• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.633-643
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• 2005

The purpose of study was to investigate nutritional supplements intake of elementary school students aged 7 to 12 years in Incheon The subjects were 631 mothers of schoolchildren and cross sectional study was conducted by a self-administered questionnaire. Nutritional supplements were taken by $42.3\%$ of the surveyed elementary school students. Among nutritional supplements they toot vitamin and mineral accounted for $47.3\%$, herbs and chinese medicine $39.3\%$ and dietary supplements $10.7\%.$ Among reasons for taking nutritional supplements, help for growth, health promotion, supply for deficient nutrients and prevention or treatment of disease were in order. As for the reasons for not taking nutritional supplements, most of the subjects answered that meals are enough in getting nutrients for children Mother of elementary school students usually Dew the health claim of the nutritional supplements before taking the Also they usually got the information of the nutritional supplements 1mm doctors or pharmacist and bought the nutritional supplements at drugstores, oriental medicine clinic and on-line shop in order. As for the effect of nutritional supplements, $43.7\%$ of the subjeces answered as 'effective' and $81.7\%$ of the mother of elementary school students who took nutritional supplements answered positively that they would continue to have their children take it Among the reasons they would continue to have their children take it help for growth ranked the first. therefore, these results my provide basic informations on nutritional supplements used by the elementary school students in Incheon.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.442-452
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• 2009

Smoking has been known to exacerbate the initiation and propagation of oxidative stresses. Efforts have been made to reduce the smoking-induced oxidative stresses using commercial dietary supplements. Propolis is the resinous substance collected by bees from the leaf buds and bark of trees, especially poplar and conifer trees. In this trial, we examined whether a daily supplementation of 800 mg propolis can protect endogenous lymphocytic DNA damage and modulate antioxidative enzyme activities and the level of antioxidant vitamin in smokers using a placebo-controlled, doubleblinded cross-over trial. After two weeks of running-in period, 29 smokers (mean age 34.38 ${\pm}$ 1.73) received 6 tablets/day of either propolis or placebo pills for 4 weeks. After 2 weeks of washout period the subjects switched they pills for cross-over study. The degree of DNA damage (assessed by tail DNA, tail length and tail moment) was not significantly changed with propolis intake or placebo intake. Similarly, total antioxidant status (TAS) remained at the same level regardless of the treatment. Erythrocyte catalase, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), plasma vitamin C and tocopherol level did not differ before and after propolis treatment, and did not differ between treatments. Putting all these results together, we would suggest that it is still too early to claim that propolis possess antioxidative activities.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2015

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: A variety of immunomodulators can improve the efficacy of low-dose chemotherapeutics. Active hexose correlated compound (AHCC), a mushroom mycelia extract, has been shown to be a strong immunomodulator. Whether AHCC could enhance the antitumor effect of low-dose 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) via regulation of host immunity is unknown. MATERIALS/METHODS: In the current study Hepatoma 22 (H22) tumor-bearing mice were treated with PBS, 5-FU ($10mg{\cdot}kg^{-1}{\cdot}d^{-1}$, i.p), or AHCC ($360mg{\cdot}kg^{-1}{\cdot}d^{-1}$, i.g) plus 5-FU, respectively, for 5 d. $CD^{3+}$, $CD^{4+}$, $CD^{8+}$, and NK in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry. ALT, AST, BUN, and Cr levels were measured by biochemical assay. IL-2 and $TNF{\alpha}$ in serum were measured using the RIA kit and apoptosis of tumor was detected by TUNEL staining. Bax, Bcl-2, and TS protein levels were measured by immunohistochemical staining and mRNA level was evaluated by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Diet consumption and body weight showed that AHCC had no apparent toxicity. AHCC could reverse liver injury and myelosuppression induced by 5-FU (P < 0.05). Compared to mice treated with 5-FU, mice treated with AHCC plus 5-FU had higher thymus index, percentages of $CD^{3+}$, $CD^{4+}$, and NK cells (P < 0.01), and ratio of $CD^{4+}$/$CD^{8+}$ (P < 0.01) in peripheral blood. Radioimmunoassay showed that mice treated with AHCC plus 5-FU had the highest serum levels of IL-2 and $TNF{\alpha}$ compared with the vehicle group and 5-FU group. More importantly, the combination of AHCC and 5-FU produced a more potent antitumor effect (P < 0.05) and caused more severe apoptosis in tumor tissue (P < 0.05) compared with the 5-FU group. In addition, the combination of AHCC and 5-FU further up-regulated the expression of Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax) (P < 0.01), while it down-regulated the expression of B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: These results support the claim that AHCC might be beneficial for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.835-848
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to find efficient and customized tools for delivering the benefit of health functional foods (HFFs). Delivery tools which could influence the impact of advertising were images, explanations of ingredients, diagrams of health benefit, patents, and comments from authority. Six advertisements were developed using these tools: "A": relevant image + explanation of ingredients + scientific diagram of efficacy; "B": relevant image + explanation of ingredients; "C": relevant image; "D": irrelevant image; "E": irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + patent; "F": irrelevant image + explanation of ingredient + comments from authority. To analyze the consumer perceptions on HFFs and advertisement effects, 300 respondents were requested to answer a questionnaire comprising of the following questions: 5 questions of attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information, watching advertisements and trust in advertisement claims) and 6 questions on the 6 developed advertisements (attention, understanding, sufficiency of information, sympathy, trust, and purchase). Scoring was done as per the 5 Likert scale. There was a higher proportion of females and the elderly, as compared to males and youngsters. The overall consumer attitudes were positive. Explanation of ingredients, scientific diagram of health benefit, patents and expert comments were helpful factors in increasing the advertisement evaluation by consumer, but the images were not. Advertisement evaluation of consumer did not differ with gender and age. However, differences were observed between some of the consumer attitudes (necessity of HFFs, trust in HFFs, gathering information and trust in advertisements claim) and advertisement evaluations (attention, understanding, sympathy and purchase). Our results indicate that for consumers utilizing the HFFs, advertisements with concrete tools such as diagrams, patent, and expert comments are more helpful. However, for consumers who do not have interest in HFFs, the scientific information was irrelevant. We believe that to maximize the effect of health information in advertisements, consumers should be segmented, and customized tools for each segment needs to be developed.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.9-22
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• 2008

This work has been conducted as a part to set up the regulations and the scientific evaluation systems for the functional dairy products with health claims in Korea. Toward this end, current regulations, requirements, and all kinds of provisions related to the functional dairy products overseas were taken into accounts and feasible recommendations of new initiatives on the current regulations as well. By doing so, not only protecting hopefully the innocent consumers from the false labeling statements and fake advertisements, but also eventually to revitalize the stagnated domestic dairy industries. Currently, functional daily products are simply regarded as "Dietary Supplements" in the United States, and subjected to the regulations under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, established m 1994. Manufacturers and sales distributors should notify their products to the FDA, which is in charge of the dietary supplements on nutrition and labeling, in advance when they start marketing a new dietary ingredient or any foods containing it in the States. For EU countries, there exists keen interests about the functional food products between the member countries of the European Union even though the products are categorized into "Food Supplements" similar to those in the United States. Therefore, they maintain a cautious attitude in applying the health claims to the functional food products. On the other hand, under the Japanese health food system, functional foods are qualified to the functional health foods in terms of legal status as long as any traditional foods can meet the legal standards in its effectiveness, safety as well as quality, along with significant scientific evidences related to the products, thus categorized into "Foods for Specified Health Uses and "Foods with Nutrient Function Claims". Through this study, we may have some expectations and potential utilizations as follows: Legal regulations of dietary supplements especially for the dairy products will be implemented by the outcomes of this research and proposed a tentative amendment of functional ingredients for the sake of consumer protection from the false advertisements and overstatement labeling. Current regulations on the animal foods processing and advertisements will be amended and supplemented in order to revitalize the current downturn dairy sales and to harmonize the international Codex recommendations. The results obtained from this study will make the consumers a wise selection of the dairy products with health claims and be utilized for consumer education and advertisement of the functional products as well.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.781-786
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• 2013

Nutrients fortified dairy products declare their contents on the label for nutrition claim and marketing. However, there are few monitoring studies about relations between actual quantities of fortified nutrients and the described ones on the label. This study was carried out for comparing actual fortified nutrient contents with labeled ones. Forty calcium fortified dairy products and twenty four fructooligosaccharides (FOS) fortified dairy products were sampled at supermarkets located in Anyang, Korea from March to November in 2010. Calcium contents were analyzed by using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry followed by microwave sample digestion, and FOS contents were analyzed by HPLC-ELSD followed by solvent extraction. In fresh milk, calcium contents ranged from 1.0 to 2.4 mg/mL, and those values were 87~127% of their labeled contents. In fermented milk products and cheeses, calcium contents ranged from 0.3 to 1.6 mg/g (89~131% of their labeled contents), 4.2 to 23.0 mg/g (83~127% of their labeled contents), respectively. FOS contents ranged from 9.09 to 18.89 mg/g in FOS contents labeled products and showed 83~154% compared to their labeled quantity, and ranged from 1.3~30.8 mg/g in products without quantity labeling. In conclusion, the amounts of calcium and FOS in dairy products were above 80% compared to their labeled ones and conformed to the Korean official livestock products labeling standard.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.203-216
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• 2016

Probiotic microorganisms are thought to provide health benefits when consumed. In 2001, the World Health Organization defined probiotics as "live microorganisms which confer a health benefit on the host, when administered in adequate amounts." Three methods for screening potential probiotics have currently widely available. (1) In vitro assays of potential probiotics are preferred because of their simplicity and low cost. (2) The use of in vivo approaches for exploring various potential probiotics reflects the enormous diversity in biological models with various complex mechanisms. (3) Potential probiotics have been analyzed using several genetic and omics technologies to identify gene expression or protein production patterns under various conditions. However, there is no ideal procedure for selecting potential probiotics than testing cadidate strains on the target population. Hence, in this review, we provide an overview of the different methodologies used to identify new probiotic strains. Furthermore, we describe futre perspectives for the use of in vitro, in vivo and omics in probiotic research.