Study of the Japanese Term “hikaeru” Used by Registered Dietitians in Nutrition Education

Nutrition education by registered dietitians requires terms by which subjects can precisely understand their intentions. The Japanese term “hikaeru”, which is used to tell people to reduce the intake of such things as salt and fat, doesn't give a clear indication of how and how much needs to be done. We investigated the effectiveness of the term “hikaeru” in nutrition education by a questionnaire survey to identify the perception of the term by registered dietitians working in Hyogo, JAPAN. We chose five descriptors as the objects of “hikaeru”: energy, sweet items, alcohol, animal fat and salt. More than 50% of the registered dietitians use the term in their nutrition education. How and by how much they expect their subjects to reduce the intake of the five objects by use of the term varied greatly among individual dietitians. There were significant differences for ‘salt' according to the number of years of their experience: < 3 years, ≥ 3 and < 20 years, and ≥ 20 years. It is concluded that the term “hikaeru” is so ambiguous that it cannot always help subjects to improve their diet by itself. Registered dietitians need to advise subjects on their diet by the term not alone but along with other terms that are as specific as possible.