A huge gap existed between enjoyable dietary habits and clinical practice until 1980s. The gap, however, is considerably narrowed, because the main proportion of diseases has changed drastically from acute to chronic in Japan during the last several decades. Clinical practice has also evolved from experience- to evidence-based since mid-1990s.

　Good quality of life (QOL) in dietary habits relates to two important life domains, satisfied dietary life and physically healthy life. The latter is indicated by the scientifically proven evidence. Physicians frequently encounter the former (narrative) to adopt the latter (evidence) for individual patients.

　Evidence can be directly employed for making public health policies. It is also naturally adopted for the individual patients with treatable acute diseases such as gangrenous appendicitis. Narrative, however, must be important for the individual patients with incurable chronic diseases such as hereditary muscular disorders. It is essential to integrate narrative and evidence to practice evidence-based medicine and/or nutrition in the clinical settings.

　Physicians, therefore, should adopt evidence maximally for a patient after making appropriate and timely adjustment with his or her narrative.

　Food is the source of life. Practicing a healthy diet on a daily basis and eating delicious and enjoyable food gives people the joy of living and greatly contributes to a healthy and prosperous life. Extending healthy life expectancy has become an important issue in Japan, and one of the factors contributing to this extension is dietary habits. Seasonings are used to add flavor to foods and make them tasty according to individual tastes. Soy sauce, an indispensable seasoning in Japanese cuisine, has not only a "sensory function" that provides enjoyment and satisfaction in terms of taste, aroma, and deliciousness, but also a "biological regulatory function" related to disease prevention, health recovery, physical condition management, and aging control.

　Today, many people are concerned about their eating habits due to high blood pressure, kidney disease, allergies, and so on. If soy sauce, which is consumed daily, can contribute to providing foods suitable for such people, it is believed that it will help extend their healthy lifespan and improve their quality of life, and several soy sauce products have been developed.

　A satisfying diet is not always consistent with Improving quality of life.In recent years, overall vegetable consumption in Japan has been declining. However, consumption of salad vegetables has been increasing, and the amount of salad purchased has also been increasing.Since salads can be freely combined with many kinds of ingredients, their nutritional value can be adjusted, such as salads for elderly people with high protein content and salads for obese people with low calories.In this way, by providing salads and salad dishes that meet the conditions, a healthy diet with high QOL can be realized.

　We investigated the appearance of food packages and inconveniences when shopping for low vision people with visual field impairment and clarified the problems.

　In the food packaging survey, 19 survey subjects were shown 55 types of food packages and asked about their problems and reasons. The points that affected the recognition of food were "typeface, size, and color of characters", "arrangement of characters", "contrast with the background of the product" and "package material that reflects light".

　In the survey at the time of shopping, 11 people surveyed were accompanied to hear problems at the shopping floor. The following points were raised as problems that affect food recognition. 1) It is difficult to find the desired manufacturer or brand among many products in similar categories (91%). 2) Products in glass doors or on diagonal display shelves are difficult to see because they cannot be seen up close (73%). 3) The reflection of strong lightning from above makes it difficult to recognize the products (64%). 4) It is difficult to find products without touching them (45%).

　A hospital for persons with severe motor and intellectual disabilities in Nara prefecture was considered to provide a small amount of a highly nutritious jelly diet. This study examined whether this jelly diet had appropriate physical properties for patients with the dysphagia who were able to eat L1 and L2 foods of the dysphagia diet pyramid. In addition, the reproducibility and taste of the jelly foods were evaluated under different cooking conditions, such as different chefs cooking at different facilities.

　The results confirmed that all six menus had L1 and L2 physical properties of the dysphagia diet pyramid, despite different cooking conditions. However, in a few menus, the levels of the dysphagia diet pyramid were altered owing to the addition of nutritious food ingredients and distinct cooking environments. Among these menus, some of the levels stepped up to the level of normal food by shifting from L0 to L1 or L1 to L2. To ensure the stable delivery of these foods, it is necessary to standardize the cooking processes and better understand the food ingredients.

　Concerning taste, the "Chinese cabbage salad with green shiso leaves” on the six menus was rated low following the addition of nutritious food ingredients. Furthermore, a sensory analysis for the facility staff and chefs is required to comprehensively evaluate taste.

　The following results were obtained when we investigated the viable bacterial count, lactic acid bacteria count, gram-negative bacteria count, and yeast count in traditional Japanese fermented sushi, and conducted a microbiological study of the microbiota. For the nine types of fermented sushi, the pH was 3.62±0.01 to 4.75±0.02 and the salt concentration was 1.57±0.06 to 5.90±0.12%. The viable bacterial count was between 4.61±0.11 and 8.86±0.06 log CFU/g and the lactic acid bacteria count was between 5.89±0.02 and 8.99±0.05 log CFU/g. The gram-negative bacteria count ranged below the detection limit and 4.59±0.11 log CFU/g, and the yeast count was below the detection limit and 6.80±0.01 log CFU/g. Although the predominant lactic acid bacterial flora detected in the fermented sushi was lactic acid bacteria of genus Lactobacillus, the characteristic microflora was present depending upon the different raw ingredients and states of fermentation. The findings of this study show that fermented sushi consists of different raw ingredients under different conditions of fermentation, creating a characteristic lactic acid bacterial flora for each food item.

　The present study was conducted to produce a prototype of a safe dango ball (dumpling) by using the characteristics of various waxy-cereal flours for the purpose of providing meals for the elderly in food service facilities. Waxy rice, waxy foxtail millet, waxy barley, waxy proso millet, waxy wheat, and waxy Japanese barnyard millet were selected as the ingredients of the dango balls. Six kinds of dango balls were evaluated by mechanical measurement and color measurement. Furthermore, based on the results obtained by an objective evaluation, a sensory evaluation of the waxy rice and waxy wheat dango balls was also performed. The mechanical measurement showed that the waxy wheat dango ball had not only a very similar property value to that of the waxy rice dango ball. But also a significantly low adhesiveness. Therefore, the waxy wheat dango ball was considered to have highly safe mechanical characteristics. On the other hand, the sensory evaluation showed that the waxy wheat dango ball was easier to bite off and swallow and adhered less to teeth than the waxy rice dango ball. The present findings suggested that the waxy wheat dango may be a substitute for rice cakes and demonstrated to eaters of meals provided in food service facilities for elderly.

　I served for 36 years in several hospitals as a medical social worker. In my childhood, my father was internist and my mother helped his work. She also prepared meal using several foodstuffs. Families in the district were almost two family dwelling. And elderly people cared neighboring children in their spare time. I studied social welfare and worked at some hospitals as the medical social worker. I gave the advise to solve the personal problem of patients. We (doctor, nurse, nutrtionist, pharmacist and medical social worker) discussed the improvement in quality of life of patients. After retirement, I worked as volunteer at social welfare council. Sometimes I visited the home of elderly people and prepared meal using foodstuffs of refrigerator and heard his memories of childhood.