[Purpose] The relationship between daily meals and mastication ability of aged persons, in nursing home (n=54) and at home (n=15), has been studied by measurement of physical property of daily meals and dietary habit through question and answer survey.
[Method] The methods employed were measurement of mastication ability by use of xylitol gum and the physical properties (hardness and cohesiveness) of more than hundred kinds of dishes by creep meter and also, the survey with question and answer to the aged in nursing and at home. They are healthy and self independent at average age of 82. 3 and 77. 2, respectively.
[Results] The mastication ability was stronger with persons living at home than those in nursing home who showed rather scattered values.
  Measurements of daily main and side serving showed that vegetable dishes were especially cooked softer in nursing home than at home. Regardless of same cooking, some food materials become harder than the others. Difference on hardness and cohesiveness of dishes became evident between them.
  From question and answer survey, it is shown as a tendency that their familiar foods and dishes in years, namely Japanese foods like grilled fish (Yakizakana) and pickles (Tsukemono), are preferred by both group of elders. In such cases they eat foods that look harder and more difficult to mastication for them.
[Conclusion] It has been suggested that it is not necessary to serve soft meals with easy to bite in and swallow for elders, but also their satisfaction can be obtained with a suitable hardness (depending on their eating habit) of foods.

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  PS-B1 is a fermented product cultivated from soybean milk using lactic acid bacteria. We studied the effects of PS-B1 on the liver function and the lipid metabolism. The five testees took 50 mL⁄day of PS-B1 before going to bed for four weeks. Interestingly, the clinical examination values indicating the liver functions improved almost by drinking PS-B1 and the values of AST, ALP, and γ-GTP decresed greatly. The anti-oxidants contained in PS-B1 were suggested to suppress the release of liver-enzymes from hepatocytes by protecting hepatocytes from damages induced by the superoxide species. Moreover, the concentrations of total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and triacylglycerol in blood were decreased and that of HDL-cholesterol increased. It was suggested that the feeding of PS-B1 in daily life might be useful to reduce the risk of the circulatory system disease such as the cerebrovascular disease and the coronary artery disease.

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[in Japanese]

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  We conducted a survey of elementary and junior high school students aiming to clarify the actual state and issues of dietary life related to lifestyle-related diseases.
  The subjects are a total of 411 students in Tokyo. We conducted a survey in September 2008. We surveyed items including eating behavior, food-related attitude and knowledge, frequency of cooking, cooking skills, and school meal time. Based on the survey, we were able to deduce the following issues and tendencies.
1) The majority of elementary and junior high school students do not use knowledge on nutrition they learn at school in their daily lives.
2) The rate of actually conducting healthy eating behavior and the rate of having the attitude and knowledge to lead a healthy dietary life tend to be lower for junior high school students than for elementary school students.
3) About 30 to 40% of elementary and junior high school students rarely cook.
4) Obtaining the knowledge of food, happiness in school lunch, and cooking frequency and skills are important to send healthy eating habits.

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  Three scavengers of DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical were isolated from commercial mint teas such as spearmint and peppermint, and they were identified as eriodictyol 7-O-β-rutinoside (eriocitrin), luteolin 7-O-β-rutinoside, and rosmaric acid by HPLC and LC-MS. The extracts of mints leaves such as peppermint variegate, orange mint, black peppermint, candy mint, apple mint, and Japanese mint (hakka) by hot water were examined for content of radical scavengers and their activity. It was shown to have high correlative relationship (R=0. 914) between the sum content of three scavengers in the extract and the activity. The isolated scavengers and their aglycones (eriodictyol and luteolin) were shown to have the high scavenging activity for superoxide as well as DPPH radical. They were examined for suppressive effects on the expression of blood adhesion molecules. Eriodictyol, luteolin, and rosmaric acid exhibited significantly the high activity (P<0. 05).

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  In this study, a method of estimating the rice flour content of rice bread was discussed to ensure the food labeling information of products.
1) The absorption spectrum of iodine-starch of rice (Koshihikari) flour was different from that of the strong-type wheat grain. Under a microscope, only the smaller 5μm starch grains were detected in the Koshihikari rice. On the other hand, 15-40μm starch grains were observed in the strong-type wheat grain.
2) The maximum absorption wavelength in the spectra of the iodine-starch complexes (λ_max) was specifically different among every rice cultivar, although the λ_max among the various products from wheat were similar. In products made from rice, the λ_max values were not affected by the size of the starch grains in the rice flour and the contents of the other materials except for the rice.
3) Based on the increase in the rice flour content, the λ_max of breads made from flour mixed with rice and wheat decreased. Many large starch grains considered to come from the wheat were examined from the 100% whole wheat bread. On the other hand, the large starch grains decreased as the rice flour content increased and no large starch grains were detected in the 100% whole rice bread.
4) For the marketed products, the λ_max of the 100%whole rice bread was lower than that of the 100% whole wheat bread. Only small starch grains considered to be rice starch were observed in the 100% whole rice bread. However, large starch grains regarded to come from the wheat were found in bread containing wheat flour.
  The results of this study indicated that the method to examine the λ_max of rice bread and to observe the size and form of starches from rice and wheat under a microscope was useful to estimate the rice flour rough content of rice bread.

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  β-Lactoglobulin, a major allergen of cow′s milk, has been conjugated with the N-hydroxysuccinimide ester of the dextran-glycylglycine adduct (DG-ONSu) to reduce its immunogenicity. Since the marketed low-allergenized milks have a serious problem concerning the bitter taste introduced in the process of proteolysis and heat-treatment, we examined in this study using a sensory test, the effects of proteolysis by trypsin and heat-treatment on the taste of the conjugate (DG-β-lactoglobulin). DG-β-lactoglobulin indicating a resistance against peptidases did not show any changes in the bitter-scores by the proteolysis using trypsin, while that of the nativeβ-lactoglobulin significantly increased. Moreover, the bitter taste of the proteolytic DG-β-lactoglobulin was remarkably suppressed due to the shielding action of DG-ONSu on the bitter-taste amino acids.

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  We investigated the composition of free amino acids, including free amino acids in 29 brands of commercially available vegetable juices.
1) The composition of the free amino acids were similar among the 29 brands.
2) The total amount of free amino acids was 153. 3±92. 1mg/100 ml (range, 68. 1 to 403. 4mg/100ml). The predominant free amino acids were glutamic acid, aspartic acid, alanine, asparagine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and arginine.
3) Four of the 29 brands contained≥30mgγ-aminobutyric acid /100ml, and these brands had the common ingredients of carrot and tomato.
4) A strong positive correlation was observed between the total free amino acid and glutamic acid content (r=0. 941), total free amino acid and γ-aminobutyric acid content (r=0. 951), total free amino acid and branched-chain amino acid content (r=0. 950), and between glutamic acid andγ-aminobutyric acid content (r=0. 936).

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