Interpretations and attitudes toward healthy eating among Japanese workers

Japanese interpretations of 'healthy eating' may differ from those of people in other industrialized countries; however, no studies have addressed this question. Thus, we examined how Japanese people interpret healthy eating and investigated the factors relevant to that interpretation. In the first study, in order to investigate lay interpretations of the meaning of healthy eating, 34 adults were interviewed, and the results were analyzed as a basis for the second study. In the second study, a sample of city workers (n = 1155) in Japan responded to a questionnaire concerning attitudes toward healthy eating, and relevant factors were assessed by a factor analysis. We made three findings. (1) Japanese adults interpreted 'eating a nutritionally balanced diet' and 'eating plenty of vegetables' as the most important definitions of healthy eating. (2) Healthy eating included two factors according to the factor analysis of questionnaire responses:,eating styles and habits' and 'foods and nutrition.' (3) The relevant characteristics of the subjects regarding the two factors differed. Although these findings are unique, the external validity of this study is limited. More research is necessary to verify the present results. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.