Kimchi Dissenters
Korea's national dish has been touted here as a preventative for SARS and Avian Influenza. Some, however, are willing to challenge conventional thinking, as this passage from the LA Times article Koreans' Kimchi Adulation, With a Side of Skepticism* indicates:

"I'm sorry. I can't talk about the health risks of kimchi in the media. Kimchi is our national food," said a researcher at Seoul National University, who begged not to be quoted by name.

Among the papers not to be found in the vast library of the kimchi museum is one published in June 2005 in the Beijing-based World Journal of Gastroenterology titled "Kimchi and Soybean Pastes Are Risk Factors of Gastric Cancer."

The researchers, all South Korean, report that kimchi and other spicy and fermented foods could be linked to the most common cancer among Koreans. Rates of gastric cancer among Koreans and Japanese are 10 times higher than in the United States.

"We found that if you were a very, very heavy eater of kimchi, you had a 50% higher risk of getting stomach cancer," said Kim Heon of the department of preventive medicine at Chungbuk National University and one of the authors. "It is not that kimchi is not a healthy food — it is a healthy food, but in excessive quantities there are risk factors."

Kim said he tried to publicize the study but a friend who is a science reporter, told him, "This will never be published in Korea."

I, for one, will continue to eat "spicy pickled cabbage." I loved the stuff long before ever thinking about coming to Korea. Moderation is the key to diet. Mushrooms are healthy, although they contain carcinogens. I drink alcohol everyday, but try to do so in moderation, however much I fail.

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