In importance of physical activity and daily exercise has been emphasized for the prevention of lifestyle-related disease. In this review, I would like to discuss the significance of the exercise in young and elderly women.
1) Long-distance runners (n=8) and sedentary lifestyle female students (n=19) were enrolled for the study to improve their lifestyle. After assessing the health conditions, they were divided into three groups ; long-distance runner or athlete group (n=8), forced exercise group (n=9), and voluntary exercise group (n=10). In the sedentary group students, waist circumference, resting heart rate and LDL-cholesterol all improved after the trial, suggesting that daily exercise is effective for the promotion of health in young female students.
2) In healthy elderly women, the physical strength, number of walking steps, and bone density were followed for 10 years. During the period, body weight slightly decreased ; body height, group power, respiratory function, number of walking steps, basal metabolic rate, amount of exercise, and total energy expenditure were all significantly decreased. Bone density significantly decreased after 5 years. In elderly women, voluntary, active and continuous exercise is good for the conditioning of the daily life, delaying the functional declining although the physical strength was mostly affected by the aging.

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  The United States launched the Designer Foods program in 1990 on the basis of its ample epidemiological research data. It is aimed at preventing cancer with the use of pyytochemicals. What attracted the most attention are food ingredients called “non-nutrients,” such as polyphenols, sulfuric compounds, terpenoids and carotenoids. Calling such ingredients “functional food factors, ”we have developed an international research approach in an attempt for cross-disciplinary research beyond the boundaries of food science and medicine.
  In 1984, Japan became the world’s first to launch a research project on food functionality. Characteristically, it introduced a totally innovative concept of physiological and biological regulating function as a third function after the primary “nutritional” function and the secondary “sensory” function. The notion of food functionality has gradually penetrated the West although the reception was initially not very positive. And functional food is now taking root there.
  The U.S. Designer Foods program lists 40 vegetables, fruits, spices and luxury food items from the standpoint of cancer prevention on the basis of epidemiological research. Noting that designer food contained functional food factors common to food items in the same identical group or category, the author suggested the importance of keeping a balance among different types of food in the diet rather than of rating the effect of different food factors. The author added some traditional Japanese food materials to the listed food and sorted them into 12 food groups. The focus of the author’s proposal is to endeavor to consume food equally from all 12 groups within one or two days rather than consuming food materials in large quantities from a specific category. Needless to say, it is also important to develop new food materials.
  A key goal of illness prevention with the use of functional food factors will be to keep us healthy, or within the scope of a non-disease state, for as long a time as possible. It is therefore hoped that simple diagnoses may be performed using specific biomarkers to prevent illnesses at the earliest possible stage or to reduce the risk of future illness. Produced with a drop of blood, saliva, urine or suchlike, an antibody chip has a monoclonal antibody imprinted on a substrate spin-coated with azo-polymer. It is used for specifically examining oxidation stress, obesity, cancer and cerebral aging. It is foreseen that it will in a couple of years be viable to provide a so-called tailor-made diet guidance explaining the current health conditions and what diet should be followed to prevent illnesses with the use of the antibody chip in health checkups. The author hopes that studies on functional food factors with scientific grounds for cancer prevention will remove the boundaries between different disciplines and lead to the swift establishment of a system of industry-academia-government cooperation at the initiative of young researchers as well as an environment that enables Japan to play a leading role in the global strategy for the development of disease-preventing food products.

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  There was a debate about the adequate intake of protein between Voit and Chittenden in early 20^th century. Periodically FAO and WHO reported the necessary energy and protein intake after the World War II, and the recent technical report No 935 from WHO is introduced in relationship to the Japanese Dietary Reference Intake. Necessary protein intake becomes lower, and low protein diet is essential for the patients with renal failure.
  Necessary essential amino acids is also proposed in WHO report. The special function of particular amino acid in metabolic pathway became important, i.e. sulfur metabolism in methionin cycle, arginin in the intestinal-renal axis, etc. Non-essential amino acids are known to be important for living; arginin for urea cycle, glutamic acid for immune function, serin for neuronal growth, etc.
  Peptid supplement has newly appeared in the market. Its rapid absorption and plaucible function may be available for PEM in elderly people. These newly appeared food chemicals could be integrated in the “functional nutriology.” Antioxidant activity is additional aspect of proteins, so it should be also included in the target of functional nutriology.

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  In order to develop hamburg steak, we studied the effects of various kinds of miso and konnyaku sol on the quality of the chicken hamburg steak. The ratio 1:1(w/w) of ground chicken meat and onion was suitable for the preparation, along with a high moisture, softness, and a low texture value. Sample C-2 (Shinshu miso added) was preferred when compared to the control chicken hamburg steak (no added miso), sample C-1 (Saikyo miso added) and sample C-3 (soybean miso added) as for the color tone, aroma and overall satisfaction. Furthermore, sample C-2-K (1.9% konnyaku sol added to sample C-2) is softer and more flexible when compared to sample C-2, resulting in the reduced loss of meat juice. In addition, sample C-2 and sample C-2-K had a higher amount of total polyphenol and higher radicalscavenging activity compared to the control chicken hamburg steak. Based on these results, adding Shinsyu miso and konnyaku sol produced a high quality chicken hamburg steak.

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  Recently high frequency of breakfast skipping and low intake of vegetable are common among adolescents and young adults in Japan. Based on the stages of change, which is a key concept of the transtheoretical model, this study aimed to investigate the actual situation and reveal the problems with regard to eating habits among college students and threw light on the intervention for sensible diet. Data was provided by the sample of 268 participants (mean age=19.8 years, SD=1.28).
  The results of the questionnaire survey were as follows.
(1) Nearly half of participants (48.1%) were in earlier stages of change (Precontemplation and Contemplation).
(2) Participants in earlier stages of change reported higher frequency of breakfast skipping and more unbalanced diets than in later stages of change (Action and Maintenance).
(3) Participants in earlier stages of change neither cared about their diets nor realized their dietary problems.
(4) Participants in earlier stages of change reported feelings of vague lassitude more than in later stages of change.
(5) Participants in earlier stages of change evidenced lower interest in cooking, cooking skills, and knowledge about cooking scores than in later stages of change.
  These results revealed participants in earlier stages of change with eating habit problems show lower competence needed to follow a sensible diet than in later stages of change. Making a classification of sample on the basis of stages of change is useful to identify targets of intervention. In order to establish healthy dietary behavior, it is essential to develop TTM-based dietary education program which promotes such behavior and apply it to college students in earlier stages of change.

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  The purpose of this study was to compare serum lipid and blood glucose levels in young and middle-aged Zen monks, and to clarify the influence on physiological change in body by aging. The eighteen Zen monks who lived in a Zen temple (a young group of twelve average aged 24.3, and a middle-aged group of six average aged 59.2) were investigated their body measurement, life activity survey, dietary survey, evaluation of health-related quality of life, and blood test.
  As a result, a significant difference between the two groups was not recognized in BMI, body fat percentage, energy consumption, nutrient intakes, and evaluation of health-related quality of life. Identically, in both of the groups, a distinct difference was not observed in HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. However, total cholesterol and blood glucose levels of the young group were remarkably higher than those of the middle-aged group.
  Therefore, this study suggested that physiological change in body by aging affected the total cholesterol and blood glucose levels.

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The purpose of the research was to clarify the influence of the conditions of fried food cooking on the deterioration of the frying oil and sensory evaluation of the fried foods.
  1) Five hundred grams of sliced potato were divided into 10 parts and fried repeatedly at 170°C for 3 minutes in 500g of salad oil, and potato chips were obtained. The same weight of chicken was also fried repeatedly at 165°C for 6 minutes in the salad oil, and deep-fries with the chicken were obtained. When the deep-frying processing of each sample for 30 minutes was counted as one set, any of the samples were cooked continuously as six sets. Both the peroxide value (POV) and the acid value (AV) of the frying oil were measured after every set. For the POV, there was a significant difference between the frying oils after cooking potato and chicken (p<0.05) , and the frying oil from cooking chicken had a higher value than the frying oil from potato ; for the AV, the two frying oils showed a gradually increasing value.
  2) When the chicken samples as described above, were fried with the method of continuous-deep-frying (CNDF) in six sets with frying at 165°C for 30 minutes in 500g of salad oil, or with another method of intermittent-deep-frying (IMDF) in six sets with 2-3 days preservation after each frying, the IMDF method showed a higher tendency in POV and AV values, compared with that of CNDF.
  3) When the chickens were fried in salad oil or in soybean germ oil with the method of IMDF as described above, frying in salad oil had a higher POV value in comparison with frying in soybean germ oil, with a significant difference (p<0.05). In a sensory evaluation analysis, the chickens fried in the two kinds of oil showed almost the same evaluation of sensory items except for the oiliness of the goods in the two oils, but the goods fried in salad oil were evaluated to be oilier, compared to those in soybean germ oil with a lower POV as shown above.
  4) It was shown that regarding POV and AV, the two frying oils heated under the cooking conditions for 3 hours were safe, and that the fried chicken had maintained adequate quality in the sensory analysis.

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  We investigated the food intake and physical condition among elementary school children in rural Cambodia during Feb-March 2006. Data were collected from 274 elementary school children (119 boys and 155 girls) aged 9-16 years. The following results were obtained:
1) With regard to the frequency of dietary intake a day, 61% of the students had “three meals”, but 39% of the students had “two meals”. 79% of the students had the largest amount of daily meals at lunch. The frequency of protein-rich food intake, such as meat and dairy products was low.
2) The proportion of underweight children with respect to the Rohrer Index was 80% of all boys and 71% of all girls. Also, the weight and height of both boys and girls in rural Cambodia were lower than those of Japanese children of the same age. Moreover, there were many children who had answered, “normal” in the question about consciousness of their physiques, though they were thin.
  The present results show that the nutritional status of elementary school children in rural Cambodia is inadequate. In conclusion, as it is important that children obtain a good nutritional status for their growth, the study recommends a comprehensive strategy to be implemented in rural Cambodia in order to prevent children from the undernourishment.

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[in Japanese]

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  A questionnaire survey was conducted on 501 3-year-old children′s guardians who take care of a child chiefly with the objective of improving the children′s dietary life. The relationship between the children and their guardian′s dietary life and the frequency of co-eating with the family was investigated among a total of 364 valid responses. The following results were obtained :
  The ratio of a high frequency of co-eating was high in the case of a child whose mother was working. The children who had a high frequency of co-eating were more likely to defecate every day, more likely to have sweets at a regular time, more likely to get up by 7 AM, more likely to play outside every day, more likely to have no disliked food, and more likely not to have to worry about eating habits. Guardians who had a high frequency of co-eating were more likely to enjoy their meal, more likely to have the knowledge and skill for a good balanced meal, and more likely to tell the child about health and the meal. Guardians who had a high frequency of co-eating were more likely to discipline the child, such as having a happy conversation while eating, holding the chopsticks correctly, helping with the meal and not having an unbalanced diet.
  These findings demonstrate the relationship of children to their guardian′s dietary life and the frequency of co-eating with the family, and indicate the importance of co-eating with the family.

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