Kimchi, the traditional, fermented, Korean salad is super delicious and healthy. Here are a few impressive health benefits of kimchi, its preparation & use.
Kimchi salads are becoming tremendously popular amongst people due to their rich taste, crunchy texture, and flavorful aroma. Apart from the culinary significance, the health benefits of kimchi salad make it a wonderful side dish for many Korean dishes and Indian cuisines. Whether you are looking for a crunchy fiber-rich filling salad to banish those unwanted hunger pangs or wish to balance out the bland flavor of curries, including kimchi salad, the probiotic food in your diet can help you with both calming your tastebuds or nourishing your body with essential nutrients.
Though you can find packaged kimchi salads in supermarkets and grocery stores, they come loaded with preservatives, making them less nutritious than freshly prepared versions. Preparing authentic Kimchi salad is super easy and can be prepared at home with the ingredients of your choice. Here, we will be discussing the preparation, health benefits, and how to use fermented salad for the best health benefits. Read on!
What Is Kimchi?
Kimchi is a traditional salad that majorly includes cabbage and seasonings like salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, and ginger as main ingredients. Apart from these, carrots, bamboo shoots, eggplant, celery sticks, beetroot, and cucumbers can also be added to the salad to make it more flavourful and aromatic. Generally, kimchi salad is fermented for a few days before consumption, it can be eaten unfermented, raw, and fresh soon after its preparation. The Korean kimchi salads come in both veg and meat variants. While the veg kimchi salads contain fresh vegetables as the main ingredient, the non-veg variant comprises fatty fish, fish oil, and other seafood as the main ingredient in the kimchi salad.
10 Best Health Benefits of Kimchi
Just like any other salads, kimchi salads boast a high nutritional profile and benefit your health in numerous ways. Let’s take a look at certain benefits of Kimchi for overall well-being.
1. Nourishes the Body
Kimchi is a nutrient-dense and low-calorie salad that comes loaded with high amounts of fiber and other essential nutrients your body needs every day to function well. Chinese cabbage, one of the main ingredients in kimchi salad, comes enriched with vitamins C and A. Besides, it contains at least 10 minerals and around 34 amino acids (1).
Since Kimchi comes packed with healthful veggies and spices, a 100-gram serving of veg kimchi salad may replenish your body with these nutrients –
- Calories: 23
- Carbs: 4 grams
- Protein: 2 grams
- Fat: less than 1 gram
- Fiber: 2 grams
- Sodium: 747 mg
- Vitamin B6: 19%
- Vitamin C: 22%
- Vitamin K: 55%
- Folate: 20%
- Iron: 21%
- Niacin: 10%
- Riboflavin: 24%
Since kimchi includes a lot of leafy greens, it nourishes your body with plenty of vitamin K and riboflavin. Both of these nutrients are known to improve cellular functioning, help blood clotting, and energy production, and improve metabolism (2), (3).
2. May Improve Immunity
Kimchi, the lacto-fermented salad may strengthen your body’s natural defenses to fight against a variety of infections, allergies, and diseases. A test-tube study mentions that Lactobacillus planetarium, a strain of healthy bacteria, may have immune-enhancing action for overall health (4).
3. May Help Relieve Inflammation
Kimchi salads are fermented and make a good source of natural probiotics. The active compounds and probiotics in Kimchi salads may help relieve inflammation in the body and lower your risk of suffering a range of disorders such as diabetes, cardiac diseases, and metabolic syndrome (5).
4. May Slow Down the Pace of Skin Aging
Chronic inflammation increases the chances of different diseases but may also speed up the pace of skin aging. But, the active compounds and essential nutrients in the kimchi salads prolong the lifespan of your skin cells and may slow down the pace of skin aging. A test-tube study demonstrates that the human skin cells that are treated with kimchi have shown increased viability and longer lifespan, thus validating the claims that the healthful nutrients in fermented kimchi salads may help slow down the pace of skin aging (6).
5. May Lower the Chances of Yeast Infections
Women are likely to develop vaginal yeast infections at some point in time due to several reasons. It is found that over 1.45 million women are treated for yeast infections every year in the United States. Yeast infections occur in the vulvovaginal region of women due to the action of the candida fungus, which is generally considered harmless and multiplies inside the vagina to cause an infection and discomfort.
According to research, it is found that certain strains of lactobacillus may fight the infection-causing fungus. Besides, multiple strains of the lactobacillus separated from the kimchi salad are found to fight the infection-causing fungus (7), (8), (9).
6. May Aid in Weight Loss
Fermented foods like kimchi are low-calorie, rich in nutrients, and may help lose a few extra kilos (10). Also, a 4-week study involving 22 obese people pinpoints that consuming fresh and fermented kimchi salad regularly resulted in weight loss and the active compounds in the superfood also lowered blood glucose levels in the participants (11). Kimchi’s low-calorie index, high fiber content, and probiotics are believed to be the potent factors that facilitate weight loss.
7. May Help Improve Cardiac Health
The delicious, crunchy, and spicy salad may lower your risk of suffering heart ailments (12). Clinical researchers conclude inflammation is a potential cause of several heart diseases (13). Anti-inflammatory compounds like those found in Kimchi salads are known to reduce inflammation in the body, eventually decreasing your risk of heart disease. As per a week-long study on 100 people, it is found that people who ate 50-210 grams of Kimchi salad every day experienced significant reductions in blood glucose, total cholesterol, and low-density cholesterol- the three components that make a risk factor for heart disease (14).
8. May Improve Gastrointestinal Health
Probiotics contain a blend of bacteria and yeasts that are beneficial for your digestive tract. These microorganisms improve gut flora and aid digestion. Kimchi is a natural source of probiotics required by your body every day. Healthy bacteria in the Korean salad may improve gut flora in your body and regulate digestive processes for overall wellness. Regular consumption of fermented or probiotic-rich food may lower your risk of suffering from Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and pouchitis (15).
9. May Boost Cognitive Function
We all know that probiotics are extremely good for the gut health of humans. Surprisingly, they may be equally good for your brain. Interestingly, your gut is called the second brain as it helps produce many of the similar neurotransmitters (such as serotonin, dopamine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid) that your brain produces. It is believed that an appreciable amount of dopamine is produced by the gut and helps boost mood and cognition (16).
Gastrointestinal issues such as Crohn’s disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) may lead to episodes of anxiety and depression. Since good bacteria and other healthful compounds in Kimchi salads improve gut microbiota, it simultaneously lowers your risk of suffering mental health problems.
10. May Lower the Risk of Cancer
A variety of vegetables in Kimchi salads make a rich source of antioxidants which diligently fights against free radicals and oxidative stress in the body, thus reducing the risk of cancers. Also, the lactic acid bacteria in Kimchi salads are believed to increase the anti-tumor activity in the body and lower the risk of bladder cancer (17).
Steps to Prepare Kimchi Salad At Home
Preparing fermented foods at home is often challenging and time-consuming. But, preparing Kimchi is super easy and can be made at home conveniently with a few ingredients. Follow these steps to prepare your favorite Kimchi salad at home-
- Gather veggies and spices of your choice to prepare a flavourful kimchi salad. Some commonly used and best ingredients for kimchi salad include cabbage, celery, carrots, radish, and cucumber. You can include common kitchen spices and condiments such as ginger, garlic, chili flakes, dry mango powder, rice flour, sugar, salt, and fish oil (for non-vegetarian variants). Skip animal products if you strictly follow a plant-based diet.
- Wash the vegetables thoroughly under running tap water to remove dirt and impurities. Cut the vegetables to your desired shape and size.
- Sprinkle salt in between the layers of cabbage leaves and in the slits made in carrots, ginger, and celery sticks. Let them rest for 2-3 hours.
- Turn and toss the veggies to ensure that the salt is evenly spread and absorbed by these veggies. It’s often best to use around 72 grams of regular salt for 2.5 kilograms of veggies.
- To remove extra salt from the veggies, rinse them with plain water or drain the water released from the veggies using a strainer or colander.
- Now, in a deep bowl or colander, put all the ingredients and spices together and mix well, and toss the vegetables so that they are evenly coated with the spices.
- Pour the salad mixture into a jar and seal it tightly. Allow the veggies to ferment for 3-4 days at room temperature.
- You can notice little bubbles occurring in the jar after 3-4 days of fermentation, which signifies that the salad is ready to eat.
- After fermenting the salad for initial 3-4 days, the salad can be refrigerated for up to one year. During this phase, the salad will continue to ferment but at a lower pace under cool temperatures.
- You must know that bubbling, fluffiness, and sour taste are a few common yet normal properties of kimchi salads. However, if you notice a strong, foul odor or a white layer of fungus growing over the salad, the food has probably gone rancid and unfit for human consumption.
Are There Any Health Risks Associated with Kimchi?
While there are numerous health benefits associated with Kimchi, on the flip side, there are a few downsides as well. Here are a few risks associated with the consumption of Kimchi salad.
A common health risk linked with kimchi is food poisoning (18). Also, some recent risks linked to traditional Kimchis are E.Coli and Norovirus outbreaks in school children.
Though fermented foods are generally safe for human consumption, certain ingredients in Kimchi are prone to rot by the action of pathogens, thus making it unfit for human consumption. If you notice a white layer of mold on top of the Kimchi, toss the entire jar into the waste bin and avoid consuming it under any circumstances.
Eating Kimchi has been a concern for people with hypertension due to its salt and sugar content. However, a study on 114 people with a history of high blood pressure demonstrates that there is no significant link between intake of kimchi salads and blood pressure (19).
Conclusion
Kimchi is a fermented salad or side-dish native to Korea but is now well consumed in other parts of the world as a side dish for many starters. Apart from its crunchy texture and appealing flavors, the health benefits of Kimchi make it a popular choice for many fitness junkies. The active compounds in fermented foods diligently work to improve your gut functions, heart health, cognition, vaginal health, skin health, and many others. The crunchy salad can be prepared easily at home and can be eaten raw and fresh or can be left for fermentation for a few days. Though kimchi is generally considered safe to eat for most people, certain ingredients in Kimchi make it susceptible to contamination, which may lead to food poisoning and diarrhea. Thus, precaution is needed while eating kimchi.
Now that you know the best health benefits of Kimchi, make this fermented salad a part of your diet and experience impressive positive effects on your health.
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