Anyone ever have kimchi before? There was a neat little Korean grocer that resided within shouting distance of our local Sam’s Club when we lived in Kentucky that had the best spicy kimchi, in every size from the small six ounce mustard-style jar all the way up to 2-gallon vats. If you’ve never had it, you would be surprised at how hot & spicy kimchi can be if it’s made with hot peppers. There’s a great article entitled:

The Everyday Benefits of Kimchi

Some interesting facts about kimchi that the article mentions:

-Kimchi made with hot peppers is a leading diet food. The capsaicin in hot peppers dissolves fat, and thus eating kimchi helps lose weight.

-The garlic and ginger in white kimchi also produce fat-dissolving effects that are as strong as those generated by capsaicin.

-Leaf mustard kimchi and green onion kimchi are rich in chlorophyll and diallyl sulfides, which have superb anti-cancer and anti-aging effects.

-For every 60 grams of kimchi during a meal, you consume 3-4 grams of salt or a total of 9-12 grams of salt a day. Thus eating kimchi can make you consume more salt than the WHO’s current wisdom recommends, which is 10 grams a day. Salty food supposedly increases the risk of gastritis, gastric ulcers and hypertension.

Kimchi isn’t just relegated to the shelves of your local Korean grocer. We found a nice & simple kimchi recipe that just about anyone could make:

Korean Cabbage Kimchi

Apparently, kimchi wasn’t really fiery hot until about two centuries ago. Hot peppers were introduced to Korea in the 1600’s and the rest, as they say, is history. For a truly interesting read, check out this page from the Fiery-Foods.com supersite.

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