A part of the bone is always dissolved and absorbed by osteoclast （bone resorption）. And osteoblasts form a new bone （osteoplasty）. When this balance collapses, it leads to the disease called the bone metabolism abnormality symptom, and the most common example is osteoporosis.

　In male and female, the bone mass reaches maximum in mid-30 years old and decreases gradually with aging afterward. It is revealed that estrogen greatly participates in maintaining a bone mass. Because in the women in particular, the sudden decrease in bone mass happens for postmenopausal 5-10 years, and there is knowledge such as there being fewer losses of the bone mass than the woman who is irregular in the women who are stable in their menstrual cycle. It is known that the soy isoflavone has weak estrogen-like activity. The effects of isoflavones on bone are confirmed not only in vitro examination but also in animal experiment and a clinical trial. It is thought that these effects act by mechanism same as bone resorption restraint action of estrogen.

　Black soybean, a type of soybean with a black seed coat, has been widely used as a nutritionally rich food in Asia. Black soybean has been utilized as a traditional Chinese medicine for preventing of cardiovascular diseases, improving aging liver and kidney functions, and for accelerating diuretic action. Black soybean seed coat contains numerous bioactive compounds including proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins. These compounds have activity as radical scavengers, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory agents, and for improving the fluidity of blood. These multiple activities may have some effects on endothelial function.

　Measurement is a base of science. No progress exists in science, without measurement. However, measurement methods on diets, i.e., dietary assessment methods, have not been fully studied in Japan. Dietary assessment methods are science much more complicated and difficult ones than we have long believed and expected. In dietary assessments, there are many factors which induce measurement errors, both randomly and systematically. Two of most important factors are day-to-day variation of diets and underreporting of diets. "Validity" of a dietary assessment method is one of the important information which shows us how we use it and how much we can believe the data obtained from it. We, all researchers who are interested in diets, should be very careful for the validity of dietary assessment methods and the high-quality validation studies should be more encouraged.

　Anthropometry is a simple, easy, and cost-effective technique to measure size, shape, and proportion of human body. Because of its versatile nature, anthropometry has been utilized in diverse disciplines to assess growth and development, nutritional status, health risks and physical performance. On the other hand, there is a concern about a lack of understanding on ways to utilize the results obtained from anthropometry. In the present review, a brief history of anthropometry and common techniques to report results obtained from anthropometry were described. The review also suggested current considerations on application of anthropometry and its future prospects in Japan.

　It can be said that observing, measuring, and evaluating human behavior is the most fundamental and important theme in understanding the daily life and lifestyle of individuals or groups. However, it is not easy to observe, measure, and record people’s activities （behaviors）. For example, it can be the case that subjects are influenced to adopt different behaviors than usual because of the observer’s presence. Even if subjects do behave as usual after they fully understand the research purpose, researchers can observe only very few people per day if they want to observe the activities of the subject in detail. Therefore, it takes a great amount of time and effort to understand an activity pattern in the target population as a whole.

　With regard to human behavior, a number of studies have been carried out in various disciplines including anthropology, psychology, behavioral science, public health, ecology, geography, and physiology over many years. In each academic field, various approaches have been established to assess time allocation （time-use）, and valuable findings have accumulated.

　In this paper, we outline the methodology of time allocation studies conducted in field research for local populations in developing countries. We further approach the assessment of physical activity by utilizing time allocation data.

　Health-related quality of life （QOL） is the ultimate objective of health care activities such as health promotion and dietary education. Other important objectives are good health and nutritional status and their predictive factors. However, there is insufficient evidence regarding factors related to these objectives and their correlations. Also, it is difficult to assess people’s life satisfaction and well-being （i.e., QOL）. Therefore, studies examining the effect of nutritional and physical activity education programs on QOL are very limited.

　In this review, we discuss the concept, definition, classification, and assessment of QOL, which we then apply to the development of new model for community-dwelling adults with intellectual disabilities. The results indicated that the development and implementation of a nutritional and physical activity program according to individual characteristics is necessary for improving health status and QOL in this target population.

　Lastly, we consider possible future directions for supporting dietary habits that could be used to improve QOL.

　We investigated and quantified the effect of both the heating temperature and time on the properties and the diffusion of food substrates in pumpkin using a steam convection oven. In addition, we performed a sensory evaluation with "boiled and seasoned pumpkin" and found the conditions that seem to be the most delicious.

　The pumpkin was cooked at three different temperatures （120, 160, 200℃） and each at three different times （10, 20, 30 minutes） along with the combination mode and 100% humidity. We carried out the texture analysis, the measurement of color tone, the concentrations of sodium ion and glucose, a sensory evaluation of the suitable hardness and deliciousness as "boiled and seasoned pumpkin" and determination of the diffusion coefficient of the sodium ion and glucose. Although the hardness significantly decreased with prolongation of the heating time, there was no influence at high temperature. In contrast, the diffusions of sodium ion and glucose significantly increased due to the heating temperature and time.

　For the sensory evaluation of the samples cooked at 160℃ for 10, 20, 30 minutes, the samples heated for 10 and 20 minutes were preferred in terms of deliciousness as "boiled and seasoned pumpkin", and there was no significant difference between the 10 and 20 minutes heated samples.

　The change in the mean diffusion coefficients of the sodium ion and glucose for each heating time is related to the change in the total permeation level of these substrates. These results suggested that heating in a steam convection oven at 160℃ for 10 and 20 minutes was preferred for the "boiled and seasoned pumpkin", and that the high temperature activated the diffusion of the sodium ion and glucose while maintaining its hardness.

　Questionnaire survey regarding the home-visiting nutritional guidance was conducted to clarify the future way of home-visiting nutritional guidance for registered dieticians who work in local hospitals/clinics and patients with intractable neurological diseases and elderly users who are supported by visiting nursing stations/community general support center.

　① Registered dieticians （RD） who work in national hospital and local hospitals/clinics in Omuta city recognized the importance of home-visiting nutritional guidance, however, they had little work experience of the guidance. ② Some hospitals/clinics had the policy of non-acceptance of the guidance and the setting for implementation was generally undeveloped, affecting the dissemination of home-visiting nutritional guidance. ③ Low recognition of the guidance among physicians, health professionals and users was one of the factors of low implementation. ④ The patients with intractable neurological diseases and the elderly users generally satisfied with the diet although they knew the guidance less than 20%. ⑤ About a half of the subjects who had anxiety and problems about the dietary life were not good at cooking and/or did not know cookery method appropriate for themselves. ⑥ The subjects who did not want to have the guidance cited the reasons of the answer such as "unnecessity", "troublesome" and "do not want others to enter my house." ⑦ About 40% of the RD as reason why hospitals/clinics do not introduce the guidance responded "Patients do not know or need the guidance". On the other hand, about a half of the elderly users living in the same area of the RD answered, "I do not feel the guidance is necessary."

　These results suggest that active and diverse approaches to introduce the home-visiting nutritional guidance are required not only by the public administration but also by RD in addition to the solving problems regarding the guidance considering QoL of the patients/elderly users.

　The relationship between rice storage conditions and the physicochemical and sensory properties of cooked rice was investigated. Both polished rice （90％ yield） and brown rice were stored in the following conditions: （i） 37℃ and 75％ relative humidity （RH） for 30 and 80 days; （ii） at room temperature （22.2-27.5℃, 31.3-53.9％ RH） for 180 days from May to November. Treated samples of brown rice storage were polished at 90％ yield after storage. The increase in fat acidity levels after storage was larger in polished rice storage than in brown rice storage, whereas the increase in reducing sugar levels after storage was larger in brown rice storage than in polished rice storage. After storage for 80 days at 37℃ and 75％ RH, the hardness of cooked rice increased, and the stickiness decreased. In addition, compared with the control cooked rice sample, rice quality worsened, hardness increased, and stickiness decreased remarkably after refrigerating cooked rice at 4℃ for 16 h. The peak temperature of gelatinization for rice flour, obtained using DSC, increased after storage but that for rice starch was comparable regardless of storage conditions. This suggests an increase in interactions between rice starch and other ingredients during storage. Sensory evaluation of cooked rice stored at 37℃ and 75％ RH suggested that polished rice storage was better than brown rice storage in terms of aroma and taste. In contrast, after storage at room temperature, it was suggested that brown rice storage was better than polished rice storage in terms of appearance and taste.

　An aging society with a declining birthrate has become a problem in Japan and China, making it important to favor improving lifestyles over increasing life expectancy. University students majoring in sports science can become leaders in improving the health of these nations.

　Participants included 98 Japanese and 76 Chinese male university students from Fukuoka and Inner Mongolia, respectively. An anonymous questionnaire was administered in July and March 2015 to examine whether their lifestyle was healthy.

　In addition, we compared Japanese and Chinese textbooks on health and physical education and examined the health education contents.

　Based on breakfast, smoking, and drinking habits, the Japanese students had a more desirable lifestyle than the Chinese ones; 10.2% （10/98） of the Japanese students were smokers, while 52.6% （40/76） of the Chinese students smoked. Based on their daily bedtime and sleeping habits, the Chinese students had a more desirable lifestyle than the Japanese students.

　We found that the Japanese students scored an average of 25 points on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, while the Chinese students scored about 30 points, which is similar to the findings from a previous study.

　Health education is featured twice as much as physical education in Japanese textbooks for junior high and high school students. Students learned about "smoking and health" in the fifth and sixth grades, junior high, and high school.

　While practical skills of physical education account for most pages, the Chinese textbooks have about a quarter of the pages compared to the Japanese ones on health education for junior high school students. There was no description about lifestyle-related diseases and prevention, such as smoking. The Chinese textbooks of physical ,and health education used in high schools describe that sports increase physical health and cognitive and social abilities, which allows students to adapt. They contain content on "sports and the nourishment of self-esteem and confidence", resulting from participation in sports.

　The smoking rate of Japan was lower than that of China, and it was suggested that there was an effect of the Japanese health education.