女子大生の嗜好変化

抄録

Dietary behavior has changed dramatically in recent years, with the dietary environment becoming increasingly diverse. It has become an age of plenty. Prepared food products are always within easy reach, lack of dietary balance has become a problem, and there hangs the threat negative repercussions on people’s health. The tastes of university students, for whom fast food and convenience stores have made it simple to only eat what they like, are believed to be changing. We carried out research in order to identify changes in the dietary tastes of female university students. The subjects of this research were 618 female university students, from freshmen to seniors, in J University’s Department of Food and Health Sciences. The contents of the questionnaires used in the study were explained to students after class, and after they indicated their assent to participate in the study, the questionnaire was distributed，filled in, and collected (100% collection ratio). The questions on the questionnaire primarily concerned the foods that the female university students normally ate. The survey was carried out in June and July of 2009.

The results of the study showed that the older students were. the greater their preference for salty, spicy, sour, and bitter foods, and the lesser their preference for sweet foods. These changes in attitude towards sweet, spicy, and salty foods varied by the areas from which the students came. The changes were apparent in students from Tokyo in their second year at university. Students in higher years of university had greater tolerances for different flavors, and were more able to appreciate complex flavors, such as liking spicy, sour, or bitter food. There was a particularly notable increase in preference for sour foods among students hailing from areas other than Tokyo in their later years of university. Among seniors, preferences for sweet, salty, spicy, sour, and bitter foods were balanced, and changes in dietary tastes were evident across the four years of university.