• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.19-34
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• 2015

Current study aimed to evaluate elementary school children's perception and eating attitude towards vegetables and analyze environmental factors influencing it. Survey was conducted among elementary school students and their parents in Gangwon district, 410 subjects each(Total 742, 391 students, 351 parents). The results are as follows. Both the children(64.3%) and the parents(84.9%) showed high concern over health. 46.6% of children and 52.4% of parents admitted unbalanced eating behavior, and commonly avoided foods were mostly vegetables such as mushroom, carrot, garlic, sweet pepper-green, welsh onion, kimchi, pumpkin, or beans. Unbalanced eating habit was significantly related to health consideration in choosing what to eat(p<0.01) and interest in health(p<0.05). 70.9% of children with unbalanced eating habit showed intention for correction, and those with high interest in health had stronger intention (p<0.01). Regarding children's perception of 20 kinds of vegetables frequently used in school lunch, swiss chard leaf beet, amaranthus magistratus, and curled mallow were rarely heard of or hardly eaten before. Korean chinese cabbage, radish(62.7%), cucumber(62.1%), perilla leaves(60.4%), lettuce(58.1%), and spinach(54.5%) were among the most frequently eaten. Survey result on children's preference for the vegetables shows lettuce, cucumber, Korean chinese cabbage, perilla leaves, spinach, and radish were highly preferred and stem of garlic, crown daisy, sweet pepper-green, pepper, and curled mallow were the least preferred. There was a significant positive correlation(p<0.01, p<0.001) between children's and their parent's preference for each vegetables, implying that children's preference towards vegetables is greatly influenced by their parent's choice. Children showed negative attitude towards vegetables with strong flavor and tended to avoid vegetables that they remember as not tasty. This suggest that strong flavor and negative prior experience is what determines children's attitude in vegetable consumption. Many children said they try to eat vegetables even if they haven't had it before, and this tendency was significantly correlated with the degree of interest in health(p<0.05) and the degree of consideration of health in choosing what to eat(p<0.001).

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.439-447
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• 2008

There is a limitation to estimate vitamin $B_{12}$ intake due to lack of data on vitamin $B_{12}$ content in many Korean foods. In this study, vitamin $B_{12}$ content was determined in some soybean or vegetable-fermented foods, edible seaweeds and other frequently consumed foods in Korea by microbioassay using Lactobacillus delbruecki ATCC 7830. The traditional type of Doenjang and Chungkookjang contained 1.85 ${\mu}g/100$ g and 0.69 ${\mu}g/100$ g of vitamin $B_{12}$, respectively, while the factory-type of Doenjang and Chungkookjang contained 0.04-0.86 ${\mu}g/100$ g and 0.06-0.15 ${\mu}g/100$ g. Vitamin $B_{12}$ was not detected in steamed soybeans and Tofu which is a not-fermented soybean product, indicating that vitamin $B_{12}$ in Doenjang and Chungkookjang might be produced during the fermentation process. The Korean-style soy sauce contained 0.04 ${\mu}g$ vitamin $B_{12}$/100 mL, but vitamin $B_{12}$ was not detected in Japanese-style soy sauce and white miso. Commercial Kimchi, a representative Korean vegetable- fermented food, made of Korean cabbage, Yeolmu, or Mustard leaves contained 0.013-0.03 ${\mu}g$ vitamin $B_{12}$/100 g, while Kimchi without red pepper and fermented fish sauce (White Kimchi) did not. Vitamin $B_{12}$ content was very high in some edible seaweeds such as laver (66.76 ${\mu}g/100$ g dry weight) and sea lettuce (84.74 ${\mu}g/100$ g dry weight), and it was 17.12 ${\mu}g/100$ g of dried small anchovy, 1.07 ${\mu}g/100$ g of whole egg, and 0.02 ${\mu}g/100$ g of coffee mix. From these results, it is assumed that Koreans take substantial amount of vitamin $B_{12}$ from plant-origin foods. And, with these data, we will be able to calculate dietary vitamin $B_{12}$ content more correctly than before. In conclusion, soybean-fermented foods, Kimchi, laver and sea lettuce are recommendable as good sources of vitamin $B_{12}$ for vegetarians or Korean elderly on grain and vegetable based diet.