Korean Food Meets Science

What is your favorite Korean food? Bibimbap? Galbi? Bulgogi? Something else?

Image Courtesy: Morning Calm News @ Flickr

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Whenever I leave Korea I'm always pleasantly surprised to see how popular Korean food is becoming beyond the peninsula. When I was a child I lived for a while in Scotland. I loved the beautiful landscape but life wasn't perfect. No. It was almost impossible to find ingredients we needed to make Korean food. Even simple things like red pepper paste were hard to come by. Also, due to Korean food's distinct smell, our family always had to carefully pick a menu before cooking, so as not to incur the wrath of our neighbors.

Nowadays, my friends from other countries ask me for Korean food recipes and they love the taste and even the smell! Not just my friends but even popular celebrities are on board. Gwyneth Paltrow loves Korean food so much that she created her own recipe for bibimbap!

Korean food is not only popular because of its great taste but also because of its scientific health benefits. A typical Korean meal has a vegetable-to-meat ratio of 8:2 with few fried ingredients. Most are streamed, boiled or stir-fried.

Cheonbuk National University's Clinical Trial Center for Functional Foods' study released research results that shows how Korean food is related to curing diabetes and high-blood pressure. The team encouraged one group to follow a conventional diet for diabetes patients while the other group ate a typical "pre-1970s' Korean diet" for three months. The group who followed the Korean diet showed impressive improvement on important diabetes index, heart rate, liver function and many more.

Image Courtesy: Julie Facine @ Flickr

Have I made you hungry yet? Please check out the below video of the winners of the Delicious SEOUL Story Video Contest held by VisitSeoul. These lucky people were able to come to Korea to taste, experience and create healthy and delicious Korean food!

About the author by Sophie Choi

Born in Korea and raised on three different continents, I have always been enthusiastic to share the uniqueness of Korean culture and design. On top of that, the advanced level of Korean technology makes me proud to call myself Korean and motivates me to spread technology related news to more people around the world. The list of things I like (and like to do) is endless: Facebooking, Cooking, Gummy jellies, Lilies... and it goes on.

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