This study aimed to clarify the challenges of dietary education in childcare worker training courses by examining awareness of such education among professional childcare workers and students.

A questionnaire survey was conducted, involving 152 childcare workers working in Hakodate City and 63 students taking childcare worker training courses. The results indicated the necessity of guidance for students to resolve their insufficient dietary knowledge and daily life experience. Furthermore, as it is difficult to promote understanding of dietary culture, nutrition, and food through usual childcare experience, unlike knowledge and skills for meal assistance that improve through such experience, it may also be essential to enhance awareness of the necessity of collaborating with other professionals, such as dieticians, in actual settings among students in the early stages.

To elucidate the status of eating habits in children and the ways in which food and taste education are provided, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 688 elementary school children (366 boys and 322 girls) and 107 elementary school teachers. Our results suggested that children tended to be picky about food, were sometimes uninterested in eating, and sometimes ate alone. Boys preferred to eat fattier and saltier foods than girls, and girls generally used more words than boys to describe food texture. Teachers pointed out that some children did not eat foods at school that they did not eat at home. They also responded that some children did not eat a balanced breakfast, and that a small percentage even skipped it entirely. Most schools provided food education classes ; however, teachers did not have adequate knowledge of taste education, such as Jacques Puisais’s method of sensory awakening. Eating habit and taste education acquired during childhood can influence, either positively or negatively, the condition of health in adulthood ; therefore, it is very important that children be exposed to a full and diverse array of gastronomic experiences, which serve to promote a heightened sense of taste and, ideally, a preference for healthy foods. More information concerning taste education, including teaching materials, lectures, and practical examples, is needed in order to support food education focused on taste education.

Taste education in France teaches four basic tastes which include “sweetness”, “sourness”, “saltiness” and “bitterness”, whereas there are five basic tastes which consist of another taste call “umami” in Japan. While adopting Puisais’s method, to perform an original taste education involving “umami” leads to the succession of Japanese food culture. Hence, the awareness of the importance of taste education in Japan should be further raised.

Dietary education about staple foods, main dishes and side dishes through the practice of making lunch boxes was provided to 154 sixth graders (76 boys and 78 girls) of four elementary schools in Osaka City. The education covered the following three things : 1) planning a favorite lunch box ; 2) learning about staple foods, main dishes and side dishes ; and 3) planning a nutritionally balanced lunch box. We examined the actual situation regarding children making lunch boxes from their plans for their lunch boxes and descriptions provided in worksheets.

In the favorite lunch boxes, boys and girls included insufficient amounts of staple foods and too much of main dishes. Particularly, the favorite lunch boxes of boys tended to include too much of main dishes and insufficient amounts of side dishes. Comparing the nutritionally balanced lunch boxes with their usual lunch boxes, the children’s worksheets most frequently included descriptions about the difference in the quantities of staple foods, main dishes and side dishes. Analysis of their worksheets showed that most of the children made a positive comment about the nutritionally balanced lunch box and that more than 80% wanted to eat it. These results suggested that making lunch boxes was an effective means of guiding the children to an understanding of the appropriate combination of staple foods, main dishes and side dishes.

This study researched implementation of event food (the symbol of food culture in Japan) among the college students of a registered dietitian training course.

The survey was carried out through a self-administered questionnaire to 78 students of a registered dietitian training course (the nutritional students) and 77 students of other departments (the other students). Questionnaire items were awareness to event food, experience of event food, and the attribute. The results of the nutritional students were compared with the results of the other students.

The nutritional students had a strong awareness of event food than the other students. Also the nutritional students had more experience than the other students. We analyzed the relation between implementation of Event Food in Setsubun, Doyo no Ushi, Jugoya and Toji, and the living environmental factors (school year, family type and residence type). So the differences were not seen in the nutritional students and the other students. Both of the students living alone had little frequency of event food.

There are a lot of the nutritional students who do not execute event food when becoming living alone, even if there are a strong awareness or experience of event food. The nutrition education to the college students who represents the next generation is very important.

Children show active bone growth and develop dietary habits in the later years of elementary school. From the perspective of bone health, it is important to help them adopt diet-related self-management skills based on proper knowledge of nutrition during this period. Therefore, the present study aimed to obtain basic information for designing nutrition education programs to prevent osteoporosis and maintain and improve the quality of life in later life. Fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students (n＝196) in I Ward underwent bone mass measurement and completed a questionnaire. The questionnaire survey was conducted at approximately six months after measurement to evaluate the effects of the bone mass assessment on their dietary awareness. The majority of students showed changes in their dietary awareness after the bone mass assessment. The results demonstrated that bone mass assessment influenced dietary awareness among elementary school students. We expect to collect further data from broad-based surveys on dietary awareness, continuous intervention, and regular monitoring to provide useful information for the prevention of osteoporosis.