As always, Dr Lee HJ gave us  good medical information about  nutrition and Korean diet.

Some of those informations new , some well known.

 I cannot agree more with with Andy Bellatli or Andrew Salmon about Korean dishes.

Recently, the medical director of the GI service, SNUBH, prof. Lee DH gave a similar  lecture on this subject  but did not give us  any solution of the Korean’s bad habbit or practical solution to change.               Dr Kim SK, retired professor of nephrology(74 grad) embarked on the national campaign on low salt     diet in Korea.  As  William suggested , he showed how to eat 냉면 on TV,  discarding  국물 first and  eat the noodles only.   How many people would follow this?---very few.

As Korean economy has gotten better over the years, red meat consumption by Korean citizens increased.  Colon cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, myocardial infarctions were very rare in late   60’s or early 70’s when I was a surgical resident in Korea and inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis almost never heard of.

 In fact, I remember senior surgical residents of those years were drooling(?) for possible  colectomy cases or radical mastectomy those days in the midst of  plenty gastrectomy cases, porto caval shunt cases,etc.

Not any more. Almost everyday, colorectal surgeons are loaded with many laparoscopic colectomies, right and left and breast surgeons are doing many lumpectomies, sentinel node biopsies, mastectomies,…… of course,.less extensive surgical procedures for breasts.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are not uncommon these days. .Extensive coronary disease, severe diabetes, prostate cancer are common as well.  Incidence of colon cancer is increasing  rapidly and I was told that it would be number 1 cancer in Korea  in matter of few years ,albeit steady or slightl;y decreasing incidence of stomach cancer and hepatoma.  Hypertension in Korean citizens appears more resistant  to ususal antihypertensive medications per my non scientific observation,  at least in cardiac surgical       population, in comparison to  similar US population

Generally, we have enough knowledge about food, nutrition,etc…Difficulty is how to change the food-culture and how to change “ lack of discipline” at the level of individual citizens, especially in this democratic & permissive capitalistic society.  Alas!  I do not have too much discipline either!       Issues are more in  economics, politics, social habbits, maybe corrupted media and  shamefully even in   academics as shown in Mr.Salmon’s article