PDF《Japan》

Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2008;

17 (S1):349-351

349 Review Article The integration of school nutrition program into health promotion and prevention of lifestyle-related diseases in Japan Teiji Nakamura RD PhD Kanagawa University of Human Services, Japan After World War II, Japan has imported food from other countries to solve malnutrition, and then dietitians pro- vided nutrition education to people for effective food utilization.

Flour and skimmed milk imported from the United State were distributed to the school lunch program. Dietitians were trained to encourage the people to adapt western style dietary habits. The western style dietary habit issues have been brought since in 1980'

s as overeating and obesity have been considered as nation'

s health problems. In the 1990'

s, the prevention and treatment of lifestyle-related diseases became key objects for the nation. Government settled on Healthy Japan

21 as a preventive policy of the lifestyle-related disease in 2000. In 2006, the middle survey for the effective- ness of the campaign was conducted, but it did not bring a good result as expected. The Ministry of Health, La- bor and Welfare made the Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top for practical and easy mean to improve eating habits. Dietitians are in the process of developing new nutrition education using this tool. In 2005, the nine spe- cific targets'

Basic Law on Dietary Education Shoku-Iku was enacted to promote childhood dietary education. The Ministry of Education and Science started the new education to become a teacher called diet and nutrition teacher on the professional education programs of registered dietitian in university. Diet and nutrition teach- ers have already started teaching in some schools. From now, the roles of dietitians are not only supervising food preparation and planning meals but also nutrition education as teachers. Key Words: dietitian, food guide, diet and nutrition teacher, lifestyle-related diseases, Shoku-Iku THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND NUTRITIONAL POLICIES IN JAPAN Owing to food shortage following World War II, Japan imported food from other countries to solve the problem of malnutrition, and dietitians followed up on this by provid- ing education on various aspects of nutrition for effective food utilization. Flour and skimmed milk were primarily imported from the United State and were distributed to schools for their lunch programs. A large number of dieti- tians were trained to encourage people to adapt to western style dietary habits. For example, dietitians in schools explained to children about the importance of proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals, and educated them on the need to reduce their rice intake and increase the amount of meat, eggs, milk, and dairy products they were provided through school lunch meals. In various regions, dietitians put to practical use the kitchen car , which was really a bus whose rear had been converted into a kitchen that was used to provide lessons on various cooking practices in Nutrition. Dietitians also taught people to focus on eating more west- ern food, which contains higher levels of energy and fat than the traditional Japanese diet that emphasizes more rice intake. The problem of malnutrition in postwar Japan was solved by substantially improving everyone'

s nutrition in a short period of time. School dietitians took on an important role in this. Japanese people subsequently began to de- velop an interest in nutrition and this brought with it mod- ernization and westernization of Japanese eating habits. During a period of rapid economic growth in 1960, the diets of Japanese people rapidly became richer because of the influence that supermarkets played in food distribution. As nutrition improved, so did children'