In this study, we compared diet related attributes such as food taste preference, food consumption frequency and nutrition intake between elderly residents in their 80’s of areas in Jeollanam-do that are well known for longevity and those of a part of Seoul. Structured in-depth interviews were conducted by trained interviewers on 125 consented subjects (67 Jeonnam and 58 Seoul). Differences of groups were tested using Chi-square tests for nominal or ordinal data and t-tests and ANOVA tests for ratio data. The elderly from Jeonnam tended to sleep longer, express emotion more freely, and interact with others more often than those from Seoul. The elderly tended to prefer sweet or salty tastes, which might be highly related to serious health problems. The most frequently consumed foods were napa cabbage kimchi (2.19 times/day) and multigrain rice (1.99 times/day). Elderly from Jeonnam tended to consume garlic, milk, beans and roasted barley/corn teas less often; whereas, they consumed porridge, dried radish greens, potato, fermented fish, dried fish, pork rib, pork belly, soybean paste soup, soybean paste/Ssamjang, other kimchis, pickled vegetables, snacks, cookies, and green/black teas more often than elderly residents from Seoul. Differences in nutrition intake between the regions were greater than differences between the perceived levels of household economic status. NAR and INQ for folate were lower among elderly from Jeonnam than those from Seoul, while those for protein, vitamin C, niacin, vitamin B6 were higher. The study results indicated that elderly from Jeonnam engaged in a more diverse diet than the elderly from Seoul.

This study was conducted as a comparative analysis, using the SPSS 17.0 program for a survey conducted from March to July 2013, on the level of perception and preference factors of Koreans and Americans residing in Virginia, USA(89 male and female adults of 20 years of age or above). For the information on the degree of obesity, a survey was used and the subjects provided with their heights and weights. The researcher used this data to calculated their BMI and distinguished the degrees of obesity. For the BMI, the obesity diagnosis of Korean Society for the Study of Obesity was used for Koreans, and the WHO's obesity diagnosis on adults were employed for Americans. First, regarding the Korean participants, the level of obesity appeared in the order of normal (79.6%), overweight (14.3%), and underweight (6.1%). Also, the level of perceptions of their health conditions appeared in the order of average (51.7%) and good (34.7%). No one perceived their health to be in poor condition. Meanwhile, for the American participants, the order was as follows: overweight at about 45%, normal weight at about 35%, obesity at about 12.5%, and underweight at about 7.5%. In terms of the level of perception of health during ordinary times, about 55% of the American participants answered that they are in good health. Therefore, the Americans were found to perceive their health to be in relatively better condition than the Koreans residing in the USA. Also, concerning the level of interest in health while eating food at ordinary times, the American participants were discovered to be more interested (about 62.5%) than the Korean participants. The research on their preference for salty taste was conducted as a survey, and the subjects were asked to choose an item according to their subjective feeling. Regarding the preference for salty taste, both Koreans and Americans residing in the USA responded as moderate. However, a higher proportion of Americans than Koreans responded to favor salty taste. Concerning the reason for their preference for salty taste, Koreans responded with various reasons whereas Americans mostly responded that it is because they eat salty food frequently. For any changes in dietary behavior related to eating salty food, both Korean and American respondents thought that the amount of their daily intake of salt is appropriate and that they consider taste as most important in selecting a snack. Based on the above data, the results of this research indicate a need for actual improvement in the diet with regard to salty food along with diverse policies for promoting life with a low salt diet in future.