The “National Nutrition Survey” have been regularly carried out, and the data have been used as the standard for health promotion in Japan. However, the values have been calculated by using data presented in the “Standard Table of Food Composition” which only includes data for raw materials; these data are at best only approximate because they do not consider any loss of nutrients with cooking.
We show here that the total fatty acid content and fatty acid composition of pork were affected by normal cooking procedures of boiling, pan-frying and deep-frying. The fatty acid composition of pork was investigated by a gas chromatographic analysis.
The fatty acid compositions of pork was unchanged after boiling, but changed after pan-frying or deep-frying. With all cooking procedures, a decrease in the weight of pork was observed, this weight loss not being affected by the initial fat level. The initial fatty acid content of the pork and the method of cooking influenced the final fatty acid content : as the initial fatty acid content increased, the fatty acid eluted from pork was increased by all the cooking procedures. In the case of deep-frying, the adhesion of cooking oil increased as the initial fatty acid content increased. Thus, the measured fatty acid content differed from the calculated fatty acid content.

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The change in radical-scavenging activity while cooking curry made from spices, vegetables, and meat was analyzed by the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl-HPLC method. Fifteen kinds of spices generally used in curry all possessed radical-scavenging activity. In particular, the activity of clove, allspice, and cinnamon was extremely high and comparable with that of vegetables. After heating, the radical-scavenging activity of the combination of vegetables and meat increased, while that of mixed spices decreased. Vegetables as well as spices contributed the radical-scavenging activity of curry. In the present research, one serving of curry and rice contained 363μmol Trolox eq of radical-scavenging activity. The spices contributed approximately 45% of the total radical-scavenging activity of curry and rice.

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The vitamin C content of cucumber and mung bean sprout was markedly decreased in NaCl-treated tissue by storage at 4°C The ascorbate oxidase (AAO) activity of NaCl-treated vegetables increased according to the NaCl concentration. Increase in AAO activity of NaCl-treated vegetables was a result of the increase to the homogenate when NaCl or other salts were added to the homogenizing buffer. These results suggest that the increase in the amount of free AAO resulted in the decreased AsA content of NaCl-treated tissues.

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The effect of butter temperature on the characteristics of egg foam determining the texture and quality of sponge cake was studied. Three different samples, i.e., egg yolk alone (egg yolk, 80 g; and distilled water, 105.6 g), egg white alone (egg white, 120 g; and distilled water, 40.8 g) and an egg-yolk and-white mixture (egg yolk, 80 g; and egg white, 120 g) were used to prepare egg foam samples. Each sample contained 100 g of sugar and 30, 50, or 80 g of butter. The temperature of the added butter was 40, 75, or 98°C. The specific gravity, foaming power and foam stability of the egg foam samples were measured before and after adding the butter.
The higher the butter temperature, the more air cells remained in the egg mixture and egg yolk foam samples, and thus the stability of the egg foam samples was increased. In contrast, the foam stability of the egg white was decreased. When butter at a high temperature was added, it is considered that both high emulsification due to the egg yolk and high foam stability derived from the egg white would be necessary to provide stability to the egg mixtures, but the foam stability clearly decreased in the egg yolk or egg white alone. Furthermore, the addition of butter at a high temperature in the course of preparing sponge cakes by the “Tomodate” method may be more effective for both keeping air cells in the batter and for swelling the cake batter during baking.

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The purpose of this study is to determine the proper amount of ease at the waistline according to belt materials. Two hundred twenty-five kinds of waist belts were used, which differed in width and stiffener and outer fabric mechanical properties. Forty women aged 20 to 26 participated in the wearing test. The wearers were requested to judge the comfort of the waist belts in both standing and sitting postures. The difference between the waist girth of the wearer and the belt length was defined as the waist ease.
The contribution values, Z_i, were calculated using residual regression analysis to the ratio of comfortable waist ease in these postures to the waist girth, E_c, as a quadratic function of the belt width, the thickness, the bending rigidity and the characteristic values in the compression property of waist belts, and the body dimensions of the wearer.
A highly accurate prediction equation for E_c was obtained using the belt width, the belt properties such as thickness (log T₀) and bending rigidity (log B), and the body dimensions such as waist girth and angle of the upper portion of the waistline.

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I aimed to elucidate the relations between the management of durable consumer goods and the housing and storage, with a view to finding how some facilities outside the house can best be utilized. Investigations were made on housewives both in a large city and a small local city; some lived in detached houses and others in condominiums. The findings on how they rented goods as well as how they viewed rental goods may be summarized as follows :
1) Their desire to possess or keep to themselves some durable consumer goods was fairly strong while their desire to rent was not so strong and their use was not so frequent though the rental was readily available.
2) The rental goods were not used in daily line of activities; their use was limited to those specific times such as while rearing children, business bachelorhood, being ill or hospitalized, and attending ceremonies. In other words, they rented goods only when there were unexpected needs but no prospects of using them again.
3) A variety of goods were rented by those living in condominiums and rented houses as the total living space was small, the number of rooms was limited, and storage space was not large.
4) The storage assessment was made with a unit area of two mats (6 ft×6 ft) per person; those who were contented possessed the space exceeding two mats and those who were not satisfied with their storage space depended on a variety of rental goods.
5) The rental goods may be classified into three categories; those used for a specific duration of time in life cycle, those used when living activities were expanded, and those used when job requires a family member to live away from home.

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In this study, we intend to typify the residents of Imai, a town designated as cultural asset preservation districts for its many traditional buildings. The residents' activities were studied in and out of town as well as at home to clarify their life style, their view on living environment, their requirements of public facilities, and their desire to rent unoccupied houses as well as forseeing the future of the town. The results of survey are as follows :
1) The residents could be classified into five types by place and the unit for activities they sought : Type I Individual type-out of Imai, Type 11 Individual type-in Imai, Type ifi Neighbor type-in Imai, Type IVFamily type-out of Imai, and Type V Friend type-out of Imai.
2) In each type, a large difference was found as to their age and family-type and so on.
3) The residents' consciousness of living environment was not identical and their needs of town improvement were varied.
4) We recognized the importance of utilizing the unoccupied house, as a day-care center, a cultural activity center, a sport gym, etc.

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Noodle samples were made from wheat flour (9% protein) with 3% (w/w) salt. After cooking, the noodles were placed as soon as possible in two types of home freezer and frozen (1) rapidly and (2) slowly, before being stored for up to 2 weeks. Changes in the rheological properties and degree of gelatinization of the noodle samples with frozen storage time were then studied.
When the stored frozen noodles were thawed at 40°C, the hardness (firmness) of the noodles had increased, while their cohesiveness, tensile strength and maximum elongation had decreased. Young's modulus increased for 3 days after freezing and then decreased. The degree of gelatinization also decreased for the first 3 days of frozen storage, but no further change was observed after that.
When the stored frozen noodles were thawed in boiling water, the time of frozen storage had a little effect on the hardness, tensile strength and degree of gelatinization.
Rapid freezing tended to have less effect on the rheological properties of the noodles than did slow freezing.
The observed changes in rheological properties with storage time might have mainly been influenced by the retrogradation of starch in the noodles.

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The education on life and death has been drawing wide attention of late, but no adequate teaching material was available for school children in Japan. In this study, a teaching material for “Death Education” has been developed as a textbook for children of upper grades of elementary school. It is a creative picture book assisted by computer. We place grate emphasis on the Japanese sense and customs concerning death. This teaching material may be used for home economics and many other courses of study. This fifty-three page textbook consists of three parts and thirteen chapters, with each part available for independent use. The first part explains about death, the second part details grief and gives suggestions on how to overcome grief, and the last part suggests that children discuss death with adults. The problem now is how to spread this book while developing more teaching materials designed for students of different ages.

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