I have recently been eating a tremendous amount of kimchi prepared by the owners of a local Asian grocery. I find it delicious, but the initial reason I purchased it was because it supposedly contains a wide variety of probiotic bacteria incurred from the fermentation process.
http://dwb.unl.edu/T...re.kr/2-1-5.htm
I was curious if anyone knew how the probiotic content of kimchi might compare to yogurt, kefir, or other fermented products?
Don't know, but if you're having a lot of it, you might want to look into the salt/nitrate content as well as Koreans that eat a lot of kimchi get more stomach cancer.
It is said that eastern asians have more elevated incidents of digestive problems, but it's most definitely not the small amount of kimchi that they eat as a side dish. It MIGHT be due to a) parasites or other things that have been around up until the last 20 years or so when these countries started to develop. b) heavy alcohol use in the culture. though there are no ties of alcohol directly to cancer, alcohol that is used heavily especially in those of asian cultures can lead to atrophic gastritis, ulcers and a whole bunch of other issues.
fermented food does not cause stomach cancer. if it did, nearly every region other than the west would have higher incidents of stomach cancer, including the mid east with yogurt, europe, russia, latin america, pretty much everywhere.
I will say that along with parasites, hpylori could be implicated frankly because if you look at the stats, those who are recorded as dying, dead or having digestive issues/cancers in asian countries are most likely older (post 45) and from a different generation, a generation that probably did not have the hygenic and medical development that was only recently established about 30 years ago.
Edited by bocadillodelomo, 07 February 2010 - 02:35 AM.