what makes kimchi so healthy

7/31/2019 What Makes Kimchi So Healthy

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What Makes Kimchi so Healthy?

Summary

Korean kimchi is undoubtedly the healthiest food on the planet. In a tradition dating back thousands

of years, vegetables are pickled and and combined in a multitude of ways that suit every taste. This

article explains the health benefits that derive from kimchi in general, and the Ultimate Kimchi recipe

in particular.

Another great thing about kimchi is that it keeps for weeks in the refrigerator, and still tastes fresh.

The garlic and vinegar are natural preservatives that keep the raw vegetables and fruits tasting great,

even though they are cut up into pieces you can easily nibble on. If you have one of those "Keep

Warm" rice pots in the kitchen, then a wholesome, energizing snack, or even a full meal, is just

seconds away. Kimchi is not only a health food, it's a convenience food. What a deal!

Note:

It is vital that the Kimchi is properly fermented.

Kimchi's Health Benefits

Kimchi is nothing if not healthy. It combines the world's healthiest ingredients in a tasty treat, and

uses the combination of vinegar, oil, salt, and spices to way that makes an all-natural preservative.

The following sections describe kimchi's specific ingredients and their effects:

Kimchi eliminates cholesterol Kimchi promotes intestinal health

The quality of Korean food

Kimchi Eliminates Cholesterol

With its combination of garlic, scallions, fruits, and vegetables, kimchi works overtime to keep your

arteries clear. This section explains how.

Garlic and Onions

It is only in recent years that the scientific community has begun to establish the powerful healing

effects of garlic that have been known in Oriental cultures for centuries. Onions and garlic have for


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centuries been eaten as regular staples by the longest living peoples on earth -- Asians, Russians, and

Bulgarians. There is no coincidence, here.

Garlic is a powerful anti-oxidant. That means it prevents oxygen from combining with things. Along

with the vinegar and oil, it helps to keep the vegetables in kimchi fresh. Garlic has been used as a

preservative for centuries by peoples in Korea and India, long before the advent of refrigerators. But

garlic does even more for you after you eat it.

The oil of garlic is 60% allicin. When garlic is crushed, two enzymes join together to form this

powerful substance. In the body, allicin reduces cholesterol and triglyceride levels -- the major cause

of heart attacks and strokes. It is so effective that volunteers eating a quarter-pound of butter actually

showed reduced cholesterol afterwards when they ate it with garlic, instead of the higher cholesterol

levels they would normally experience. Only foods in the garlic/onion family have this characteristic.

So one benefit of eating fresh, crushed garlic is that it lowers your cholesterol.

Besides kimchi, what food can claim substantial amounts of fresh garlic? None! And it doesn't hurt

that the scallions included in the kimchi have the same effect on cholesterol levels. Both foods raise

the number of High Density Lipoproteins in the blood -- these are the "good guy" lipids that carrycholesterol to the gall bladder for elimination.

In addition to allicin, garlic is the best known natural source of selenium. This trace mineral is a key

ingredient in the process that keeps skin and hair healthy, thereby preventing wrinkles. It also prevents

cholesterol platelets from adhering to artery walls.

Selenium is deficient in the soils surrounding the major population centers in this country, and it has

been shown to be deficient in most of the population. So garlic is a key ingredient! Be sure to use

organic garlic, though. The non-organic variety has much less of this vital mineral. Selenium is so

important that Jack Challum ("The Nutrition Detective") believes that selenium deficiencies may be

responsible for ailments as diverse as the flu, the Ebola epidemic, and AIDs(http://www.jrthorns.com/Challem/selenium.html).

Garlic is also important because selenium is a necessary part of glutathione, a substance the body

makes from the amino acids glutamine, cysteine, and glutamic acid. Glutathione peroxidase is a

vitamin C "booster" that reconstitutes Vitamin C as it breaks down in the lens of the eye, due to

sunlight and cathode tube x-rays. Glutathione therefore makes 10 units of Vitamin C do the work of a

hundred! It is partly this activity, and partly the fact that it is required for Vitamin E to function, that

accounts for selenium's ability to protect against cancer.

Since garlic's selenium helps to preserve Vitamin C, and since Vitamin C is responsible for

transporting fat molecules across cell walls to fuel muscle cells, the combination of garlic and

vegetables keeps us thinner and makes us feel more energetic!

Chili Pepper

Did you know that hot peppers have the highest concentrations of Vitamin C of any known food? It's

a fact. Peppers have 10 times the Vitamin C of any other food, and good Korean kimchi uses a lot!

The combination of fresh fruits and vegetables (especially the broccoli) with the chili pepper gives

kimchi the richest concentration of Vitamin C in any prepared food. This vitamin is needed in the gall

bladder to convert cholesterol into a form that can be eliminated from the body.

In addition, the ingredient that makes them hot, capsaicin, has recently been used to alleviate the pain


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of arthritis, and actually helped to proliferate the synovial cells that are so thoroughly ravaged by this

disease. What other miracles does it perform? Science has yet to discover.

Cholesterol-Clearing Effect

What a food! Kimchi is a full-spectrum artery-purifier. Selenium from the garlic works to scoopcholesterol off of arterial walls. Allicin from the garlic works with the onions to raise the levels of

HDL transport molecules which carry the cholesterol down to the gall bladder. The high levels of

Vitamin C are used to convert the cholesterol to disposable substances. And the glutathione

peroxidase made from the garlic along with the phytochemicals from the fruit and vegetables all work

to magnify Vitamin C's availability. If there is a single-food defence to heart ailments, kimchi has to

be it!

Garlic's Additional Benefits

And it doesn't stop there! Garlic has been shown to combat allergies(15), regulate blood sugar levelsin diabetics and hypoglycemics(17), and reduce the symptoms of stress(18) (with a concomitant boost

in energy).(19) If for no other reason than the use of garlic, kimchi is indeed a food that should be

eaten with every meal, just as Grandmaster (the originator of the recipe I have named the "Ultimate

Kimchi") suggests.

As for the myth that you will smell like garlic if you eat a lot of it. It's not something you have to

worry about. Oh, you'll smell for a little while -- that's because the garlic and onions are powerful

anti-toxins, anti-allergens, and anti-biotics. Some of the cholesterol and other junk that is being

removed from your system is coming out through the pores of your skin. It's a good sign, actually, a

sign of inner cleansing. As long as you keep your internal environment reasonably clean and you don't

keep polluting yourself with negative emotions, junk foods, alcohol, tobacco, and the like, your

system will soon clean up and your body will smell clean and fresh -- without deodorants. That's a

promise!

Kimchi Promotes Intestinal Health

Kimchi also works to clean out your system by feeding the lactobacteria and bifidobacteria that live in

your intestines. These are the friendly bacteria that we need to be healthy. Kimchi nourishes them

so they can thrive and outnumber the unfriendly bacteria that threaten our health from the inside.

The bifidobacteria that are responsible for producing many of the B-vitamins we need, including the

B-12 that is so frequently missing from vegetarian diets. Since the body cannot produce these

vitamins for itself, these bacteria are essential for our health.

The lactobacteria prevent flatulence and keep sticky, sludge-like waste matter from accumulating in

the intestinal tract, adhering to the intestinal walls, and interfering with nutrient absorption. All in all,

the lactobacteria and bifidobacteria are pretty good friends to have around!

Cabbage and Onions

The top two ingredients for promoting the beneficial bacteria and inhibiting the unfriendly bacteria

are cabbage and onions. And, according to at least one writer, fermented cabbage is the absolute best.


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Fermented cabbage! In other words, kimchi! Once the vinegared cabbage has had a chance to age (a

day or two in the refrigerator, a few hours at room temperature), the cabbage ferments and produces

the nutrients that the lactobacteria thrive on. Even better is the fact that our bodies don't use these

nutrients, so it isn't absorbed before the lactobacteria have a chance to feed on it! So kimchi not only

gives us the nutrients we need now, it strengthens the bacteria that give us vital nutrients in the future

and keep our system clean for nutrient absorption! It's a real health builder!

Cabbage is also a known cure for ulcers. One writer recommends a diet consisting exclusively of

cabbage juice for healing ulcers. Grandmaster put one person with advanced ulcers on a kimchi and

rice diet. In 3 months, ulcers that had resisted years of medical treatment were completely healed.

With kimchi, you get both a protective and a healing effect in the same package.

Since the by-products of digesting meat and dairy products actively inhibit the growth of

lactobacteria, and since these substances are largely responsible for the accumulated, impacted debris

in the lower intestines and colon, kimchi should especially be eaten with meat. (Dairy products. aren't

great. But when that pizza beckons, it's good to have some kimchi with it!)

The Quality of Korean Food

It is somewhat enlightening is spend some time reading labels in a Korean food store. It's astonishing.

At most, there are three or four ingredients -- all of them natural, all healthy. There are no

preservatives, no chemicals, and none of the unpronounceable polysyllabic monstrosities that take up

so much space on the average American food label. Want to know why Americans have the highest

disease rates among all of the industrialized nations? Look no further. The answer is on the labels.

Kimchi fits in with that tradition. It consists of nothing but 100% pure, natural spices and vegetables.

Organic Fruits and Vegetables

It should come as no surprise that the fruits and vegetables that go into kimchi are an important source

of fiber, minerals, enzymes, phytochemicals, and vitaminsespecially vitamin C. Broccoli is

especially important in this regard. Pound for pound, it has more vitamin C than an orange, and it is

an important source of minerals and phytochemicals.

However, the vegetables must be fresh and organic, or else they are not nearly as beneficial. The

reason: organic soils contain microbes which surround plant roots and bind minerals. That is how

plants take them up the minerals. No microbes means no trace minerals, including the important

minerals boron and potassium that are found in vinegar, for example. The plants don't need theseminerals to grow, which is why we got away with growing them on nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash

for so long. But we need themour bodies evolved on foods that contain them.

In addition, the foods must be fresh. That is important, because many of the most important

phytochemicals don't form until the final stages of the ripening process, in response to the sun's light.

But getting recently-ripened foods is a problem in today's nutritional environment. To survive the

shipping process, most fruits and vegetables are picked while they are still well short of being ripe.

For that reason, quality canned and frozen foods are often better than fresh foods, because they are

more fully ripened when picked. But it is still difficult to find organic foods packaged in such a

manner, and processed in a way that preserves the food's healthful qualities.

The Importance of Phytochemicals


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Phytochemicals are plant compounds that form to protect the plant from sunlight. They act as

antioxidants, and also help preserve and protect Vitamin C. (If you take a Vitamin C supplement, as

you should, then you should accompany it with a phytochemical supplement, in a 1:1 ratio.) There

are a dozen amino acids, a couple dozen vitamins, and about as many minerals. But there are 2,000

phytochemicals we understand, 200,000 we know about, and more than 2,000,000 possible

combinations of the fundamental elements that go into them.

Unrefined Sesame Oil

Much more attention has been given recently to the importance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids

in health and healing. While omega-3 oils are needed in only very minute quantities, omega-6 fatty

acids are needed in much larger amounts for good health. Our very ability to breathe depends on it.

Sesame oil is unique in that has the highest concentrations of omega-6 fatty acids. At the same time,

the oil contains two natural-occurring preservatives, sesamol and sesamin. As a result, sesame oil is

the only oil which has a high percentage of polyunsaturates and also keeps and room temperature.

(Olive oil also keeps at room temperature, but it is predominately composed of the omega-9

monounsaturated oil.)

Sesame oil, like all fats and oils, are chemically active. But it is precisely that chemical activity that

gives them their powerful effects in our bodies. Their primary action is to combine with oxygen. It's

the fatty acids in hemoglobin that transports oxygen to our cells, and the fatty acids in the cell walls

that transport oxygen across the cell membranes. In short, it's how we breathe.

But when oils and fats combine with oxygen outside our bodies, they turn rancid. In our industrialized

attempts to preserve foods so they keep longer, we have been processing and refining oils so that they

are no longer chemically active. This process not only removes all health benefits from the oils, it also

produces a wide variety of toxic substances known as trans fats, in addition to cross-linked fatty acids

and many other adulterated compounds that have never before existed in nature. As companies have

become more and more efficient at this, using higher heats and treating the oils with a variety of

chemicals (like caustic soda!), they have created ever deadlier versions of these once-healthy oils.

Quite simply, they are killing us, albeit slowly. But our disease rates testify to their consequences.

Traditional Korean kimchi was made with naturally pressed, unrefined sesame oil. For your kimchi,

you should use the same kind. Look for it in a whole foods store. For more information on this

subject, see Oils and EFAs.

Sesame Seeds

Like sesame oil, sesame seeds contain important fatty acids, as well as other nutrients. In fact, seeds

and nuts are the best vegetarian source of oils. (Other good sources are fish and egg yolks.) The

beautiful thing about seeds as that they keep the oils perfectly preserved in their own tiny package,

ready to deliver their nutritional benefit when you munch on them. Roasted seeds are definitely more

flavorful, but it may be that raw seeds are more healthy.

Unfortunately, the subject is not entirely clear. Many writers claim that raw seeds contain deactivating

enzymes. that prevent the seeds nutritional benefits from being realized. (The idea, apparently, is that

the seeds pass through the animal that eats them, rather than being digested, so that they will be

propagated elsewhere.) Cooking unlocks these enzymes, but also wreaks havoc on the essential fattyacids.


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To date, there is no definitive answer as to whether raw nuts or seeds are better for you. The only

thing that is known for sure is that they must be first soaked in water to deactivate the enzyme-

inhibitor. But how long? Estimates vary from 1/2 hour to 12 hours. Another interesting question is

whether soaking in vinegar has the same effect. There is the question of what happens to the enzyme

inhibitor. Those who recommend soaking in water make sure to advise draining off the water, since

that now contains the inhibitor. Would that still be necessary if the seed was soaked in vinegar, or

would the vinegar itself deactivate the inhibitor? Finally, how important is the inhibitor, anyway, if theseed gets crunched up by chewing?

Unfortunately, there is no definitive information on this subject. It's not clear whether traditional

Korean kimchi used roasted or raw seeds, or which would actually be healthier. Research is required.

Unpasteurized Vinegar

The rice vinegar that helps to preserve kimchi also helps with your intestinal health. The enzymes in

vinegar are the closest thing there is to our own digestive enzymes. That means kimchi is more fully

and completely digested, with less work by your digestive processes.

However, the enzymes that do the work only exist when the vinegar is not pasteurized. Like the

process of oil "refining", pasteurization is a high-heat process that destroys most of the food's benefits

for the sake of a long-lasting product that never has to be removed from the shelves. In other words, it

increases profits, but at the expense of health.

what makes kimchi so healthy

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