Objective: To examine the associations of nutrition literacy with nutrition information sources (usage frequency, degree of credibility) and barriers to searching for nutrition information.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among Japanese registered monitors (aged 20-59 years) from a social research company via an online survey, and responses from 1,252 people (631 men, 621 women) were analyzed. Multiple linear regression analysis (forced entry method) was used to examine the associations of nutrition literacy with nutrition information sources (usage frequency, degree of credibility) and barriers to searching for nutrition information.
Results: Positive associations were found between nutrition literacy and several nutrition information sources: medical professionals and experts (usage frequency: β＝0.12, p＜0.01), friends/acquaintances (degree of credibility: β＝0.14, p＝0.01), and the Internet (degree of credibility: β＝0.23, p＜0.01) in men, and the Internet (usage frequency: β＝0.17, p＜0.01; degree of credibility: β＝0.19, p＜0.01) and friends/acquaintances (degree of credibility: β＝0.13, p＝0.01) in women. The items for barriers significantly and negatively associated with nutrition literacy were “information that I find myself is too difficult to understand” in both men and women (men: β＝-0.23, p＜0.01; women: β＝-0.25, p＜0.01), and “felt frustrated and irritated when searching for nutrition information” (β＝-0.11, p＝0.01) in women.
Conclusion: The results suggest a possible negative correlation between nutrition literacy and presence of barriers to searching for specific nutrition information. As for nutrition information sources that may influence nutrition literacy, both men and women cited friends/acquaintances and the Internet, while men also listed medical professionals and experts as an additional source.

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Objective: We conducted this study to examine the relationships among five ranges of BMI and two types of body dissatisfaction in male and female university students in Japan.
Method: We performed a cross sectional study using body composition measurement and questionnaire on body images among Japanese students (4,118 men and 2,677 women), 18 to 22 years old from 14 universities.
Results: The significant difference was detected in all five BMI ranges of female students between the degree of ideal dissatisfaction (ideal shape - current shape) and healthy dissatisfaction (healthy shape - current shape) (p＜0.001). Among men, however, such a significant difference was not found. In addition, the significant difference was not found in the choice of an attractive man between men and women. Conversely, the average silhouette value of the attractive female shape for men was 4.65, and the silhouette value of the attractive female shape for men from the viewpoint of women was 3.97. The female students showed significantly lower body image score than male students (t＝25.08, p＜0.001, d＝0.70).
Conclusion: For female college students, a healthy looking shape was a more plump woman than an ideal shape. As for the attractive shape of men, the difference was not detected between the views from both male and female students. However, for that of women, a slim woman was considered more attractive.

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Objective: To describe the relationship between vegetable consumption and vegetable cultivation by prefecture in Japan.
Methods: In this ecological study, we collected the following official statistical data and used Spearman's correlation to assess the relationship between the following two parameters: 1) the mean vegetable consumption by gender and prefecture using data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey in Japan 2012; and 2) the amount of harvested and sold crops calculated from the data of the National Statistics of Crops in Japan 2012. Furthermore, scatter plots of the two parameters were created by each gender.
Results: The harvested amount of vegetables/population or the sold amount of vegetables/population showed no relationship with the mean vegetable consumption (men and women). A positive relationship was detected between (harvested amount of vegetables - sold amount of vegetables)/population and the mean vegetable consumption (men and women) (men: r_s＝0.37, p＝0.011; women: r_s＝0.45, p＝0.002). The mechanisms underlying the significant correlations were identified from scatter plots.
Conclusions: Harvesting a large amount of not-for-sale vegetables is associated with high vegetable consumption among residents in Japan. This relationship should be further assessed focusing on the not-for-sale vegetables.

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Objective: To examine the effects of sports nutrition course that adopts physical activity games on elementary students doing sports players.
Project contents: The course implemented lectures about three subjects related to nutrition for elementary school sports players; they are basic meals for athlete, water supplement, and snacks/ supplementary food. This course also used physical activity games to improve their understanding.
Project assessment: Participants were 23 children in the 4th to 6th grades. Regarding general dietary knowledge, the percentage of correct answers for the self-administered questionnaire was 22.5 (SD 13.8)％ to 47.7 (SD 11.9)％ before and after the course, respectively (p＜0.001). However, for individual question items, no significant changes were observed in questions about the roles of nutrients, side dish or supplementary food. For nutrients, no significant improvement was observed in any categories including the grade, participation motive, and their goal levels in the future. The percentage of correct answers for questions about snacks/supplementary food was significantly improved from 4.4 (SD 8.8)％ to 28.9 (SD 20.3)％ (p＝0.016) among the 6th-grade students and from 11.1 (SD 17.1)％ to 32.2 (SD 18.3) (p＝0.002) among children who participated based on a positive motivation.
Future issues: General knowledge of food was improved among the children of this course. However, a variation was found in their levels of understanding depending on the contents of the learning. The contents of lectures and practical training should be modified and improved especially for nutrient and snacks/ supplementary food.

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Background: Since 2013, the Nutrition Education Committee of the Japanese Society of Health Education and Promotion has been working for research under the theme of “food and nutrition education (FNE) evaluation in school”. In 2016, the Nutrition Education Committee published a “Workbook for practicing a food and nutrition education evaluation in school: Planning a food and nutrition education program considering its evaluation” summarized as outcome of the activity since 2013. Participants learned FNE evaluation in school using a practicing workbook at the 1 day workshop. This article reports a summary of the 2016 workshop using this workbook and its evaluation results from participants.
Contents: The workshop consisted of 1) lecture of FNE evaluation in school, 2) practice on the goals of healthy eating lifestyle 3) group work by participants using an example, and 4) group discussion, presentation, and general discussion. There were 89 participants. Out of 89, 100% answered that they were satisfied with the workshop. Some of them mentioned that “I want to make this experience useful for my work in the future”, “A learning form was appropriate” and “I could understand a way of thinking of setting goals”.
Conclusion: The workshop using a practicing workbook had high satisfaction of participants. A workbook is feasible and useful when implementing FNE in school. Further, we hope to promote activities forward in the future to diffuse an approach of the health education or promotion practice for the FNE in school.

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