• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.48-61
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• 2023

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Magnesium is an essential nutrient for human health. However, inadequate intake is commonly reported worldwide. Along with reduced consumption of vegetables and fruits and increased consumption of refined or processed foods, inadequate magnesium intake is increasingly reported as a serious problem. This study aimed to assess magnesium intake, its dietary sources, and the adequacy of magnesium intake in Korean populations. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Data was obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016-2019 and included individuals aged ≥1 yr who had participated in a nutrition survey (n=28,418). Dietary intake was assessed by 24-h recall, and dietary magnesium intake was estimated using a newly established magnesium database. Diet adequacy was evaluated by comparing dietary intake with the estimated average requirement (EAR) suggested in the Korean Dietary Reference Intakes 2020. RESULTS: The mean dietary magnesium intake of Koreans aged ≥1 yr was 300.4 mg/d, which was equivalent to 119.8% of the EAR. The prevalence of individuals whose magnesium intake met the EAR was 56.8%. Inadequate intake was observed more in females, adolescents and young adults aged 12-29 yrs, elders aged ≥65 yrs, and individuals with low income. About four-fifths of the daily magnesium came from plant-based foods, and the major food groups contributing to magnesium intake were grains (28.3%), vegetables (17.6%), and meats (8.4%). The top 5 individual foods that contributed to magnesium intake were rice, Baechu (Korean cabbage) kimchi, tofu, pork, and milk. However, the contribution of plant foods and individual contributing food items differed slightly by sex and age groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that the mean dietary magnesium intake among Koreans was above the recommended intake, whereas nearly one in 2 Koreans had inadequate magnesium intake. To better understand the status of magnesium intake, further research is required, which includes the intake of dietary supplements.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.84-89
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• 2023

Background: Food consumption is one of the most important routes for radionuclide intake for the public; therefore, there is the need to have a comprehensive understanding of the amount of radioactivity in food products. Consumption of radionuclide-contaminated food could increase potential health risks associated with exposure to radiation such as cancers. The present study aims to determine radioactivity levels in some food products (milk, rice, sugar, and wheat flour) consumed in Mali and to evaluate the radiological effect on the public health from these radionuclides. Materials and Methods: The health impact due to ingestion of radionuclides from these foods was evaluated by the determination of activity concentration of radionuclides ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K, and ¹³⁷Cs using gamma spectrometry system with high-purity germanium detector and radiological hazards index in 16 samples collected in some markets, mall, and shops of Bamako-Mali. Results and Discussion: The average activity concentrations were 9.8±0.6 Bq/kg for ²³⁸U, 8.7±0.5 Bq/kg for ²³²Th, 162.9±7.9 Bq/kg for ⁴⁰K, and 0.0035±0.0005 Bq/kg for ¹³⁷Cs. The mean values of radiological hazard parameters such as annual committed effective dose, internal hazard index, and risk assessment from this work were within the dose criteria limits given by international organizations (International Commission on Radiological Protection and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) and national standards. Conclusion: The results show low public exposure to radioactivity and associated radiological impact on public health. Nevertheless, this study stipulates vital data for future research and regulatory authorities in Mali.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-64
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• 2024

Objectives: This study examined the association between ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and chronic diseases in elderly Koreans. Methods: Data from the 2019-2021 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analyzed. Dietary intake and UPF consumption were assessed using the NOVA food classification based on 24-hour recall data from 3,790 participants (aged 65+ years). Participants were divided into 4 groups based on the quartile of energy intake from UPFs. Regions were classified as urban or rural. Multivariable logistic regression was employed to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after controlling for potential confounders. Results: Among the participants, 71.3% resided in urban and 28.7% in rural areas. Compared to the urban elderly, rural participants tended to be older, have lower education and income levels, be more likely to live in single-person households, and have a higher smoking rate (P < 0.05). Urban elderly consumed more UPFs daily (146.1 g) compared to rural residents (126.6 g; P < 0.05). "Sugar-sweetened beverages" were the most consumed category in both regions. "Sweetened milk and its products" and "traditional sauces" were prominent in urban areas, while rural elderly consumed more "traditional sauces" and "distilled alcoholic beverages." Rural areas also had a higher carbohydrate-to-calorie ratio than urban areas. Compared to the lowest quartile of UPF intake, the highest quartile was significantly associated with impaired fasting glucose only in rural areas (AOR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.00-2.19; P for trend = 0.0014). No significant associations were observed for diabetes in either urban or rural areas. Conclusions: This study suggests that high intake of UPFs is associated with increased odds of impaired fasting glucose in rural elderly. Further research is needed to elucidate the specific negative health effects of UPFs in different populations, and targeted efforts should promote healthy diets in both urban and rural areas.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.228-235
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• 2015

Purpose: Along with the adaptation of a Western dietary pattern and low physical activity, pediatric obesity is increasing in Korea, especially for boys. The aim of this study was to identify dietary behavior patterns and examine the snack consumption, dietary habit, and pediatric obesity by pattern groups. Methods: Boys aged 15~19 years were recruited from one high school in Seoul. A questionnaire including dietary behaviors and lifestyle factors was administered and height and weight were measured. A total of 932 boys participated except boys who had missing or incomplete response (n = 30). Three dietary behavior patterns were identified by cluster analysis; 'Healthy pattern', 'Mixed pattern' and 'Unhealthy pattern'. Results: Snack consumption differed according to dietary behavior patterns group. The healthy and mixed patterns showed higher frequencies of white milk and fruit consumption while the unhealthy pattern as well as the mixed patterns showed higher frequencies of sweetened snack and ice cream consumption. Food availability at home of each food differed according to pattern groups but showed a similar trend with food consumption. Regarding dietary habits, the mixed pattern showed higher proportion of taking dietary supplement and eating dessert while the unhealthy pattern showed lower proportion of eating regular meals and appropriate amount of meals. When the healthy pattern was set as a reference group, the odds ratio of pediatric obesity was 1.11 (CI 0.65-1.87) in the mixed pattern group and 1.88 (CI 1.14-3.10) in the unhealthy pattern group. Conclusion: In conclusion, dietary behaviors including snack consumption and lifestyle factors were connected. Unbalanced diet and undesirable dietary practice are important determinants in pediatric obesity.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.64-73
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• 2017

Although 24-hour recalls (24HR) capture detailed information on a person's food intake, this method suffers from difficulties in adequately measuring the usual intake of foods that are not consumed daily by most. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether frequency of Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) can be utilized in form of covariate when calculating usual intake of episodically-consumed foods and their distributions. Data used in this study was from the Korean National Healthy and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) 2012~2014 (3 years) and 10,945 subjects participated in this survey who performed both of 24HR and FFQ. In order to analyze the data, amount of intake in each food, which was reported in 24HR was recalculated according to 112 items in FFQ. We first assessed the relationship between FFQ frequency and the amount reported on 24HR. Second, we assessed the relationship between usual portion size of FFQ and the amount reported on 24HR. Our hypothesis was that people who reported high FFQ-reported frequency or FFQ-reported usual portion size would consume larger amounts of that food on 24HR than those with lower frequency or portion size of consumption of a food on the FFQ. For 59 of 112 individual foods (52.2%), there were statistically significant increasing relationships between FFQ frequency and consumption-day intake. Also, 102 of 112 individual foods (90.3%), there were statistically significant increasing relationships between FFQ usual portion size and consumption-day intake. For 10 of 13 food groups (grains, fruits, eggs, pulses, root and tuber crops, milk products, meat, beverage, alcoholic drink, vegetable, seaweeds and others), there were statistically significant increasing relationships between FFQ frequency and consumption-day intake. And there were statistically significant increasing relationships between FFQ usual portion size and consumption-day intake for all food groups. This study confirmed consistent correlation between reported FFQ frequency or usual portion size of food (group) consumption and consumption-day intake on 24HR. Therefore the frequency data may be utilized as important covariate when estimating usual intake of food or food groups.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.10
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• pp.1600-1607
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• 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate effect of nutrition education methodology on consumption of processed food and personality of middle school students aged 14 to 16 years who live in Busan. We categorized questionnaire based on students' consumption of processed food and personality characteristics. Based on the above, we determined serum mineral level to validate the correlation between personal characteristics and quantifiable serum mineral level. Following adoption of a proper nutrient education methodology, we found that consumption of processed foods such as meat and meat products, frozen food, noodles, bread and snacks, and drink was significantly reduced. In addition, there were distinct changes in personality characteristics such as stability, governmentality, sociality, and responsibility that became markedly increased, whereas impulsiveness decreased. We found that these distinct nutrition- education-based changes were statistically significant, when compared before and after providing proper nutrition education. We interpret these results as group with low stability showed a high consumption of meat and meat products, noodles, bread and snacks, and drink, whereas group with high stability showed a high consumption of milk and dairy products. Similarly, we also found that group with low impulsiveness showed a high consumption of canned foods, whereas group with high impulsiveness showed a high consumption of meat and meat products, frozen food, noodles, bread and snacks. Our results indicated that serum Na after nutrition education decreased, whereas other minerals including Ca, Fe, Zn, Mg and K increased, when compared with before nutrition education procedure. This study suggests that nutrition education methodology and establishment of proper dietary educational programs keeping in view balanced dietary habits for middle school students would not only appear to make them get along with healthy dietary habits, but also change their personality characteristics.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.219-225
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• 2005

This study examined the effect of viable bifidobacteria and non-digestible carbohydrates on the cecal pH, colonic neoplastic lesion (aberrant crypt) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) labeling index in carcinogen-treated mts. Animals received s.c. injection of dimethylhydrazine (DMH) (15 mg/kg body weight) twice 3 days apart. Three days after the second carcinogen administration, the treatments were begun. 1he treatments were basal diet (AIN-76) with skim milk (Basal/skim), or the following diets with daily gavage of $10^8$ bifidobacteria: basal (Basal/bifido), $2\%$ fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS/bifido), $2\%$ soybean oligosaccharide (SBO/bifido), $2\%$ wheat bran oligosaccharide (WBO/bifido) and $8.4\%$ wheat bran (WB/bifido). After 4 weeks of treatment, cecal pH was measured using a pH probe. The number of aberrant crypt (AC), aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and crypt multiplicity were enumerated and colonic PCNA labeling index was determined using immunohistochemistry. Cecal pH was significantly reduced in SBO/bifido and FOS/bifido groups compared to control group. However, there were no significant differences in either number of AC or rates of cell proliferation as shown by PCNA labeling index among the groups, although mts fed FOS/bifido reduced the numbers of ACF compared to Basal/skim group. The SBO/bifido group did not reduce the number of ACF or PCNA labeling index. Also, other oligosaccharides did not reduce the risk of colon cancer compared to control group. The concomitant reduction of cecal pH and number of ACF suggest that the combination of bifidobacteria and FOS may reduce the risk of colon cancer.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.417-423
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• 2013

Vitamin D is an essential component of bone and mineral metabolism; its deficiency causes growth retardation and skeletal deformities in children and osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults. Hypovitaminosis D (vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency) is observed not only in adults but also in infants, children, and adolescents. Previous studies suggest that sufficient serum vitamin D levels should be maintained in order to enhance normal calcification of the growth plate and bone mineralization. Moreover, emerging evidence supports an association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels and immune function, respiratory diseases, obesity, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, infection, allergy, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases in pediatric and adolescent populations. The risk factors for vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency in the pediatric population are season (winter), insufficient time spent outdoors, ethnicity (non-white), older age, more advanced stage of puberty, obesity, low milk consumption, low socioeconomic status, and female gender. It is recommended that all infants, children, and adolescents have a minimum daily intake of 400 IU ($10{\mu}g$) of vitamin D. Since the vitamin D status of the newborn is highly related to maternal vitamin D levels, optimal vitamin D levels in the mother during pregnancy should be maintained. In conclusion, given the important role of vitamin D in childhood health, more time spent in outdoor activity (for sunlight exposure) and vitamin D supplementation may be necessary for optimal health in infants, children, and adolescents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1380-1390
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• 1999

To assess the food intake and diet quality of preschool children in Pusan, dietary survey was conducted with 176 subjects using 24hr recall method. Diet quality was assessed by food group pattern, dietary diversity score(DDS), dietary variety score(DVS), and dietary frequency score(DFS). The total number of food items consumed was 307. The foods consumed most frequently were rice, Korean cabbage kimchi, milk and green onion. When investigating the consumption pattern of major six food groups, 38.1% of subjects consumed all six groups. Food group was missed in order of fruit(41.5%), sweet(19.9%), dairy(16.5), vegetable(4.5%) and meat(1.7%). The mean values of DDS, DVS, and DFS were 5.16, 13.82, and 16.07 re spectively. Persons who had higher DDSs also had higher DVSs(p<0.001). DDS, DVS and DFS correlated positively with NAR(nutrient adequacy ratio) and MAR(mean adequacy ratio) significantly. Associations between the NAR of most nutrients and MAR with DVS and DFS were higher than those between the NAR of most nutrients and MAR with DDS. People with DDS of above 6 or DVS of above 16 or DFS of above 21 met two thirds of recommended dietary allowance for nutrients. Based on the result of the food group intake, the food intake of subjects was not adequate, especially the fruit and dairy groups. When assessing the dietary quality of subjects using DDS, DVS and DFS, many people appeared not to have a desirable food intake.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the status of coffee intake in South Korea by analyzing the 4th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The results showed that 52.3% of Koreans consumed coffee at least once a day. Males consumed coffee more frequently than females and those aged 20-39 years and 40-59 years consumed coffee most frequently. Coffee drinkers consumed coffee two times a day and 138 mL each time on average. Coffee was mainly consumed either at home (44.8%) or in the workplace (36.1%); males drank coffee most frequently in the workplace and females did so at home. Milk coffee including coffee from vending machines and coffee mix (73.8%) was the most common type of coffee consumed. The results of this study would extend the understanding of the general status of coffee intake in South Korea, which has shown steady growth but remains a relatively overlooked research area.