This study examined the cultural dietary habits as well as attitudes toward food, within other life pattern elements, of students living in Gwangju City and Chonnam Province, Korea. Questionnaires from 1,000 student respondents were analyzed. The survey consisted of questions regarding physical condition and health status, dietary consciousness, food preference, knowledge of food and nutrition, and dietary culture. The results showed that 1.6% of the students considered their own physical condition to be extremely poor, and 2.7% and 2.1% also considered their father's and mother's physical conditions as extremely poor, respectively. Among the respondents, 18.3% were smokers and consumed an average of 14.8 cigarettes per day. With regard to their dietary habits, the students answered that they preferred to eat meals with friends rather than with family members, fruit was chosen for eating over health food supplements, and there was very little participation or interest in various food and cultural festivals. The female students had a tendency to alleviate mental stresses by eating, while the male students performed more physical activity to deal with stress. The female students also preferred cereal, fruit, fast food, and sweetened foods more than the male students. Between the smokers and non-smokers, significantly more non-smokers chose fruit (p<0.01), ethnic foods (p<0.05), and sweetened foods (p<0.05) as compared to the smokers. Body mass index (BMI) had significant positive correlations with soft drink (p<0.01), health food supplement (p<0.01), and alcoholic beverage (p<0.001) consumption, while BMI was negatively correlated with cereal (p<0.01), fruit (p<0.001), and sweetened food (p<0.01) intake. The health status of students was positively correlated with their father's health status (p<0.01), mother's health status (p<0.001), and BMI (p<0.05), as well as cereal (p<0.001), high protein side dish (p<0.01), fruit (p<0.01), vegetable (p<0.01), and traditional food (p<0.001) intake. The average body weight for female students was approximately 5 kg less than the Korean Nutrition Society's standardized weight, therefore, it is strongly recommended that measures be taken to develop a systematic nutrition education program that would help those students who often unintentionally skip breakfast or go on extreme diets to improve body image.

The purpose of this study was to identify the pattern and perception of food consumption, mass restaurant use, drinking style, and food purchasing factors by cohort groups i. e., World Cup(W) generation, baby boom, and silent generation. Data were collected from 412 respondents including three generations by questionnaire method in April through May 2002. Analysis of variance and chi-square results indicate that there were significant differences among three generation groups for the pattern and perception of food consumption, the use of mass restaurant, preferred drinking style, and influencing factors for food purchasing. W generation are more likely to be influenced by sensibility factor than baby boom and silent generation. Considering food preference pattern, baby boom as well as silent generation prefer green vegetables than meats, and they must have Kimche when having meals. Similarities and differences in perceptional pattern types are discussed, and future implications for food and nutrition specialists and food marketers are provided.

This study was undertaken to investigate meal pattern, nutrition knowledge and food preference of 438 rural middle school students living in ChunNam area. As far as nutrition knowledge is concerned, most subjects did not answer correctly on the items of basic five food groups, animal fat and vegetable oil, empty source of soft drink, nutrient requirement and water's role in energy metabolism. However they responded well on the item of iron deficiency and dietary source of Ca. Male students were significantly better in the answering the items of dietary source of energy and nutrient requirement than females, while female students were significantly better on the items of water's role in energy metabolism related to obesity. Generally the respondents did neither consume oil often nor consider consumption of salty food. Furthermore, only 38.6% of subjects drink milk daily in spite of understanding dietary source of Ca, which suggested that they should incorporate nutrition knowledge into dietary behavior. The preferred foods for most subjects were fruit, kimbab and ice cream. Contrastingly the food that they did not prefer was fermented vegetable probably due to strong flavor.