Abstract
A questionnaire survey was conducted on 1256 elderly Japanese (486 males and 770 females) on their consumption habits of rice gruel as influenced by age, denture wearings and life style.
It was found that 63% of the total the subjects wore dentures and 76% of the total subjects had been eating rice gruel since the age of 60. A respective 57% and 18% of the subjects ate rice gruel because of, diarrhea, cold syndrome or to treat another ailment. Among the subjects living in a home for the aged,41 % answered that they were used to eating rice gruel every day. Increasing age and worsening dental problems resulted in an increased frequency of consuming rice gruel because of its ease of eating and an inability to chew hard food. Those subjects living alone ate commercial rice gruel much more frequently than couples did. Rice gruel is a staple food (93%) in the Japanese diet.
