• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.517-529
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• 2012

The purpose of the study was to implement and evaluate a nutrition education program for preschool children. Applying the PRECEDE-PROCEED model, the nutrition education program was developed and focused on changing beliefs, increasing nutrition knowledge and consumption of vegetables & fruits (V/F) and dairy foods. Subjects were children attending a childcare center in Seoulwho were grouped into education (n = 33) and control group (n = 32). Education group received four sessions of nutrition education during 2011 fall. Both groups completed the questionnaire at pretest and posttest, measuring nutrition knowledge, beliefs, and preferences of V/F and eating behaviors. Compared to control group, education group made significant gains in total score of nutrition knowledge after the education (p < 0.05). In addition, the pretest-posttest changes in total score of beliefs regarding V/F consumption and eating behaviors were higher in the education group than in the control group (p < 0.05). Two groups were significantly different in the pretest-posttest changes in specific beliefs regarding the benefits of V/F consumption and some eating behavior. However, there were no changes in the preferences of vegetables or fruits between the two groups after the education. The consumption of V/F and dairy foods was not significantly different after the education. This study revealed that nutrition education for preschoolers was effective in improving nutrition knowledge and perceived benefits regarding V/F consumption and specific eating behavior. This study suggested that more intensive education is needed to induce changes in eating behaviors. This program can be used in nutrition education of children at the childcare centers or kindergartens.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.489-504
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• 2022

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study examined socio-economic differences in diverse food consumption among children 6-23 months of age in South Asia and Southeast Asian countries. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Data from Demographic and Health Surveys in four countries in South Asia (n = 15,749) and four countries in Southeast Asia (n = 10,789) were used. Survey-design adjusted proportions were estimated for the following 10 food items: grains, legumes, dark green leafy vegetables (DGLV), vitamin A-rich fruits, vitamin A-rich vegetables, other fruits and vegetables (OFV), fish, meat, dairy, and eggs. An equity gap was defined as an arithmetic difference in the proportion of each food item consumed in the past 24-hours between the wealthiest and lowest quintiles and between rural and urban areas, denoted by percentage points (pp). RESULTS: The consumption of most of the 10 food items was higher in the wealthiest quintiles and urban areas across eight countries. The size of equity gaps was greater in Southeast Asia than in South Asia, particularly for vitamin A-rich fruits (3.3-30.0 pp vs. 0.3-19.6 pp), vitamin A-rich vegetables (12.1-26.7 pp vs. 2.4-5.9 pp), meat (17.7-33.4 pp vs. 3.4-13.4 pp), and dairy (14.7-32.5 pp vs. 3.3-11.4 pp). However, the size of equity gap in egg consumption was greater in Southeast Asia than South Asia (11.2-19.8 pp vs. 11.0-26.7 pp). Relatively narrower gaps were seen in the consumption of grains (0.3-12.9 pp), DGLV (0.6-12.4 pp), and fish (0.1-16.8 pp) across all countries. CONCLUSIONS: Equity gaps in food consumption differed by socio-economic status and region. Reducing equity gaps in nutrient-rich foods and utilizing regionally available food resources may increase child dietary quality.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.530-536
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• 2016

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The concept of "food deserts" has been widely used in Western countries as a framework to identify areas with constrained access to fresh and nutritious foods, providing guidelines for targeted nutrition and public health programs. Unlike the vast amount of literature on food deserts in a Western context, only a few studies have addressed the concept in an East Asian context, and none of them have investigated spatial patterns of unhealthy food consumption from a South Korean perspective. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We first evaluated the applicability of food deserts in a Korean setting and identified four Korean-specific unhealthy food consumption indicators, including insufficient food consumption due to financial difficulty, limited consumption of fruits and vegetables, excessive consumption of junk food, and excessive consumption of instant noodles. The KNHANES 2008-2012 data in Seoul were analyzed with stratified sampling weights to understand the trends and basic characteristics of these eating patterns in each category. GIS analyses were then conducted for the data spatially aggregated at the sub-district level in order to create maps identifying areas of concern regarding each of these indicators and their combinations. RESULTS: Despite significant reduction in the rate of food insufficiency due to financial difficulty, the rates of excessive consumption of unhealthy foods (junk food and instant noodles) as well as limited consumption of fruits and vegetables have increased or remained high. These patterns tend to be found among relatively younger and more educated groups, regardless of income status. CONCLUSIONS: A GIS-based analysis demonstrated several hotspots as potential "food deserts" tailored to the Korean context based on the observed spatial patterns of undesirable food consumption. These findings could be used as a guide to prioritize areas for targeted intervention programs to facilitate healthy food consumption behaviors and thus improve nutrition and food-related health outcomes.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 1997

Effect of storage on the tree and quality of early cultivar of Citrus unshiu Marc. produced in Cheju according to harvest time were investigated. Soluble solids, acid content, flesh ratio, firmness and specific cavity of the fruits harvested at 27th of November were 12.0, 1.03%, 79.98%, 0.774kg-force, 0.912, respectively. Soluble solids, total sugar and reducing sugar were increased gradually, but acid content was decreased slightly as delayed in harvest time. Otherwise specific gravity and firmness were not shown in great during harvest time, color index(a/b) was increased sharply till late November and then remained in stationary phase. On these result, we recommend that the harvest time of early cultivar of Citrus unshiu Marc. would be during December because of wilting partly. Fully ripened-fruits harvested late, compared to ordinary harvest time, with cold storage would be kept more quality and freshness of fruits for fresh consumption than the fruits harvested early and stored at room temperature.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1386-1394
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• 2022

As consumption of high-quality fruits increases and sales and packaging units become smaller, the demand for automatic fruit grading systems is increasing. Compared to other crops, the quality of fruit is determined by visual characteristics such as shape, color, and scratches, rather than just physical size and weight. Accordingly, this study presents a CNN model that can effectively extract and classify the visual features of fruits and a perceptron that classifies fruits using physical features, and proposes a stacking ensemble model that can effectively combine the classification results of these two neural networks. The experiments with AI Hub public data show that the stacking ensemble model is effective for grading fruits. However, the ensemble model does not always improve the performance of classifying all the fruit grading. So, it is necessary to adapt the model according to the kind of fruit.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to analyze the influence of socio-demographic factors on food consumption frequencies among adolescents in Korea. Data were obtained from the Seventh Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2011 KYRBS), a nationwide representative sample of 75,643 (37,873 males and 37,770 females) middle and high school students. It was carried out as a self-administered on-line survey. The frequency of eating breakfast was 4.8 times per week for middle school students and 4.6 times per week for high school students (p < 0.001). Higher levels of perceived household economic status, family affluence scale (FAS) and education attainment of mother were associated with more frequent breakfast eating. The frequencies of consumption of vegetables and milk were higher in males than in females (p < 0.001). The frequency of consumption fruits was higher in females than in males (p < 0.01). Higher levels of perceived household economic status, FAS and education attainment of mother were associated with more frequent consumption of vegetable, fruits and milk. The frequencies of consumption of soda, fast food and instant noodls were higher in males than in females (p < 0.001). The frequency of consumption of snacks was higher in females than in males. Adolescents with lower levels of FAS and education attainment of mother were at risk for skipping breakfast and consuming of soda, fast food and instant noodls more frequently. Whereas, adolescents with higher levels of FAS, education attainment of mother were more likely to be frequent consumers of vegetable, fruits and milk. These findings demonstrated that being high school students and belonging to lower level of socio-economic status (SES) were associated with undesirable food habits.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.146-157
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• 2009

Korean diet is high in plant foods but also high in salted vegetables. World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) recommends consumption of fruits and vegetables excluding salted vegetables for prevention cancer. This study aimed to analyze relations between intakes of salted and non-salted vegetables and socioeconomic factors, providing a data for targeted groups in promotion of fruits and vegetables consumption. Dietary and socioeconomic status data of the 5,400 subjects over 30 years of age from the 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANESIII) were used. Dietary intake data from KNHANESIII was obtained by one day 24-hour recall method. Mean daily intakes of salted vegetables, non-salted vegetables and fruits of subjects were 151 g, 237 g, and 71 g respectively. Mean daily intake of salted vegetables was significantly higher in men than women for daily amount (173 g vs. 133 g) as well as percentage of total food intake (9.9% vs. 9.6%). Subjects living in rural area consumed more salted vegetables. Salted vegetables as percent of total food were lower in subjects with higher education levels (p < 0.001). Intakes of non-salted vegetables were significantly affected by age and gender. Intake levels of fruit were significantly higher in younger groups, in females, and subjects with higher income and education levels (p < 0.05). Average intake of fruits and non-salted vegetables was 307 g, lower than WCRF recommended level of 400 g for personal guideline. Intake of salted vegetables was positively correlated with sodium intake (Pearson's correlation coefficient, r = 0.43) but less so with potassium (r = 0.16) and other micronutrients intake (r < 0.1). On the other hand, non-salted vegetables had higher correlations with potassium (r = 0.45), carotene (r = 0.38), vitamin A (r = 0.37), iron (r = 0.34) and low for sodium (r = 0.13). Fruits intake was highly correlated with vitamin C intake (r = 0.46). Proportion of subjects satisfying WCRF personal guideline of fruits and non-salted vegetables was 25.7%. Results of this study indicate that intake of salted vegetable is considerably high among Koreans, and it is highly correlated with sodium intake and less so with other micronutrients.

• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2001.10b
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• pp.120-120
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• 2001

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.130-138
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• 2017

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Low consumption of fruit and vegetable is frequently viewed as an important contributor to obesity risk. With increasing childhood obesity and relatively low fruit and vegetable consumption among Thai children, there is a need to identify the determinants of the intake to promote fruit and vegetable consumption effectively. SUBJECTS/METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted at two conveniently selected primary schools in Nakhon Pathom. A total of 609 students (grade 4-6) completed questionnaires on personal and environmental factors. Adequate fruit and vegetable intakes were defined as a minimum of three servings of fruit or vegetable daily, and adequate total intake as at least 6 serves of fruit and vegetable daily. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: The proportion of children with a sufficient fruit and/or vegetable intakes was low. Covariates of child's personal and environmental factors showed significant associations with sufficient intakes of fruit and/or vegetable (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analyses showed that the following factors were positively related to sufficient intake of vegetable; lower grade, a positive attitude toward vegetable, and fruit availability at home; and that greater maternal education, a positive child's attitude toward vegetable, and fruit availability at home were significantly associated with sufficient consumption of fruits and total fruit and vegetable intake. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that personal factors like attitude toward vegetables and socio-environmental factors, such as, greater availability of fruits were significantly associated with sufficient fruit and vegetable consumption. The importance of environmental and personal factors to successful nutrition highlights the importance of involving parents and schools.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.293-301
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effect of eating habits and dietary attitudes on dessert consumption among university students in Gwangju Province, South Korea. Methods: A survey was conducted from May to June 2022. Out of 300 distributed questionnaires, 261 valid responses were included in the analysis. The survey assessed dessert selection, satisfaction, consumer attitudes and behaviors, as well as factors influencing satisfaction. Results: Both genders reported purchasing desserts 2 to 3 times per week, primarily after lunch, due to the convenience of dessert accessibility. Males favored ice cream, bakery items, and fruits, while females preferred bakery items, ice cream, and fruits in that sequence. 'Having fun' was identified as the most common motivation for dessert consumption post-meal. Notable gender disparities emerged regarding perceptions of dessert consumption, including its role in stress relief, potential for nutritional imbalance, positive effects, and preferences for seasonal menus. Significant gender-based differences also manifested in intentions to purchase dessert, responsiveness to price changes, and inclination to recommend desserts to others. Conclusions: This study offers foundational data on university students' dessert purchasing behaviors, perceptions, and satisfaction levels, intending to inform strategies promoting healthier dietary habits.