Up to 3 daily servings of kimchi may lower men’s obesity risk
A new suggests eating kimchi up to 3 times a day may lower men’s obesity risk; meanwhile, radish kimchi is linked to lower occurrence of midriff bulge in men and women.
A study published Tuesday in South Korea found that people who ate moderate amounts of kimchi daily are at a lower risk for developing obesity, with different types of kimchi being associated with staving off different forms of obesity.
The report — titled “Association between kimchi consumption and obesity based on BMI and abdominal obesity in Korean adults” and published in the medical journal BMJ Open — surveyed over 115,000 Korean adults ages 40 to 69 and found that Korean men who consumed one to three servings of kimchi a day were less likely to develop obesity than those who ate less than a serving per day.
Kimchi, which originated in what is now South Korea, is a popular fermented vegetable dish prepared with salt, chili paste and various seasonings, such as onion, garlic and fish sauce.
The researchers from Chung Ang University, Korea’s National Cancer Center and the World Institute of Kimchi found that Korean men who consumed the most cabbage kimchi in particular had a 10% reduced chance of developing both obesity and abdominal obesity. Both men and women who ate more radish kimchi than average had 8% and 11% reduced risk of abdominal obesity, respectively.
Numerous studies have shown that a diet high in fermented foods, such as kimchi, has proven health benefits, such as increasing microbiome diversity and reducing inflammation. Another study, published in April in the Journal of Ethnic Foods, found that kimchi can be an effective treatment aid for obesity.
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