The aim of early childhood education in China is that preschoolers should be able to communicate well with each other. In Japanese group nursing, there is a concept of dietary education which emphasizes that preschoolers become familiar with and deepen relationships with others by eating together. The purpose of this study is to examine the Chinese child care workers’ perceptions of eating as compared with those held by their Japanese counterparts. In Chinese schools there are both child-care workers and assistant child-care workers. The questionnaire involved 107 Japanese child-care workers, 97 Chinese child-care workers and108 assistant child-care workers, and was designed with the three objectives of ‘nutrition’, ‘manners’ and ‘communication’. The results of the survey may be summarized as follows:(1) as to the role of the kindergarten, the majority of Chinese child-care workers did not regard it as a venue for preschoolers to communicate with others.(2) Chinese child care workers’ views of the kindergarten did not always coincide with the views of Chinese assistant child care workers’.

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Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmission compound found in the vertebrate brain. GABA has recently been attracting attention as a functional food with its anti-stress effect. However, the bioactive mechanisms of dietary GABA have not been fully clarified. We investigated in this study the biosynthesis and catabolism of GABA in the liver and brain of rats under repeated stress and GABA administration. After repeated restraint stress (16 hours a day for 7 days a week), a decrease in the liver weight and food intake were apparent. In addition, the glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) 65 gene expression was significantly increased in the liver, and the GABA concentrations in the liver and plasma were also significantly increased. In contrast, when GABA (100mg/100g of body weight) was orally administered to the rats, while the concentrations of GABA in the liver and plasma were significantly increased, the mRNA expression of GAD and GABA transaminase (GABA-T) remained unchanged.These results show that, under repetitive stress for 7 days, GABA biosynthesis in the liver was enhanced, and then the GABA concentrations in the liver and plasma increased. While dietary GABA resulted in an increase in GABA concentrations in the liver and plasma, it did not affect the gene expression of the enzymes responsible for GABA biosynthesis and catabolism. The GABA concentration in the brain was unaffected by GABA administration and stress application, and remained constant.

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We compared the antioxidative activity of roasted Adzuki bean flour and traditional boiled Adzuki beans, and evaluated the palatability of the roasted flour. The antioxidative activity of boiled Adzuki beans was significantly higher than that of the uncooked beans when determined by an ORAC assay, although itwas unchanged by a DPPH assay. More than 90% of the original antioxidative activity was retained in the roasted Adzuki bean flour when determined by both the DPPH and ORAC assays. Sixty-two elementary school pupils made roasted Adzuki bean flour and ate with rice cakes in a home economics class. Seventy nine percent of the pupils liked the roasted flour, and 87.1% showed their willingness to cook it again in their homes. These results indicate that roasted Adzuki bean flour could be quickly prepared without losing its antioxidative activity and that this flour was considered to be a favorable food among the pupils.

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Although the percentage of “thin” young women has been increasing in recent years, there are those who are trying to lose even more weight. Such unnecessary weight reduction, which increases health risks, is becoming a problem. This study examines the problem in respect of the eating behavior and fitness habits among female university students that are derived from a desire for thinness and reveals the fashion sense that is a major motivating factor. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 359 female students involving their self-assessment of body type, interest in fashion, experience of weight reduction, attitude regarding eating, and number of meals per day. The results of this study suggest that the concept of “thinness” in women, who appear daily in the media as the models for fashionable dressing, began in childhood. It is this desire for thinness that is adversely affecting adequate nutrition due to unsuitable dietary control and exercise habits, becoming a factor that invites eating disorders and damages the physical and mental health of young women who do not need to lose weight.

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A questionnaire was issued to college students on their motivation for and their degree of practice of environmental load reduction of eating habits (ELR-EH) before and after cooking lessons at college. The main findings are as follows.1) The degree of students’ practice of ELR-EH before the lessons was significantly related to the students’resident status, how often they cooked, and their interest in the practice of ELR-EH before the lessons(p<0.01).2) The degree of students’ practice of ELR-EH after the cooking lessons was significantly affected by how often they cooked, and their interest in the practice of ELR-EH after the lessons (p<0.05), but was no taffected by students’ resident status and their interest in the practice of ELR-EH before the lessons.3) The motivation for students’ practice of ELR-EH after the lessons was affected by how often they cooked(p<0.05), their interest in the practice of ELR-EH before and after the lessons (p<0.01), and the degree of students’ practice of ELR-EH after the lessons (p<0.01). Students’ resident status and the degree of students’ practice of ELR-EH before the lessons, however, did not affect their motivation.4) The instruction of specific knowledge and skills of ELR-EH was found important in order to raise students’ interest in and the degree of students’ practice of ELR-EH.

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This study surveyed the behaviors of current high school students as consumers, with a view to pursuing effective ways to educate them as clever future consumers. Based on the study, we have come to the following conclusions.First, the lending and borrowing of money between students has a strong influence on their management of money. Therefore, it is necessary to enable them to learn appropriate ways of avoiding difficulty through specific examples.Second, students mainly purchase goods available in stores. However, the number of students who buy goods on the Internet is increasing. Considering the fact that their sources of information are diversified, it is important to provide them with basic knowledge as consumers so that they can behave as well- informed consumers.

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