This study examined the current development of counseling site in Korea including its reliability, expertise, degrees of satisfaction, and willingness to utilize it again among consumers who experienced the Internet counseling site. In addition, this study searched for the problems and their solutions of those sites. According to the results, first, consumers' reliability for those sites as well as their expertise and degrees of satisfaction were generally high. Even though many consumers are willing to utilize those sites again, the number of consumers declines in the case where they are obliged to pay some fees for utilizing it. Second, the significant factor raising consumers' satisfaction is the evaluation of re-liability, recognition of needs, and specialty of consumer counseling sites. In order to improve the management of counseling site, several necessary reforms include the systematic classification of counseling contents and their efficient management, provision and standardization of counseling formats, realization of prompt, active, and concrete responses, simplification in becoming members and procedures of counseling, and relieving the burden of demanding excessively numerous individual information.

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The effects of hyaluronic acid were determined on the serum and liver lipid levels and cecal microflora of rats. Male Wistar rats were fed on a control diet containing cholesterol (control diet) and on an experimental diet containing either 0.5% or 2.0% hyaluronic acid plus cholesterol for 60 days.The serum total cholesterol and free-cholesterol levels in the rats fed on the 0.5% or 2.0% hyaluronic acid diet were significantly lower than the levels in the control diet, but the addition of hyaluronic acid to the diets induced no change to the concentration of HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride in the serum.The liver cholesterol, triglyceride and total lipid levels in the rats fed on the 2.0% hyaluronic acid diet were significantly lower than those in the rats fed on the control diet, but these lipid levels were unchanged in the liver of the rats given the 0.5% hyaluronic acid diet. More fecal bile acids were excreted by the hyaluronic acid diet groups than by the control diet group, but content of fecal cholesterol remained unchanged. A microflora examination revealed an increase in the counts of cecal Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium during the administration of hyaluronic acid in the diet. A 2.0% dietary level of hyaluronic acid significantly increased the counts of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, while the 0.5% dietary level of hyaluronic acid had a much smaller effect. These results suggest that the diets containing hyaluronic acid had a beneficial effect on the level of serum lipids and intestinal microflora.

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Charcoal is generally considered to be a good heat source for broiling foods. This study was carried out to clarify the cooking characteristics of charcoal. A gas burner (gas ring), a metal broiling plate heated on a gas ring and an electric heater were used as heat sources to compare with charcoal. After the heat flux from each heat source had been regulated to be the same, the ratio of radiative heat transfer to total heat transfer was measured. Food samples (hanpen, chicken and salmon) were broiled over these four heat sources for fixed times (2, 10 and 13 min). The surface temperature, burn color (G value), moisture less, moisture content in the surface layer and hardness of the broiled samples were each measured. When the burning state of the charcoal (binchoutan) became stable, the highest temperature on the surface was about 750°C, and the heat flux from the heat source was 1.1 × 10⁴ W/m² at a distance of 100 mm above the burning charcoal. The ratio of radiative heat transfer to total heat transfer of the charcoal was about 75%. The radiative heat from the gas burner was very low, but than from the other two heat sources was approximately equal to that from charcoal. In the case of food broiled over charcoal, the surface temperature was higher, surface color was darker and moisture content was less than the effects from gas burner broiling. Additionally, in the case of food broiled over the broiling plate and electric heater, the quality of the cooked food was similar to that from charcoal broiling.

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The physical properties, internal structure and sensory evaluation are compared of biscuits with 25% or 50% of wheat flour replaced by sago starch, corn starch, or potato starch. The effect of changing the butter quantity from 45% to 20% was also evaluated in the sago starch biscuits. The physical properties of cookies were also examined, because material and preparation of cookies were different from those of biscuits. With increasing quantity of replacement sago starch, the sago starch biscuits had increased expansion ratio, softness, shortness and starch granules, and greater pore depth and diameter in the internal structure. The sensory evaluation showed that the color and shape of the control biscuits, and the firmness, shortness and smoothness of the biscuits with 25% or 50% sago starch replacement were significantly preferred. The overall evaluation showed that the biscuits containing sago starch replacement were significantly preferred. The 45% butter sago biscuits were significantly preferred in respect of their firmness, shortness, smoothness and overall evaluation, because these biscuits had a greater expansion ratio, and were softer and shorter than the 20% butter sago biscuits. The biscuits that contained 50% of sago starch replacement and 20% butter were shorter than the control biscuits. Compared with the corn starch cookies, the sago starch cookies showed a greater expansion ratio, but similar firmness and shortness. When compared to the biscuits, the cookies showed the same firmness, but 3 or 4 times as much shortness, and had a better taste due to being made by a different method with eggs instead of milk and baking powder.

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Although, mushrooms have low nutritional value and are not easily digested, it is desirable to include them in the diet since they are rich in dietary fiber and vitamin D. This study evaluates the awareness of dietary habit and nutritional value among students studying nutrition and their families, with the objective of increasing the consumption of mushrooms and improving healthful dietary habits. Sixty percent of both the students and their families reported that they liked mushrooms, the orders of preference being shiitake, bunashimeji, maitake, and winter mushrooms (enokitake). Seventy percent of the students and their families ate mushrooms at least once a week. Tempura cooking style was least preferred the students. Both the students and their families value freshness and price when buying mushrooms, and purchase mushrooms because of their good taste. They also perceive mushrooms as being expensive.

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Time allotted to training in a particular filed is naturally limited in the school-based education system. In an effort to impart the skills needed to use and manipulate a kitchen knife in most efficient manner, the author studied the school children who practiced slicing agar gel. When the act of slicing was taking place, control of the kitchen knife was influenced not so much by the height of the object being sliced as by its width. After kitchen knife had finished slicing and the object was examined, the prevailing factor appeared to be the height, not the width. In particular, when inexperienced kitchen knife-wielders were cutting items of greater width, the time taken between their raising the kitchen knife and making the final cut was considerably longer than the interval taken by more experienced subjects. Cooking classes at elementary schools have for many years used cucumber-and cabbage-slicing as practice of producing julienne a vegetables. When the slices were compared the results for the thinner cucumber were better than those for the more bulbous cabbage. However, an analysis of current elementary school fifth-graders taking cooking classes has shown that the degree of difficulty in producing julienne cucumbers and cabbages was relatively high; perhaps it would be a more positive step to introduce “coarse cutting” and “cutting at the end” for children in lower grades in preparing them for controlling and using kitchen knives.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify middle-aged and elderly women's consciousness toward dressing up and clothing norms, and to use the findings to propose suitable styles of clothing to satisfy them psychologically. The method used for the examination consisted of a questionnaire and an experiment in which the women were shown clothing photographs. The subjects were 302 middle-aged and elderly women, from 50 to 70 years old or older. The obtained results were as follows. 1) In general, middle-aged and elderly women had a high consciousness level toward dressing up and clothing norms. However, the intensity of consciousness toward the former was dependent on age, frequency of going out and degree of leisure activity. Also, it was confirmed that even the subjects with a higher consciousness level toward dressing up were dressing down in order to conform to clothing norms. Thus, they enjoy dressing up as far as the clothing norms allow them to do so. 2) Social and personal evaluations for clothing norms were examined through an experiment using photographs of dresses. It was found that social values were more important than personal evaluations. It was found that the differences between both values was larger among the subjects with a lower consciousness level toward clothing norms, in lower age brackets, and in larger cities. Based on these findings, it was clarified that the above subjects have different views from those of the general public for dress, and their conformity to the public mindset has weakened.

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