Abstract
In order to characterize the eating style of preschool children, the number of chews and the period of the chewing of four different kinds of provided lunch were measured in this study. The eating style of three healthy preschool children aged four years was recorded on videotape while eating lunches with four different menus. Each lunch menu for all subjects was arranged in the same content and same weight. As a control, the eating style of three healthy adult volunteers with the mean age of 30years was recorded and analyzed by the same method as for the children. The total numbers of the chews of the in children with each lunch ranged from 480 to 1379, showing that there were no significant differences among the four lunches, although there were significant differences among the 3 children. The average number of the chews of the preschool children was approximately two times that of the adults, showing that a significant difference between the group of preschool children and adults. Furthermore, the values of the coefficient of variation on the number of chews of onemouthful foods in each preschool child were higher than that of each adult, indicating that the number of chews of one-mouthful food of preschool children exhibited more diversification than that of adults.
