napa kimchi and

[Guest guest]

.. the one thing i

>do miss about the purple cabbage kimchi though, is the vibrant color :-)

>

>i wonder if all the studies finding health benefits for kimchi were done on

>*napa* cabbage kimchi?

They do napa and/or daikon radish, in general, as a base, but add a ton of

other ingredients. So I'd guess the studies used napa, since they probably

used commercial kimchi, and that is usually napa. But if you want some red

color, just add a chopped beet (or some chopped red cabbage, but beet adds

the most wonderful bright pink!).

I found another article, re. the current heart disease issue. I thought it

was interesting that they found a homocystein relationship that had no

correlation to meat, eggs etc: just kimchi! See below.

-- Heidi

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200306/200306190011.html

Kimchi's Good for Heart and Brain

by Lim Ho-jun (hjlim@...)

A new study indicates that kimchi is effective in preventing heart disease

and brain tumors. A professor of family medicine at Seoul's Asan Medical

Center, Kim Young-sik, checked the levels of homocysteine, high levels of

which brings higher risk of heart disease and brain tumors, in the blood of

670 healthy subjects compared with their daily intake of kimchi. The

average amount of homocysteine in those eating kimchi three times a day was

9.8 micromoles per liter, significantly lower than 10.9 micromoles of

people who eat kimchi just twice a week.

Homocysteine is an amino acid that irritates blood vessels, leading to

artery blockages. A person is considered to have a high homocysteine level

if his blood contains more than 15 micromoles per liter.

Above that level a person's risk of a myocardina infraction or brain tumor

is 3-10 times higher.

Changes in homocysteine levels only correlated with the daily intake of

kimchi - no significant effects were seen due to changes in meat, fish,

eggs or dairy products. Women showed higher level of homocysteine than men,

and older people had higher levels than younger people. Vitamin B

supplements and additional vegetables can lower your homocysteine level.