In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey regarding dietary life after conducting dietary education (90 males, 139 females, 18.6±0.9 years old) to present the direction of dietary education in order to help university students enrich their values of dietary life, leading to its improvement. Comparison of the scores from the 1^st and 2^nd surveys concerning consciousness and behavior regarding dietary life and taste sense showed significantly higher scores for the following items in the 2^nd survey : behavior regarding cooking a meal, consciousness and behavior regarding limiting eating out and increasing home-cooked meals, manners and food environment, and appreciating a mild taste. From the results concerning the satisfaction level of dietary life, it was inferred that the students felt no dissatisfaction concerning their dietary lives. The above results suggested that university students can enrich their values of dietary life, leading to its improvement, by participating in classes about diet and health. Additionally, it is important to let those not interested in dietary life determine its current situation and increase their motivation for its improvement. Furthermore, education focused on cooking and hands-on experience for the purpose of improving cooking techniques to cultivate independence in dietary life and to find the value in limiting eating out, increasing home-cooked meals, and appreciating a healthy mild taste appears to be necessary.

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In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey regarding dietary life (90 males, 139 females, 18.6±0.9 years old) to verify motivations and processes that affect dietary behavior in university students. The results showed that females scored significantly higher than males for “subjective norm-teaching staff”. Regarding “dietary life skills-food ingestion”, students who lived with their family scored significantly higher than those who lived in dormitories or alone. Path analysis regarding factors that affect dietary behavior showed that there was a significant direct effect of “subjective norm-teaching staff" on “consciousness of food balance” and of “subjective norm-family” on “dietary life skill-use of labels” in males. In females, there was a significant direct effect of “subjective norm-teaching staff” on “dietary life skill-food ingestion” and of “subjective norm-family” on “consciousness of food balance” and “dietary life skill-use of labels”. The above results suggest that there was a significant indirect effect on “behavior regarding food balance”, “behavior to limit eating out, and behavior to increase home-cooked meals” in both males and females. Therefore, dietary education at universities and continuous approach by students’ family members appear to be important in transformation of the dietary behavior of university students.

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Although many studies have evaluated the effects of dietary education for children, few have examined the effects of paired dietary education for parents and children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of paired dietary education on vegetable and fruit intake, and energy intake from confectionery for a one-month dietary education program in a kindergarten in Japan. The paired t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient were used for statistical analyses. The study population consisted of 280 parent-children pairs, with a total of 54 pairs participating in the program. Of the 54 pairs, 33 completed the education program. Parents were mothers who were responsible for preparing meals for their children. The mean age of parents was 38.8±3.9 years and BMI was 20.9±2.8kg/m² prior to the program. Vegetable intakes among parents significantly increased from 204±79g/day to 230±91g/day (p＝0.026), and energy intake from confectionery decreased from 251±161kcal/day to 192±182kcal/day (p＝0.004) after the education. In contrast, vegetable intakes among the children were unchanged, but energy intake from confectionery decreased from 270±156kcal/day to 229±200kcal/day (p＝0.014). Changes in dietary intake among parents were positively correlated with changes in dietary intake among children (vegetables, r＝0.487, p＝0.004 ; fruits, r＝0.487, p＝0.004 ; confectioneries, r＝0.519, p＝0.002). These results suggest that paired dietary education for parents and children may be a preferred approach for achieving desirable dietary habits.

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The aim of this research is to analyze the subject in children’s food education promotion from the educator’s viewpoint. The questionnaire survey was carried out for the nursery teacher, elementary school, junior high school, and high school. From the questionnaire for the nursery teacher, ten years later eating habits of children under school age were predicted. The result is that eating habits would turn to the increase in the meal opportunity in one person, the increase in dining out, and the shortage of an understanding to food and agriculture. From the questionnaire for the nursery teacher, elementary school, junior high school, and high school, we analyzed the effect expected from food education and the important factors for food education promotion by factor analysis. First, the latent factors of the effect expected from food education were “the increase of understanding and interest to agriculture,” “the rise of knowledge to eating habits,” “the improvement of eating habits,” “the reduction of illness,” and “the reduction of food losses.” Second, the potentially important factors for food education promotion were “the importance of food education in educational institution,” “the importance of communication of information from the outside,” “the importance of consumer food education,” “the importance of the budget increase for school lunch,” and “the importance of pressure-free life.”

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