in order to manage and improve dietary habits caused by suffering from job stress among young office workers at companies.

This study aimed to evaluate dietary behaviors and food allergy status of preschool children in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan city. The survey included 592 preschool children aged 1-5 years old in 31 childcare facilities. General characteristics, feeding type, complementary feeding, food allergy, dietary behaviors based on the NQ-P questionnaire, and dietary habits of their family were considered. Exclusively breast-fed children was 32.2% of the subjects and the breast feeding duration was 6.5 months. Subjects who had complementary feeding within 6 months was 77.2% and starting time of complementary feeding was 6.1 months. Fifteen percent of the subjects had food allergies and foods that induced allergy were instant foods, eggs, milk and dairy products, nuts, seafood. Food allergy was not related to breast feeding nor complementary feeding. The NQ-P score and its 3 factors including ‘balance’, ‘moderation’, and ‘environment’ were 59.9, 61.1, 56.0, 62.6, respectively. There were positive relations between children’s dietary behaviors and family dietary habits such as breakfast eating frequency and meal regularity. As age of children increased, instant food intake increased and breakfast eating frequency decreased. Proper nutrition education is needed to children, their parents, and their care givers at childcare facilities to improve children’s dietary behavior and health.

This study analyzed the dietary behaviors and adaptation for Korean foods among Central Asian workers(Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan) living in South Korea to provide basic and fundamental data that allows Central Asian workers to have desirable eating habits while living in South Korea. Questionnaires were completed by 186 Central Asian workers living in South Korea. From this study, we found that 56.8% of respondents ate three meals a day, and 27.2% of respondents ate two meals a day. 29.7% of respondents had no snacks. For adapting Korean food, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan workers had difficulties adapting spicy and salty flavors and unpleasant smell while Kazakhstan workers had difficulties due to sweet flavors and spicy and salty flavors. Men adapted better than women to adapt Korean food. Women respondents ate Korean food more often than men. And the Uzbekistan ratio of eating homeland food daily was the highest. By providing understanding of dietary patterns of Central Asian workers, these results can be used as the basic and fundamental data for their Korean food adaptation.

This study examined the dietary behaviors and dietary quality of high school students according to the number of times they skipped breakfast. A total of 474 high school students (225 boys and 249 girls) residing in Incheon participated in this survey. The subjects were divided into the three groups according to the frequency of eating breakfast; Regualr (eating breakfast everyday, n=226), Irregualar (eating breakfast 1~6 times/week, n=143, and Skipping (skipping breakfast everyday, n=105). The dietary quality was assessed using a nutrient quotient for adolescents (NQ-A). A higher monthly allowance and a higher rate of working mothers were significantly associated with a higher frequency of skipping breakfast. A higher intake frequency of processed beverages, and street food was significantly associated with a higher frequency of skipping breakfast. Students who had a higher rate of breakfast skipping had significantly lower intake frequency of fruits, white milk, bean and bean products, and fish. The high frequency of skipping breakfast among high school students was associated with lower dietary quality, as illustrated by the low total NQ-A score and sub group score including balance, environment, and practice. This information can inform efforts to provide nutrition education program to promote breakfast consumption and guidelines to students who skipped breakfast frequently.

This study examined the nutritional status and dietary behaviors of university students in Gangwon-do as well as the effects of dietary education on them. Forty college students were recruited, and their dietary lifestyle was examined using an Adult NQ questionnaire before and after dietary education. The questionnaire items were grouped into four categories: balance, diversity, moderation, and dietary behavior. The mean NQ score out of 100 was 48.00. Among the three grades of the NQ grade criteria, most subjects (50%) were in the lowest grade, which was poor. The mean scores of the NQ factors were highest for moderation (68.76%), followed in order by diversity (50.81%), dietary behavior (45.66%), and balance (21.01%). Compared to the criterion value, moderation was only good, and balance was the worst. These results suggest that the nutritional status of the subjects is poor. On the other hand, there was a significant change in the areas of the NQ score (53.7), balance (29.22) and dietary behavior (56.77) after dietary education. Nevertheless, the ‘balance’ area remained lower than the average, highlighting the need for education on food intake to enable diverse food intake.

The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary behavior and nutritional knowledge related to sodium intake in high school students. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 400 high school students (200 boys) in Incheon, Korea. Survey data were analyzed according to gender and degree of obesity. The distribution of the degree of obesity was the highest in 231 normal weight individuals (57.8%), followed by 89 underweight (22.3%), 41 overweight (10.3%), and 39 obese (9.8%). The sodium-related undesirable dietary behavior score was 2.9 points out of 5 points. The detailed dietary behavior scores of ‘I eat kimchi when I eat instant noodles or noodles’ and ‘I like dried fish with salt’ were significantly higher in boys than in girls (p<0.05). It was found that boys consumed more frequently high sodium foods, such as pizza, hamburger, and hotdog than girls. According to the degree of obesity, the underweight group consumed more kimchi fried rice and potato chips frequently than the other groups (p<0.05). Preference for salty taste was not significantly different among the groups by gender and degree of obesity. Sodium-related nutritional knowledge score was 5.3 points out of 10 and which was significantly higher in girls or normal weight group than in boys or obesity group. These results suggest that nutritional education on sodium intake is needed because the nutritional knowledge of adolescents is relatively low. Moreover, intensive nutritional guidance is required, especially in boys or adolescents with undesirable degree of obesity.

This study was conducted to compare solo eating perceptions and dietary behaviors in the Seoul and Gyonggi-do regions according to gender. The study focused on the dietary perceptions, solo eating, eating together, dietary habits, food intake patterns and 38 keywords pertaining to solo eating. Of 411 subjects, 207 (50.4%) were males and 204 (49.6%) were females. The biggest problem that respondents perceived in their dietary life was irregular eating. Women prepared meals more often than men (p<0.001) and ate more instant and frozen food than men (p<0.05). Both males and females missed breakfast most, and the amount of the population eating breakfast alone ranked second highest. Women had lunch alone more often than men, while men ate dinner alone more often than women (p<0.01). All respondents spent 5~15 min when eating alone. Women avoided excessive smoking and drinking more than men (p<0.001). Men related key words regarding solo eating with negative emotions such as ‘lonely’, ‘boring’, and ‘feel sorry when I see someone eating alone in a restaurant’ more than women. Conversely, women related more positive key words with eating alone such as ‘free’, ‘joy’, and ‘my own time’. Dietary lives of Koreans have rapidly changed along with social changes. Our research findings will contribute to increased comprehensive menu development and HMR development in the foodservice industry.

Despite the rapid increase in the number of foreign students, there has been a lack of research to help them adapt to Korean food culture and develop healthy eating habits. This study examined the dietary habits and problems of foreign students studying in universities of Korea. Although 97.0% of the 604 people surveyed live in dormitories, the visiting rate of the school cafeteria was low. In addition, only 30.2% of them ate three meals a day, and the frequency of eating midnight snack and convenience store foods was high. International students were positive about experiencing new Korean food, but food satisfaction in Korea was not high because of the difficulties in food selection due to religious problems and maladjustment to Korean sauces and seasonings. Information on Korean eating habits was obtained mainly from other foreign students from the same country (49.5%) and the Internet (33.8%), and there was very little interaction with Korean students at meals. The ratio of subjects who ate halal foods was 33.3%, and they were shown to have difficulty obtaining halal foods in Korea. Therefore, based on the results of this study, a support program should be developed in order to improve the dietary habits of international students.

This study was conducted to investigate the nutrition knowledge, dietary attitudes, dietary behaviors, smartphone usagerelated dietary habits, and health-related lifestyles of higher grade students in elementary school according to risk level of smartphone overdependence. Subjects were 286 fifth and sixth grade students of elementary school in the Siheung and Ansan areas. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS v. 20.0. Based on scores of S-scale (smartphone overdependence scale for adolescents), subjects who used smartphone were classified into an overdependence group (ODG, n=52) and a normal group (NG, n=234). The ODG showed a significantly longer usage time than NG on both weekdays and weekends (p<0.001). There were no significant differences in total scores of nutrition knowledge between the ODG and NG. Average total scores of dietary attitude and dietary behavior in the ODG were significantly lower than in the NG (p<0.001). There were higher risks of ODG for skipping meals (OR=8.3, 95% CI=4.027-17.099), changing eating speed (OR=4.4, 95% CI=2.209-8.822), and changing meal amount due to smartphone usage (OR=2.9 95% CI=1.233-6.623). Therefore, education programs are needed to ensure proper dietary behaviors and habits among smartphone overdependent elementary school students.

The purpose of this study was to compare dietary self-efficacy for sodium intake reduction and dietary behaviors by eating areas. Subjects (797 males and 767 females) were classified according to perceived dietary habit levels related to sodium intake (lowest: ≤10 (n=434), low: 11~≤13 (n=471), high: 14~≤15 (n=360), highest: 16≤ (n=299)) using an online survey with a sample that was geographically representative of the population. The highest group was significantly younger and had a higher student proportion than the lowest group. Dining contexts regarding home led to a significantly higher sodium intake in the highest group, but it was eating out for the lowest group. The highest group had a significantly lower intention to reduce sodium intake compared to the lowest group. In the home cooked meals, the highest group displayed a significantly lower cooking frequency, less effort with respect to a low sodium diet and cooking habits related to sodium intake as compared to the lowest group. Also, regarding eating out and food service, the highest group exhibited significantly lower efforts and dietary behaviors to reduce sodium intake than the lowest group. The dietary score for sodium reduction behavior in the highest group was significantly lower compared to the lowest group, for home cooked meals, eating out, as well as food service. Thus, dietary guidelines and nutrition education for the reduction of sodium intake by eating areas need to be developed and provided.

This study was performed to investigate the nutrition knowledge, dietary attitudes, and dietary behaviors among high school students by gender. The subjects were 275 students (127 male, 148 female) in Incheon metropolitan area. Selfadministered questionnaires consisted of general characteristics and anthropometric data, nutrition knowledge, dietary attitudes, and dietary behaviors. The average score of nutrition knowledge was significantly higher in female subjects (9.4) compared to male subjects (8.2) (p<0.01). Male subjects had a higher score for dietary attitudes than female subjects (p<0.001). Frequency of meals was significantly higher in male subjects compared to female subjects (p<0.05). Duration of meal time in male subjects was significantly higher (‘5-10 minutes’) compared to female subjects (p<0.001). Unbalanced diet was significantly higher in female subjects (66.3%) compared to male subjects (48.9%) (p<0.01). Male subjects showed significantly higher consumption frequency of ‘dairy’ (p<0.001) and ‘beans’ (p<0.001) compared to female subjects. For snack consumption, male subjects showed higher consumption frequency of ‘nuts’ (p<0.001), ‘soda’ (p<0.05), ‘fast foods’ (p<0.001), and ‘ramyeon’ (p<0.01), but lower consumption frequency of ‘biscuits and bakery’ (p<0.01) compared to female subjects. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a systemic nutrition education program for high school students by gender.

This study aimed to examine the health-related lifestyle habits and eating behaviors according to gender, ethnicity, and residence type of university students in Yanbian, China. Self-administered questionnaires were collected from 302 university students. Of the male students, 12.1% and 42.0% were in the underweight and overweight groups, respectively, and of the female subjects, 21.3% and 16.3%, were in those respective groups. More male than female students preferred the overweight body somatotype. In contrast, about 49.4% of female students were hoping to be underweight, and female students had more obvious difficulties with body somatotype perception, whereas their exercise frequency and time spent exercising per day were much less than those of male students. More Chinese than Korean-Chinese subjects exhibited regular eating habits, which included eating at the same time everyday and at the same frequency per day; these habits were, accompanied by generally healthier lifestyle habits regarding regularity of activity and exercise time. Self-boarding students had a significantly higher BMI (23.7±5.1 kg/m2) and were more likely to be overweight (43.5%) as compared to students who lived in a dormitory or with family. Salty taste was preferred by Chinese students more than Korean-Chinese students, and greasy taste was preferred by Korean-Chinese students as compared with Chinese students. This study found that inherent and environmental factors are related with the dietary behaviors of university students in Yanbian, China. Further studies are required to elucidate the structural elements of family life and the sociocultural factors associated with dietary behaviors in Yanbian.

Increasing sugar intake of population has become a nutritional issue in Korea. Sweet taste perception may be related to behaviors such as eating sweet food including high sugars and total sugar intake. This study aimed to evaluate objective and subjective sweet taste perception and the association among objective sweet taste perception, dietary behaviors related to eating sweet snack food including high sugar, and total sugar intake from the snacks. Participants were 261 healthy female college students (mean age: 21.0±1.6 years), who were divided into three subgroups based on oral sweet taste evaluation using a sweet taste assessment tool provided by Ministry of Food and Drug Safety: sweet-seeker group (n=139), medium sweet-seeker group (n=54), and unsweet-seeker group (n=68). There was no significant difference in weight and body mass index (BMI) among the three groups; however, the sweet-seeker group had significantly higher sweet taste preference than that of the other groups. Though more people in the sweet-seeker group thought they tended to eat sweet foods than the medium sweet-seeker and unsweet-seeker groups, over half of the sweet-seekers did not think they tended to eat sweet foods. The sweet-seeker group was more likely to eat sweet snacks such as breads, chocolate products, sugar-sweetened milk, and so on than the unsweet-seeker group. Total sugar intake from the selected sweet snacks was 44.4 g for the sweet-seeker group, 34.4 g for the medium sweet-seeker group, and 28.0 g for the unsweet-seeker group with a significant difference. These results indicated the absence of relationship between objective sweet taste perception and the obesity index; however, significant associations were detected among objective sweet taste perception, eating sweet snacks and total sugar intake from the snacks. We also found high disagreement between objective and subjective sweet taste perception of the subjects. The present study provided the novel insight that measuring objective sweet taste perception may be useful for assessing the risk of high sugar consumption and undesirable dietary behaviors.

This study was to investigate the association among satisfaction of nutrition labeling, change of purchase behaviors, and dietary life care, based on the awareness of nutrition labeling at expressway rest areas. The subjects (n=903) were divided into two groups, according to the awareness of nutrition labeling: Awareness of Nutrition Labeling (ANL) group, n=367; Non Awareness of Nutrition Labeling (NANL) group, n=536. Effort of health care and identification of nutrition labeling was significantly higher in the ANL group, compared with the NANL group. As for the main reason for not identifying nutrition labeling, ‘not interested in nutrition labeling’ was the highest in the ANL group, and ‘Don't know nutrition labeling is provided’ in the NANL group. Identification ratio of nutrition labeling in future was significantly higher in the NANL group, compared with the ANL group among the subjects who didn't identify nutrition labeling before. After their becoming aware, a change of food purchase after reading the nutrition labeling was significantly higher in the ANL group, compared with the NANL group. Health beliefs on the nutrition labeling were significantly higher in the ANL group, compared with the NANL group. Satisfaction of nutrition labeling was also significantly higher in the ANL group, compared with the NANL group. The ANL group also expressed a necessity of expansion of nutrition labeling, compared with the NANL group. In the ANL group, identification of nutrition labeling was significantly higher in the hard effort group, compared with the little effort group of dietary life care. Therefore, improvement and campaign of nutrition labeling for consumers at expressway rest areas, especially for the NANL group, will be effective in identifying nutrition labeling for their health care.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sodium-related dietary attitudes, behaviors, and nutritional knowledge in university students according to the practice of dietary guidelines for Koreans established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea. Based on the total practice score related to the dietary guidelines (PDG), we classified subjects into a “low practice of the dietary guidelines (LPDG)” group (n=94, male=43, female=51) (total score of PDG ≤13) and a “high practice of the dietary guidelines (HPDG)” group (n=56, male=32, female=24) (total score of PDG >13). Subjects were asked about general characteristics, lifestyle, salt-related dietary attitudes, behaviors, and nutritional knowledge using a questionnaire. The LPDG group had more subjects who were breakfast skippers (p<0.001) compared to the HPDG group. The LPDG group (31.26) had a significantly lower score in terms of salt-related dietary attitudes compared to the HPDG group (33.77) (p=0.0042). The score for salt-related dietary attitudes was significantly higher in the HPDG (32.52) group than in the LPDG (29.91) group (p=0.0041). There was no significant difference in the total score for salt-related nutrition knowledge between the groups. The correlation analysis indicated that the dietary guidelines practice score had a positive correlation with the salt-related dietary attitude score (r=0.3593, p<0.0001) and the dietary attitude score (r=0.3443, p<0.0001) after adjustments for sex. These results show that the degree of adherence to the dietary guidelines for adults may be related to sodium-related dietary attitudes, behaviors, and nutrition knowledge.

This study was conducted to investigate the degree of practice of dietary behavior and dining out in accordance with intake of sodium among male and female adults aged 20 years or older residing in the Seoul Metropolitan area or Chungcheong Province. A total of 530 copies of the questionnaire were distributed from May to July, 2014. The SH group who responded that they eat a lot of sodium constituted 30.6% (158 people), followed by the SM group who responded that their sodium intake is about average at 55.7% (288 people) and the SL group who answered that they do not eat much sodium at 13.7% (71 people). Those in the SL group showed positive results for dietary behavior patterns. The SL group showed the lowest rate in terms of how often they eat harmful foods, including processed foods, sweet foods, salty foods, or food with high animal fat content such as pork belly. Positive results among the SL group were prominent in terms of avoiding over-drinking, regular exercise, and nutritional knowledge, indicating greater health management. The distribution of each group in terms of self-perceived sodium intake showed significant differences across age, gender, and household income in terms of frequency of fast food intake, regularity of meals, purchase of foods with consideration of sodium amount, frequency of missed meals, balance of food intake, and health management habits.