Kimchi: will any kind do?

Kimchi is a fermented food, popularly eaten in Korea. It is now commonly available when you eat Asian food. While others serve fermented vegetables, Kimchi is uniquely Korean.

But we are here to discuss an interesting ingredient in Kimchi. Red pepper.

When we eat food, to a regular consumer, it all looks the same. My kimchi, your kimchi - what is the difference, anyway?

We get the same question with the people we advice on food. Can I just generally eat the categories that you are asking?

But let me use the humble red pepper to explain.

People have made kimchi for thousands of years. Some argue, hundreds of thousands of years. Why this matters is that our ancestors, without modern tools, mastered the use of specific ingredients to make food.

Adding red pepper in the preparation fundamentally alters the kimchi. It prevents other harmful microbial to form. It delays the formation of the bacteria that we desire.

When the fermentation process starts, there are thousands of strains of bacteria. What we need is the good ones. How fermentation eliminates the harmful ones and leaves the good one is truly fascinating.

In this case, the good ones are the strains of Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Weissella. If you compare the dish made with and without pepper, there is a marked difference in the prevalence of Weissella.

The red pepper changes the Ph (acid/alkaline) property of the vegetables, thereby creating this outcome.

So we can see that not all kimchi are the same.

There is both art and science to making food. The right ingredients, used at the right time, completely alter the profile.

It changes the benefits you would get obtained by consuming it.

I know social media tells you to just be in calorie deficit and you will lose weight, for example. But the easiest way to be in a calorie deficit is to drink water, as I keep saying.

Food is more complex that we imagine.

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