Relationship between menu planning ability and meal balance in students attending the dietician training course—using the Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top—

Abstract

  After identifying a significant relationship between the consciousness about menu planning and meal balance in our previous study, we have now evaluated the application of a meal balance guide book (Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top, JFGST) as a tool for specific dietary education to improve their diet, leading to improvement of the menu planning ability. Therefore, this study aimed to confirm the relationship between the consciousness about menu planning and meal balance using the JFGST.
  Sixty-two subjects, who underwent both an attitude survey and diet survey by the JFGST among 80 first-year students attending a dietician training course, were analyzed. The results of the attitude surveys about meal balance and menu planning, and a meal survey by the JFGST were converted into scores, and the relationships between them were investigated. In addition, an attitude survey was conducted after 3 month of learning about the JFGST.
  From the result, no significant correlation between the consciousness about meal balance and the results of a meal survey was observed, and the existence of a lag between the consciousness about meal balance and the actual diet was suggested. Moreover, a relationship between the consciousness about menu planning and meal balance was confirmed by the JFGST, and the effectiveness of dietary education using the JFGST was suggested.
  In addition, although consciousness to improve the diet was raised by performing the dietary diagnosis with the JFGST in 85. 5% of the subjects, only 40. 3% of the subjects were willing to refer to the JFGST. In the future, factors that can interfere with the comprehension of the JFGST or with health behaviors need to be verified.