• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.556-562
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cooking activities on the unbalanced dietary food habits of elementary school students and develop the effective cooking activity program for the improvement of unbalanced dietary behaviors as well as the food intake and menu acceptance. The subjects of this study were 256 elementary school students. The cooking activity group and control group were consisted of 128 students of $3^{rd}$ & $5^{th}$ grader each. Both cooking activity and the control group took the same 1-hour nutritional theory based class for 10 sessions. Only Cooking activity (CA) group took additional 10 sessions of 1-hour cooking class. Programs for cooking activity were developed and 10 cooking activity sessions were taken place for 4 months. The questionnairs were used to evaluate the effect of the cooking activities over the intake of food group, unbalanced dietary behavior, eating attitudes, menu acceptance before and after the completion of all the cooking activities. Cooking activities affect the unbalanced dietary behaviors and the intake of food groups. Fish, cereals, milk products, fruits, potatoes, vegetables were more eaten by CA group than control group. Eating attitudes and unbalanced dietary behaviors of CA group are also improved significantly than control group. From these results, it was concluded that cooking activities had the positive effect on the improvement of unbalanced dietary food habits over vegetables, cereals, fish, milk product and fruits as well as the unbalanced dietary behaviors of the elementary school children.

• Proceedings of the KSCN Conference
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• 2004.12a
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• pp.79-80
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 1996

To find out the reference data of the school food service system, I serveyed four primary schools in Seoul, Korea and Nara, Japan respectively. The school children and their parents of whom arbitrary selected two classes among each primary school, were taken the questionaire about the present school food service system and their favorate food. The results were as follows; 1) 74.8% of Korean and Japanese children, and 92.5% of their parents were in favor of school food service. 2) Korean childrin wanted more amount of food and less salty taste. 3) Korean and Japanese children and their parents believed that the school food service system correct children's unbalanced diet. 4) Korean children wished more kinds of foods, western-styled cooking and that the food would be served in warm state. 5) Korean parents wanted that school food service system should be natural and better quality food material, and teacher should educate good eating habit. 6) Korean school children prefer yogurt, cuttle-fish, chicken, bean-curd, tomato, orange, dried laver, sweet potato, pine-mushroom in each food group. In conclusion, school food service system should be enough to meet children's good nutrition status, and the menu would be selected with consideration of children's preference and Korean traditional diet habit. Good table manner and eating all kinds of foods should be targht by school food service system as well as preparing good quality of food.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.204-213
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine the dietary behavior of children according to their preference for fast food. The study was carried out on 470, 6th grade students (boys : 236, girls : 234) in September, 2002. The results are summarized as follows : The mean body mass index was 18.72 kg/$m^2$ for boys and 17.76 kg/$m^2$ $^2$ for girls. The subjective health disorder symptoms for the group preferring fast food was not significantly different than that of the other groups. The group preferring fast food consumed an inadequate volume of food, and they had an irregular and unbalanced diet. Their intake of green vegetables, vegetables, protein foods, and seaweed was significantly lower than that of the other groups. The food habit score for the group preferring fast food was lower than that of the other groups, and they had irregular meal times and had unbalanced diets. The group preferring fast food had a preference for sweet tastes, whilst members of the other group preferred a savory taste. The first choice for fast food by the group preferring fast food was hamburgers, the reason being that it tasted good. Results show that children who have a preference for fast food need to correct their dietary behavior. As a result, proper nutritional education and intervention is required in order to improve the consuming habits of children and their preference for fast food.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.201-213
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• 2000

The aim of this study is to survey the eating habits and nutritional knowledge of children in Pusan, with a view to uncovering problems and their underlying causes and cultivating desirable dietary habit and nutrition for children. Three hundred and fifty six elementary school students were asked questions about their eating habits and nutritional knowledge as well as general information about their personal characteristics. The results showed: 1. Only 53.5% of the subjects had breakfast every day. Seventy-six percent of the subjects had dinner every day. Only 40% of the children took meals and talked with family at both breakfast and dinner. Thus there was little opportunity for dietary guidance by parents. 2. About half of the subjects answered that their appetite decreased after eating snack foods between meals. A third of the subjects liked the baked goods as snacks. Because of their high sugar and fat content, they can damage children's health, resulting in child diabetes and tooth decay. For this reason, careful education is necessary to allow children to be able to select snack foods that are appropriate in kind and quantity. 3. About 85% of the subjects had an unbalanced diet. Therefore systematic nutrition education at school is necessary to instill in children the value of balanced diet. 4. Children preferred rice to other cereals as a staple food. They disliked kimchi, seasoned and blanched foods and salads as subsidiary foods. It is therefore necessary to teach children systematically the nutritional advantage of cereals and vegetables and to heighten their awareness of Korean food culture. 5. Children had a low level of nutritional knowledge. The knowledge of specific nutrients was lower than that of foods. In conclusion, systematical educational programs need to be developed at elementary school. These should include information about achieving a balanced diet, good eating habit, meal management and Korean dietary culture. Nutritional education at home must be emphasized.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.636-644
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• 2003

This study compared the perceptions of children and their mothers of the effects of school lunch programs on the children's dietary behaviors in elementary schools. Questionnaires were answered by 425 elementary school students and their 412 mothers in the Busan area. The results indicated: The school lunch program had positive effects on children's dietary behaviors such as understanding healthy meals, correcting unbalanced diets, snack intake, attitude toward the meal, table manners, and table hygiene. However, there were still some negative habits in the home related to snack time, reading books or watching television during mealtime, eating foods before seniors have started. The gender of the children and whether the mothers worked or not produced no significant differences (in most cases). Still mothers more positively perceived the effect of school lunch programs on their children's dietary behaviors than did the children themselves. Thus, the school lunch program had positive effects for a balanced diet and making good eating habits. And, therefore, teachers-as well as the dieticians- should actively regard the school lunch program as an educational activity which can produce positive effects for a balanced diet, and make every endeavor to strengthen their relationship with the home.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the nutrition quotient (NQ) by gender and understand which factors influence NQ in preschool children. Methods: Subjects were 245 children (110 boys, 135 girls) aged 4-6 years and their parents. The questionnaire composed of demographic characteristics, eating behavior factors and the NQ questions. The NQ consisted of 19 food behavior checklist items and all items were grouped into 5 factors: balance, diversity, moderation, regularity, and practice. Inbody J05, a measurement device that measures individual's body composition was used to measure children's anthropometric data. All data were statistically analyzed by SPSS program (Ver. 20) and the statistical differences in variables were evaluated by Student t-test, ${\chi}^2-test$, One-way ANOVA and Duncan's multiple range test. Results: The total NQ score of the subjects was 65.3. The NQ score of girls (67.0) was significantly higher than that of the boys (63.2) (p<0.01). The girls' average scores of NQ factors including diversity (p<0.01) and practice (p<0.05) were higher than those of the boys. The analysis of related-factors influencing NQ scores showed that there was a significant difference among the groups according to feeding methods during infancy (p<0.05), breast feeding group being the highest. Furthermore, the NQ score showed a significant difference depending on how to correct children's unbalanced diet as well as parents' nutrition knowledge. The NQ score of obesity group tended to be lower than that of underweight group although there was no significant difference. Conclusions: Overall results indicated that the girls had better quality of diet and eating habits than the boys. Children and their parents need proper nutrition education and counseling to correct children's eating habits and to improve diet quality in kindergartens and in children care centers.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.193-201
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• 2004

The objective was to evaluate the factors influencing on the growth of children aged 3 - 6 years by mini dietary assessment and anthropometric indices in 556 children and by analyzing mineral contents of hair from 273 children by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The mean concentration of zinc (Zn) in hair was 68.9 $\pm$ 31.1 ppm and the zinc level of 91 ％ children was less than 60％ of the reference value of 180 ppm. The mean content of lead (Pb) in hair was 1.76 $\pm$ 1.20 ppm, but only 67％ of 273 children was within the reference value of 2 ppm and the lead level of 33％ of children was 2 - 4 times higher than the reference value. The level of Zn was negatively correlated with Pb content (r = -0.305, p 〈 0.01). Hair Zn content, regardless of age, was significantly positively correlated with height (r = 0.214) and body weight (r = 0.159). The height of 95.3％ children was belonged to the normal range of 90 - 109.9％ of standard value and the body weight of 49.8％ children was in the range of 90 - 109.9％ of standard value. However, 8.1 ％ children was overweighted (110 - 119.9％ of standard) and 9.4％ children was obese (120 - 149.9％ of standard) and 0.9％ children was severe obese (〉 150％) which resulted in total 10.3％ obese. Contrary to our expectation, 32.8％ children was underweight (70 - 89.9％ of standard) and 36％ of the underweight children showed the low content of zinc (10 - 49 ppm) in hair. There was no significant correlation between dietary intake of Zn and hair Zn content. Hair Zn content was low even though children consumed greater than 75％ of their requirement for zinc. Regardless of dietary intake of Zn, hair Zn level was rather negatively correlated to the content of Pb in hair. 38.8％ children had an unbalanced diet which resulted in lower intake of calorie, Ca, Zn, vitamin B$_2$ compared with those consuming variety of foods. Therefore, it would be needed that new approach for nutrition education to improve eating habit having the unbalanced diet in preschool children. It might be also suggested to develop new food products to complement the nutrients of Zn, Ca, Fe as snacks or dietary supplement for Korean preschool children.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.272-280
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• 2006

This study examined the weight control and food habits in 160 obese children and 191 normal-weight children in 4th, 5th and 6th graders of some elementary schools in Gumi city. Regarding the subjects' self-recognition of their body shape, 27.8% of the normal weight group and 92.5% of the obese group acknowledged themselves to be obese. 58.9% of the normal weight group and 61.0% of the obese group were not satisfied with their own body shape and the difference between two groups was very small, 23.6% of the normal weight group and 87.5% of the obese group have tried to reduce weight. The main causative factor of weight gain that children themselves recognized was a sedentary life style. All the students showed a high rate of irregular and unbalanced diet. The obese children showed a significantly higher rate of skipping meals and eating meals faster than the normal weight children. More obese children disliked exercise, and did less excercise than the normal weight children. There was a negative correlation between the obesity index and the food habit score. In other words, they frequently skip a meals, eat in a hurry and dislike vegetables and dairy products. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the student's BMI and the parents' BMI. Overall, many normal weight children showed a high level of self-consciousness of being obese or underweight. Both groups showed a low degree of satisfaction with their own body shape. Therefore education for the distorted perception of body shape is needed because, even normal weight children have tried to reduce their weight. Obese children should be encouraged to exercise, not skip a meals and eat slowly. They also need a systematic education program on weight reduction and weight maintenance. Moreover, education on a healthy diet, healthy food habits, and healthy body shape are necessary for elementary school children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.525-531
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• 1995

The objectives of the present study were to assess the early nutrition-related knowledge, eating behaviors of preschool children, the types of messages that their mothers give to them about nutrition and to analysis the interrelationships among these variables. The children of this study showed the uncooperative eating behaviors most frequently when they had breakfast and vegetables. In these cases the most frequent mother's messages given to the children was encourage eating some of each food. Children's eating problems as perceived by mothers were mainly low dietary intake and an unbalanced diet. The most frequent messages given to the children in the presentation of new foods were telling the child taste them and general nutrition about the new food. General topics in nutrition the mothers had discussed with their children were about nutrients, food groups, food transformations and food origins. Children whom mothers provided more information about these topics scored significantly higher on the concepts of food transformation, food origins and the total nutrition knowledge score. It is clear from this study that preschool children begin to learn about nutrition through these parental messages. Both parents and caretakers of young children should recognize the potential importance of these early interaction patterns.