Development of Menu Labeling System (MLS) Using Nutri-API (Nutrition Analysis Application Programming Interface)

Now a days, people eat outside of the home more and more frequently. Menu labeling can help people make more informed decisions about the foods they eat and help them maintain a healthy diet. This study was conducted to develop menu labeling system using Nutri-API (Nutrition Analysis Application Programming Interface). This system offers convenient user interface and menu labeling information with printout format. This system provide useful functions such as new food/menu nutrients information, retrieval food semantic service, menu plan with subgroup and nutrient analysis informations and print format. This system provide nutritive values with nutrient information and ratio of 3 major energy nutrients. MLS system can analyze nutrients for menu and each subgroup. And MLS system can display nutrient comparisons with DRIs and % Daily Nutrient Values. And also this system provide 6 different menu labeling formate with nutrient information. Therefore it can be used by not only usual people but also dietitians and restaurant managers who take charge of making a menu and experts in the field of food and nutrition. It is expected that Menu Labeling System (MLS) can be useful of menu planning and nutrition education, nutrition counseling and expert meal management.

NutriSyn: Knowledge Based Synonym Retrieval Service for Food and Dishes on the Web

Studies based on food analysis or food databases use the national standard food database. Although Internet information services are increasing gradually, users are only able to get definitive and profitable information using standard food terms. Until now, it has been uncommon to find food retrieval services that include users' regional or historical characteristics. Thus, this study introduces a prototype for Food and Dish Synonym Retrieval (NutriSyn) that includes synonyms and related words. The environments which NutriSyn was implemented were Linux for the server operating system, the Microsoft Windows series for the users' operating system and Apache for a web server. The development languages used are PHP, JavaScript and HTLM with a MySQL database. Users can access NutriSyn using Internet browsers. The main menu items are (1) Food Synonym DB, (2) Dish Synonym DB, (3) Food Information DB, (4) Dish Information DB, and (5) Food and Menu Synonym Retrieval. This system is expected to be a useful tool for food experts and inter- disciplinary research.

Construction of web-based nutrition education contents and searching engine for usage of healthy menu of children

A diet habit, which is developed in childhood, lasts for a life time. In this sense, nutrition education and early exposure to healthy menus in childhood is important. Children these days have easy access to the internet. Thus, a web-based nutrition education program for children is an effective tool for nutrition education of children. This site provides the material of the nutrition education for children with characters which are personified nutrients. The 151 menus are stored in the site together with video script of the cooking process. The menus are classified by the criteria based on age, menu type and the ethnic origin of the menu. The site provides a search function. There are three kinds of search conditions which are key words, menu type and "between" expression of nutrients such as calorie and other nutrients. The site is developed with the operating system Windows 2003 Server, the web server ZEUS 5, development language JSP, and database management system Oracle 10 g.

NutriSonic web expert system for meal management and nutrition counseling with nutrient time-series analysis, e-food exchange and easy data transition

This study was conducted to develop the NutriSonic Web Expert System for Meal Management and Nutrition Counseling with Analysis of User's Nutritive Changes of selected days and food exchange information with easy data transition. This program manipulates a food, menu and meal and search database that has been developed. Also, the system provides a function to check the user's nutritive change of selected days. Users can select a recommended general and therapeutic menu using this system. NutriSonic can analyze nutrients and e-food exchange ("e" means the food exchange data base calculated by a computer program) in menus and meals. The expert can insert and store a meal database and generate the synthetic information of age, sex and therapeutic purpose of disease. With investigation and analysis of the user's needs, the meal planning program on the internet has been continuously developed. Users are able to follow up their nutritive changes with nutrient information and ratio of 3 major energy nutrients. Also, users can download another data format like Excel files (.xls) for analysis and verify their nutrient time-series analysis. The results of analysis are presented quickly and accurately. Therefore it can be used by not only usual people, but also by dietitians and nutritionists who take charge of making a menu and experts in the field of food and nutrition. It is expected that the NutriSonic Web Expert System can be useful for nutrition education, nutrition counseling and expert meal management.

The iron status, clinical symptom and anthropometry between normal and anemic groups of middle school girls

This research analyzed the iron status, clinical symptoms and physical characteristics between normal and anemic group of middle school girls in the Ulsan metropolitan area. It was carried out with 237 subjects (normal 190, anemic subject 47). They were evaluated with a questionnaire and measurement of hematological indices. BMI (kg/m2) of the two groups were 19.54 +/- 2.44 (normal girls) and 19.22 +/- 2.27 (anemic girls). The hemoglobin concentration of the anemic girls were 10.84 +/- 1.17g/dl and the serum iron of the anemic girls represent 35.15 +/- 27.47 microgram/100 ml. The TIBC (Total Iron Binding Capacity) of the anemic girls showed significantly high to 449.30 +/- 64.87 microgram/100 ml. The serum ferritin of the anemic girls was 20.53 +/- 42.29 microgram/l, it represented significantly low. The symptom of 'pale face' of the anemic girls were higher than the normal girls. Hemoglobin and serum iron were negatively correlated with 'pale face'. The TIBC was negatively correlated with 'Get a cold easily'. The duration and amount of menstruation were correlated with iron status. This research is to be utilized as basic data for dietary support and nutritional education to improve their iron status.