Dietary guidelines recommend the use of dark, rather than light, soy sauce for salt reduction, as the sodium chloride equivalent per 100 g is 14.5 g in the former and 16.0 g in the latter. This study examined the status of light/dark soy sauce use for stewed recipes first, and then the relationship between the amounts of sugar and salt used in such cooking.

Half of the households in Osaka used light soy sauce. Therefore, we compared 4 stewed dishes: “beef and potato stew”, “stewed pumpkin”, “stewed Japanese radish”, and “stewed hiziki seaweed”, prepared using light soy sauce in Osaka and dark soy sauce in Tokyo. The sugar concentration was higher in Osaka in all cases, except for “stewed pumpkin”, and the salt concentration was also higher in Osaka in all cases. Analysis of 80 meals revealed a strong positive correlation between sugar and salt concentrations, clarifying that the amount of sugar added first influences the amount of salt used for each dish. Based on the results, it may be effective to reduce the amount of sugar added first as a salt reduction strategy when preparing stewed dishes.

We surveyed children enrolled in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in Osaka City, Japan, to determine the changes in children’s dietary habits caused by COVID-19 and the closure of schools to prevent its spread and to make comparisons by school type, gender, and dietary awareness. Compared with the group with low dietary awareness, the group with high dietary awareness, whose members chose to “eat a well-balanced diet” to prevent infectious diseases, showed generally better results with respect to the items they paid special attention to in their diet during school holidays, changes in their dietary habits, food preparation practices, and health status. Dietary awareness declined as students progressed from elementary school to middle school and high school, suggesting a link between the decline in opportunities for dietary education and the decline in dietary awareness as school years progress. Future issues for dietary education in schools include the promotion of dietary education in high schools.

This study quantitatively examined the factors related to food being left over from school lunches, paying attention to dietary behaviors, interest in dieting, and exercise habits among elementary and junior high school students. Ordered logistic regression analysis was conducted using the survey data on the dietary habits of fifth-grade elementary and second-year junior high school students in Ishikawa Prefecture. The data were collected by the Society for Diet and Nutrition Educators and School Dieticians of Ishikawa Prefecture in June 2019. There were 1,496 and 1,007 valid respondents from elementary and junior high schools, respectively.

The analysis of fifth-grade elementary school students revealed that elementary school students who ate breakfast more habitually (p<0.05), helped with the preparation of meals (p<0.05), gave thanks before and after a meal (p<0.05), exercised outside of school classes (p<0.05), and had less interest in dieting (p<0.01) tended to not leave their school lunch unfinished. The analysis of the second-year junior high school students revealed that junior high school students who gave thanks before and after a meal more habitually (p<0.05), were less interested in dieting (p<0.05), and were male (p<0.01) tended to not leave their school lunch unfinished.

We performed dietary education to female students in dietitian course of a university to change the meal colorfully in order to improve the meal of young women. Their meals were recorded by questionnaires and phots taken with smartphone camera before and after the dietary education to measure the effect of education. Registered dietitians evaluated nutrition intake (serving:SV) seeing the photographs of the meal along the standard five dishes in Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top. After the dietary education, the intake of Fish and Meat dishes (p=0.005) , Vegetable dishes (p<0.001) , Milk (p=0.037) and Fruits (p<0.001) increased significantly. It was suggested that high score group (meal with 5 colors)took more Fish and Meat dishes (p=0.030) and Vegetable dishes (p<0.001) than low score group (meal with less than 5 colors) significantly. The knowledge and consciousness about essential vegetables (p=0.011) and the combinations of well-balanced meals per day (p=0.030) were also improved. Therefore, it was suggested that the meals of young women would be improved by increasing colors of ingredients (p<0.001) and making the meal colorfully (p<0.001) . It is necessary to verify the effectiveness of this type of dietary education in combination with more precise dietary survey.

The purpose of this study was to investigate behaviors and attitudes related to the removal and disposal of edible parts of fresh vegetables during home cooking. I conducted a questionnaire survey of consumers who were mainly responsible for cooking at home, in which I showed some edible parts of popular vegetables and asked whether they removed those parts and what they thought about them. The results suggest that 1) more than 50 percent of the total participants remove parts around potato skins, parts around carrot petioles, outer layers of cabbages, and carrot and daikon radish skins; 2) more participants in their 20s and 30s remove edible parts than those in their 40s and over; 3) most participants who remove edible parts consider convenience in preparation and remove them to eliminate unwanted parts completely; 4) participants who remove edible parts often regard them as tasteless and participants who remove the outer layers of cabbages and the parts around spinach stems often regard them as dirty, stale, or different in color or texture; and 5) there is almost no correlation between beliefs about food waste problems and tendency to remove edible parts.