This study was undertaken to assess grade and gender differences in dietary behavior, food preference and perception about body image of students in 4, 5 and 6th grades in elementary school in Kwangju. Anthropometric data showed that mean height and weight were $137.98{pm}6.79cm;32.69{pm}6.09kg$, in the 4th grade, $144.11{pm}6.91cm,;36.88{pm}7.60kg$ in the 5th grade and $151.52{pm}7.47cm,;42.68{pm}8.06kg$ in the 6th grade. Height and weight of male and female students of each grade were very similar to those of the Korean standard Growth data. Females in the 5th and 6th grades were taller than those in male students, which suggested the height growth spurt in females. Furthermore, both genders showed marked variability even in the same group. All the three different obesity indices(BMI, Rohrer and % of ideal body weight) showed higher value in males than in females consistently. Male respondents desired taller and heavier body shape while females perceived they were heavy and desired only taller and thinner body image. There were significant differences in satisfaction with height, weight and body image by grade(p<0.05). 36.7% of subjects responded that they did not eat despite hunger. In higher grade they felt guilty after eating sweet things. Strikingly, it was noted a small number of students tried to take a diet pills or vomited on purpose. Data on food preference showed that female did not like sweet food and pork. While male students preferred red meat and chicken. Thus result indicated that there was a great difference in food preference by gender.