This research investigates the conditions for healthy elderly persons acting as agents for community shokuiku system. These programs are based on the hypothesis that the activities of healthy elderly Health-mates will enhance their sociability, give their lives added purpose, and thus make a valuable contribution toward preventative care for the elderly persons as a whole. The status quo of and challenges to current Health-mates activities were investigated, Our findings show that the activities of Health-mates have proven to be effective in enhancing preventative care and highly socially. On the other hand, as the number of years of membership and the frequency of activities increases, so do the burden and stress on individual members, leading to a lower quality of life and eventual withdrawal from the program.　Therefore, from the perspective of preventative care, constructive improvements in their working conditions and establishment of their positions as agents for community shokuiku system have been shown to be necessary so that they can continue their activities. To realize this goal it is essential to review the content of activities, including charging for or corporatizing the services provided, while at the same time seeking the understanding of and rebuilding cooperation with the local governments concerned.

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University students taught dietary education using several different programs to 111 second graders in four classes of three elementary schools. The common theme of the four programs was “Let’s eat our school lunches without leftovers.”
The children acquired the point of each program through its devised guidance material. The responses of the children in worksheets used in each program clarified their motivation to eat their school lunches without leftovers. In addition, all children who disliked some foods decided to make the effort to eat them. After the learning sessions, a positive trend was observed in how the children ate their lunches.
This attempt suggested the favorable effect of dietary education taught by university students.

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Eating habits in early childhood constitute the foundation of lifelong human health and are greatly influenced by the attitudes and lifestyle of the mother who lives with the child. Hence, providing mothers with accurate information about food will result in improved diet and dietary environment for their children.
We therefore conducted a food education class for 24 mothers of preschool children living in Sapporo. The program-based approach offered a 60-minute food education class once a month over a 6-month period. A survey questionnaire was used to assess changes in the participants’ dietary attitudes (12 items) and dietary behaviors (15 items), and pre-and post-test scores were compared using a paired t-test. The same survey questionnaire was administered to 38 mothers in a control group, who did not participate in the food education class in order to contrast their changes to those in the intervention group.
Mothers who participated in the food education classes reported increased interest in the following 4 items : “Food safety,” “Nutritional balance,” “Nutrients in foods,” and “Local food production for local consumption.” In the control group, the interest in “Lack of exercise” decreased. In terms of dietary behaviors, the intervention group reported improvements in the following 3 items : “I eat slowly and chew my food well during a meal,” “I pay attention to nutritional balance in my diet,” and “I practice good table manners.” No changes were observed in the control group.
As a result of this food education program, the participating mothers increased their interest in the topics covered by the program from the viewpoint of healthy child development, and improved their dietary behaviors. No changes were observed among mothers in the control group. Therefore, our study suggests that even providing a relatively short food education intervention (60 minutes) for mothers, if implemented continuously, can be effective.

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Using the cognitive test we recently developed, the familiarity with vegetables was examined among children in three different kindergartens. It was found that kindergarteners recognize names of whole shape vegetables easier than those of cut vegetables. The average score of the recognition in 5-year-old children was significantly higher than that in 4-year-old. Among the three kindergartens, the average recognition score of one kindergarten was significantly higher than those of the others. We made a survey on the food and nutrition education for the teachers in the three kindergartens. It was found that the teachers in the kindergarten with the highest score more often talked about food, which may lead the children to get interested in health and foods. Furthermore, teachers help children grow vegetables in the kindergarten and cook them in a class. The results suggested that the teacher’s attitude toward food and nutrition education accounts for the difference in children’s ability to recognize food names.

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In this study, we verified the hypothesis that children can acquire more cooking skills through the experiences in “cooking classes” provided by local governments or private companies. Therefore, cooking classes were held among 29 elementary school students (5th or 6th graders) at “FLAMME” facility of Ueno Toshi Gas Co. Ltd. Cooking classes were held three times a month from May to July 2009. The children’s cooking skills were surveyed first before the cooking classes and again six months later. The same surveys on cooking skills were carried out among 5th graders who did not take the cooking classes to compare the difference in cooking skills. By participating in the cooking classes, skills were significantly acquired in “boiling water in a pot”, “preparing Japanese broth”, “grilling”, “boiling, simmering and frying vegetables”, “mixing”, “mashing” and “seasoning”. On the other hand, children who did not participate in the cooking classes had significantly acquired only two cooking skills six months later. The cooking skills of elementary school students who did and did not participate in the cooking classes were the same before taking the cooking classes, but children who did participate acquired six cooking skills significantly higher compared with children who did not participate. Therefore, although cooking skills improved slightly even without taking cooking classes, significant improvements were seen among children who experienced the cooking classes. It was found that cooking classes were effective in food education. Furthermore, a correlation could be seen (R=0.56) between “the number of times for cooking at home” and “improvements in cooking skills”. It was proven that practicing at home to cook the various dishes learned in cooking classes led to the increased confidence in cooking.

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This study investigated whether bento lunch boxes could be used as a means to provide food education to kindergarteners’ parents. At a private kindergarten in Tokyo where the students bring their own bento to school, we photographed their bento and analyzed the contents according to the different food groups in the food guide pyramid. We also surveyed mothers about the bento they prepare. We found inconsistencies between the survey results and the bento contents. Even though many of the mothers were interested and took care in bento preparation, they found it difficult to know what ingredients to use and how much food to prepare, and often relied on visual cues to determine the amount of different food items to use. Based on these findings, we created and distributed a leaflet presenting visual images of bento contents in the correct proportions for lunch as set out in the Japanese food guide spinning top. By using this leaflet, or a poster version of it, as educational material, it would be easy for mothers to decide approximately “how much” and “what” to prepare for their children’s lunch. Our study suggests that, with the use of a similar method, food education can be provided in the absence of a school nutritionist. Considering that it often facilitates communication, bento can be put to practical use as a teaching material to educate children and their parents about food.

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We examined the present situation and issues concerning the use of combined seasonings, such as curry roux, stew roux, and instant Mapo Tofu mix, as well as seasoning mixes that supply a complete set of seasonings for specific dishes, such as instant pasta sauce and instant mixed rice seasoning.
While we observed that such seasoning mixes for specific dishes are in use in most households, our survey results suggested the necessity of promoting an awareness that dishes are comprised of various seasonings and provide training that enables people to identify the taste of each seasoning and, even in the cases of using seasoning mixes for specific dishes, establish habits of tasting and adjusting seasonings in accordance with the palate and establish a unique taste in each home.

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In this study, we investigated the effects of dietary education through a “Dietary Education Newsletter” published by a kindergarten for parents to prevent lifestyle diseases in children. Through this newsletter, we promoted home-cooked snacks and the use of nutritional information on food labels. Questionnaires about snacking habits at home were used to collect information before and after distributing the newsletter, and we obtained the following results : 1. The number of mothers who chose the food items for snacking increased after the distribution of the newsletter (p<0.01), and they paid more attention to the choice of snacks.
2. Mothers learned the appropriate amount of snacking through the newsletter (p<0.05). Most mothers expressed the desire to cook snacks with their kindergarten children (p<0.01), and the number of mothers who actually cooked snacks with their children increased (p<0.01).
3. Approximately 85% of the participants found the newsletter useful. Although only about 35% reported some degree of improvement, approximately 80% of the mothers wanted to receive the newsletter as an information source.

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