• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.sup1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2021

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put focus on the importance of a healthy immune system for recovery from infection and effective response to vaccination. Several nutrients have been under attention because their nutritional statuses showed associations with the incidence or severity of COVID-19 or because they affect several aspects of immune function. Nutritional status, immune function, and viral infection are closely interrelated. Undernutrition impairs immune function, which can lead to increased susceptibility to viral infection, while viral infection itself can result in changes in nutritional status. Here, we review the roles of vitamins A, C, D, and E, and zinc, iron, and selenium in immune function and viral infection and their relevance to COVID-19.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.523-532
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• 2009

Changing health awareness has had an important effect on the functional food industry and is creating greater market opportunities. Unfortunately, there is no statement on functional dairy products in the Processing of Livestock Products Act. As a result, there is confusion in the market and legal difficulties with regard to the advertising of functional dairy products. This study was carried out to improve the current standardization of functional dairy products by comparing the domestic Health/Functional Food Act with the Japanese Health Promotion Law, and by investigating scientific data and articles from various literature and the Internet. In Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) officially presented the Food with Health Claims (FHC) system that consists of Food with Nutrient Function Claims (FNFC), and innovated Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU). In 2005, the FOSHU system was changed to include several new subsystems: Current, Standardized, Reduction of disease risk, and Qualified FOSHU. Finally, to manufacture FOSHU, scientific evidence pertaining to such products must be examined by MHLW. Since FNFC was allowed, only 12 vitamins, ${\beta}-carotene$, and five minerals were approved, though without scientific evidence of efficacy. The Korean Health/Functional Food Act requires that health/functional foods (HFFs) be marketed in measured doses. There are two types of HFFs: generic and product-specific. There are 67 ingredients listed in the act for generic HFFs, and if an HFF has a new active ingredient, it is considered a product-specific HFF. Product-specific HFFs must be approved by the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA). With the present standards, it is impossible to label and advertise functional dairy products with health/functional claims. Government agencies must cooperate to solve this problem, and standardization should be carried out by considering existing health/functional products and claims/indications from other countries.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.1457-1467
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• 1998

The relationship between cognitive function and dietary patterns in Korean elderly women was investigated in this study. Twenty-four-hour dietary recall and cognitive function tests were performed in 170 elderly women aged over 60 years. Average age of the subjects was 71 years and the average number of family members was 3.3. Most of the subjects had less than seven years of education and their monthly income was much lower than the Korean average. Most of the subjects engaged in regular exercise and did not indulge in drinking and smoking. The average cognitive function score of the subjects was 58.4. Most of the subjects appeared to consume insufficient amount of food ; average intakes of energy, Ca, iron, vitamin A, and riboflavin were lower than RDA for the elderly. Cognitive function score was positively related to education level and regularity of exercise. Also, cognitive function score had a strong relationship with food intake such as total amounts of foods, fish and shellfish, milk and dairy products, total animal food, fruit, bread and sugar. Energy, protein, Ca, p, riboflavin, and niacin were also shown to have positive relationships to cognitive function score, while carbohydrate caloric ratio had a negative relationship with cognitive function. According to the results of multiple regression analysis, factors that most influenced on cognitive function were education level and riboflavin intake. The subjects who had more than seven years of education had significantly higher cognitive function scores than those with no school education. And cognitive function scores f3r those who consumed more than 2/3 of the RDA for most nutrients were significantly higher than the ones fir the subjects who consumed less than 2/3 of the RDA. These results suggest that proper education and adequate nutrient intake in quantity and quality by achieving food diversity are essential in maintaining cognitive function in later life (Korean J Nutrition 31(9) : 1457-1467, 1998)

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.205-209
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• 2015

Purpose: Dental implants present several advantages over other tooth replacement options. However, there has been little research on masticatory function in relation to implant treatment. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the improvement of masticatory function two weeks after implant restoration. Methods: Masticatory ability was evaluated with the subjective food intake ability (FIA) and objective mixing ability index (MAI) methods. Fifty-four subjects with first and second missing molars completed the study. The subjects were asked to complete a self-reported questionnaire about 30 different food items, and to chew wax samples 10 times both before and two weeks after implant restoration. A total of 108 waxes were analyzed with an image analysis program. Results: Dental implant restoration for lost molar teeth on one side increased the FIA score by 9.0% (P<0.0001). The MAI score also increased, by 14.3% after implant restoration (P<0.0001). Comparison between the good and poor mastication groups, which were subdivided based on the median MAI score before implant restoration, showed that the FIA score of the poor group was enhanced 1.1-fold while its MAI score was enhanced 2.0-fold two weeks after an implant surgery. Conclusions: Using the FIA and MAI assessment methods, this study showed that masticatory function was improved two weeks after implant restoration. In particular, the enhancement of masticatory function by implant restoration was greater in patients with relatively poor initial mastication than in those with good initial mastication.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.149-155
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• 1992

This study was carried out to find out the effect of dietary intake on cognitive function retardation in old age using dietary survey and cognitive function test. The subjects were 332 men of 50-94 years old and their activities of daily living were very similar. The cognitive function was tested by Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE)-K which was translated from MMSE, and the 24-hour recall method was used for dietary survey. Scoring of MMSE-K was a little different from MMSE, that is, in case of no education, one to four points were added to exclude the effect of education which has been considered as a confounder by many researchers. The number of subjects belonging to below 23 of MMSE-K score was increased by increasing age. Even though points were added in case of no education, the ratio of below 23 MMSE-K score group was diminished by increasing education. Therefore, education seems not to be a confounder but a independent variable on cognitive function. Income, past occupation, family type, self-evaluated health status did not play any effect on cognitive function significantly. On the other hand, the correlation between each nutrients and the score of cognitive function test showed that the more consumption of vitamin A and protein, the higher cognitive function score was obtained. In case of iron and Ca, even though it was not statistically significant, there was a tendency of increasing cognitive function score by increasing the intake of those nutrients. This study suggests that micronutrient intakes might be more related to cognitive function than macronutrients.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.313-322
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the relationship among cognitive function, nutrition screening initiative (NSI) score, and food intake status. Methods: A total of 409 subjects aged over 60 years were recruited from the Yongin dementia prevention and control center. Mini Mental State Examination Dementia Screening (MMSE-DS) method was used to assess the cognitive function of the subjects. Information on health related behaviors and food intake was collected by face to face interview using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaires included the NSI DETERMINE checklist, food intake sheets by 24 hr recall method and by semi-quantified food frequency questionnaire. Results: Subjects were divided into low cognitive or normal groups according to the MMSE-DS result. The prevalence of low cognitive function in the subjects was 25.7%. The low cognitive group exercised less and had higher nutritional health risk than the normal group. The low cognitive group had lower consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acid and higher tendency of thiamin, riboflavin, and iron deficiency. The low cognitive group had less frequency of eating mackerel, pepper, tangerine, and watermelon and higher frequency of eating white rice and cookies than the normal group. Conclusion: The results of this study imply that the cognitive function of elderly is related to exercise behavior, nutritional health risk, and food and nutrient intake status.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.12-21
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to forecast the future Health Functional Food (HFF) market trends of Korea by studied about policies and market situation in Japan. The HFF is a food that is given an additional health function. In contrast with traditional foods, the HFF has unique characteristics in that it can be produced under the political regulations. The market size of the HFF was growing gradually due to the increased of an aging population and consumer need for high quality and diversified foods. The reason why the HFF market in Japan grew up earlier than other countries, Japan was the first country that institutionalized the HFF policies. Therefore, in this paper, by examining the policies and the market situation of Japan through literatures, we forecasted upcoming political and market situational changes of Korea's HFF market. We noticed that consumers needs about the HFFs which diversified, confidently ensured safety and ingredients will increase. In this regard, the government will reorganize legislation in order to increase the confidence of the safety of HFFs. In addition, the market size of domestic HFFs which are produced by major food companies will grow.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.3-15
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• 2005

This study was carried out to examine the relationship between various characteristics of Korean traditional dishes such as preference, function, occurrence and preparation, with children and adolescents' characteristics such as general characteristics and health status and health attitudes. Elementary school students had desirable health attitudes as measured using the subjectively perceived level of health status and purpose of meals. There were significant relationships between some characteristics and health concerned behaviors, which included the extent of eating healthy diets, the intake of nutritional supplements and the application of nutritional knowledge. We found out that there were significant positive correlations among four characteristics of traditional dishes and the preference for those dishes was more positively correlated with occurrence and preparation than with function. The effects of the subjects' characteristics on preference for traditional dishes differed in various ways.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2016

This study was conducted to investigate the health effects of the general components of acorns in animals. In Korea, acorns have been used as food material in the form of acorn starch. Acorns contain tannin, gallic acid, digallic acid, and gallotannin. Therefore, the health effects of acorns as functional food are actively being studied. The chemical composition of acorns may vary according to the harvest time, region, and breed. Acorns have excellent antioxidant properties and might be beneficial in controlling hyperlipidemia, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and dementia, as well as strengthening immune competence. Further study is necessary to better understand the benefits of acorns, as it is expected to represent a large part of the food industry.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.931-939
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• 2017

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a complex multifaceted disease that involves oxidative stress and inflammation as the key mediators. Despite decades of intensive research, there are no FDA-approved therapies, and/or no effective cure is yet available. Probiotics have received increasing attention in the past few years due to their well-documented gastrointestinal health-promoting effects. Interestingly, emerging studies have suggested that certain probiotics may offer benefits beyond the gut. Lactobacillus fermentum LA12 has been previously demonstrated to play a role in inflammatory-related disease. However, the possible protective effect of L. fermentum LA12 on ALD still remain to be explored. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the possible protective effect of L. fermentum LA12 on alcohol-induced gut barrier dysfunction and liver damage in a rat model of alcoholic steatohepatitis (ASH). Daily oral administration of L. fermentum LA12 in rat model of ASH for four weeks was shown to significantly reduced intestinal nitric oxide production and hyperpermeability. Moreover, small intestinal histological- and qRT-PCR analysis further revealed that L. fermentum LA12 treatment was capable of up-regulating the mRNA expression levels of tight junction proteins, thereby stimulating the restitution of barrier structure and function. Serum and hepatic analyses also revealed that the restoration of epithelial barrier function may prevent the leakage of endotoxin into the blood, subsequently improve liver function and hepatic steatosis in the L. fermentum LA12-treated rats. Altogether, results in this study suggest that L. fermentum LA12 may be used as a dietary adjunct for the prevention and treatment of ASH.