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(Lecture 1: Boost Immunity Against COVID)
Nice to meet you
How are you doing in these COVID times?
Everyone is worried about COVID right now
This isn't just a problem in our country
It's a global crisis with COVID right now
However, during these COVID times
we should reflect on God’s desires for us
As you know, the government is currently
implementing masks, social distancing,
quarantine, and vaccines
However, these are just the first step
and should be done in the short term
If we continue for 10 or 20 years
it could be a problem
All small businesses will struggle
and schools can't hold classes at all
So, this approach does help
slow the spread in the short term
Even though everyone talks about vaccines,
they're not a complete solution for COVID prevention
Why? Because vaccines last temporary
They’re effective for about six months
So, you'll need vaccines again next year
But, if the virus mutates,
the previous vaccine will be useless
It looks like we're trying to catch up
It means it's not a perfect solution
What do you think God wants from us in these times?
The second approach is that
as long as the death rate stays low, even if there are lots of cases,
it's manageable, like getting over a bad cold in a few days
So, how can we keep the mortality rate down?
God has provided a significant solution
It's the immunity that God has given us
You've heard a lot about immunity, right?
It's all familiar
Because when we think about immunity, we've already been brainwashed with
all these ideas of 'Oh, I just need to eat this or take that'
It's not that simple, though
And actually, because of certain social habits,
a lot of Koreans are living in ways that unknowingly weaken their immunity
As you know, we're living well right now
But, there was a time when we struggled
and sought to escape hunger and poverty
Thus, we pushed ourselves too hard
with too many excesses in our lives
Many people live unaware that
their lifestyles lead to lower immunity
The evidence is that
the average life expectancy is over 80 now
Do people have 60th birthday party lately?
It would be a big deal because
at 60, you're not considered old
But why did people throw 60th birthday parties 30 or 40 years ago?
Back then, not many people lived to be 60
So, relatives held a gratitude feast
to celebrate living to 60 years old
Now, our life expectancy has increased
to over 80 years, which is remarkable
Here's the thing: according to HHS' stats
by the time people hit 80, one out of three ends up with this
Any guesses?
Yes, it's cancer
One out of three up to 80 years have cancer
Living to 80 years old isn't what matters
What matters is living well to age 80
One out of three people with cancer is serious
What does it mean for one in three?
In every two households, one has cancer
Yet, we tend to think lightly about this
Right now, in our country, there are about 45 cases of colon cancer per 100K
So, out of 184 countries worldwide
where do you think we rank roughly?
First place? Any other opinions?
Third place
Whoever just said that is underestimating
For us, it's first place or nothing
Korea has the highest colon cancer rate
What's more concerning is that
men in Korea have
twice the colon cancer rate of women
What does that mean?
Men currently living in Korea
are ranking
double the global highest rate
and yet, men, fathers, and sons don't know
They don't care
Right now, in our country, there are about 77 cases of tuberculosis per 100K
When do people get tuberculosis?
When their immune system's down
When they haven't eaten enough
When they lack nutrients
It's a disease you see in underdeveloped countries
That's 77 cases per 100K people
Where do you think we rank among the 34 OECD countries?
Right, we really only accept first place
We rank the highest number among them
Among the 77 tuberculosis cases in Korea,
there are many cases in their 20s
It is all related to immune system issues
Breast cancer typically occurs with age
It usually develops after the age of 50
In the U.S., women under 40
make up 10-15% of all breast cancer cases
80-90% are aged 50 to 80
What percentage of breast cancer cases
are in Korean women under 40?
10-15% in the U.S. How about in Korea?
It's 50%
Almost half of them are young women
Young diseases relate to immunity issues
How can we overcome COVID?
If your immune system is strong, even if COVID virus gets into your body
it might just get taken down right away
Or, it can turn out asymptomatic
and could create antibodies and then leave
But as I mentioned earlier,
when the immune system weakens,
people only think about
health supplements like ginseng
But immunity isn't just that simple
Diet, lifestyle, environment,
and overall health
need to change to restore
and maintain immunity
The common health supplements
are only temporary solutions
They don't provide lasting support
What does that represent?
The fundamental aspects of our lives
must recover for true healing
and maintenance to occur
In modern science, it's called genetics
(Studies genes, heredity, and variations) Genetics basically says
that your fate is set by the genes
inherited from your parents
One with good genes will live well
But if they're born with bad genes,
their life may be difficult
This is what genetics is all about
But this theory has already been broken
Because of epigenetics
It means, even if someone is born with bad genes,
the way they choose to live
can determine
whether those genes are activated or not
One's life choices can change their fate
This is what epigenetics is about
Regarding the aspects related to immunity,
I mentioned that immunity is a key
to overcome the COVID
The first thing to consider is the gut
Because 70-80% of immune cells
are located in the gut
So, poor gut health equals poor immunity
So how can I know about my gut health?
First, severe constipation or diarrhea
can indicate gut health issues
Next, if a fart or stool smells very foul
When you eat meat
the sulfur in it can produce strong odors
as it transforms into indole and skatole
But if there's an even worse,
foul-smelling fart, it indicates that
there's a problem with the gut
Why are fart and stool odors so foul?
The food you eat should be
properly digested and absorbed
but it starts to decay in the gut
It begins to rot in the gut
The food you ate is rotting in your gut,
but you don't realize while acting carefree,
your body is sending signals for help
It's trying to tell something's rotting
Do you know what I find most pitiful?
The foul smell of fart and stool
among our teens and young adults in Korea
is very concerning
Moms focus only on making healthy meals
but they have no idea
if that food rots or digests in their kids
They laugh and joke, not taking it serious
when this is a serious issue
Therefore, we need to improve gut health
To make our guts healthy,
while there are many ways to do that,
today I'll focus on
just one effective method to start with
When it comes to gut health,
many viewers, including you, might think
'Taking probiotics would solve everything'
Everyone is taking probiotics nowadays
Probiotics have totally become
a national health food on trend now
Will taking probiotics fix it? No
Today, let's talk about
the hard truth of probiotics
The beneficial bacteria generally means
probiotics
That's how it's called
(Good gut bacteria that boost our health) It's active bacteria
They're called first-generation probiotics
It includes Lactobacillus and Bifidus
About 19 types of safe first-gen probiotics
are properly mixed together
5 or 7-8 mixed types are sold commercially
The first-generation probiotics you can buy these days usually
have around 10 billion CFUs
They're sensitive to temperature and pH
So even a slight temperature rise,
stomach acids kill them all
They also die in bile acids
So companies coat capsules
leading to various patents
This helps them reach the intestines
The problem is that
they need to reproduce in the intestines
Over 100 trillion bacteria live in the gut
But you consume only about 1-10 billion
First-gen products have no effect taken
It means their numbers remain unchanged
It's like adding a bucket of water
to a larger one won't show any difference
They must reproduce, but what is required?
It needs food, temperature, and humidity
Everything but the food is available
The food for probiotics is glucose
But it fully absorbs in the small intestine
and doesn't reach the colon
Why? Because it's fully absorbed already
in the small intestine before the colon
A special type is needed for the colon
A single glucose unit is a monosaccharide (Glucose, fructose, galactose)
Two monosaccharides linked together
are called disaccharides
They include sugar, honey, and syrup
But they break down easily and
are fully absorbed in the small intestine
What do we call three linked sugars?
A trisaccharide or polysaccharide
But sugars linked together from 3-10 are
specifically called oligosaccharides
Moms have all heard about them, right?
That those don't make you gain weight
because oligosaccharides, with 3-10 sugars
can't break down in the small intestine
They pass through intact to the colon
Since they reach the colon
without being absorbed,
they don't contribute to calories
It's good for weight management apparently
When 3-10 sugars arrive, they reach
the ascending and transverse colon,
break down and release glucose slowly
Gut bacteria consume it to reproduce
So, to support probiotics or gut microbes
you must eat what?
You need to eat oligosaccharies
with the most fructooligosaccharides
(Onion, garlic, yacon, banana, bean)
You need to eat them as side dishes
This is how we refer to them as
Prebiotics
the food for probiotics
You can't just take probiotic
You need to eat their food along with them
What should you eat as a side dish?
Onions, garlic, yacon, banana, and beans
But, 3-10 unit sugars can't reach the anus
Earlier, we mentioned that Korea has
45 out of 100K colon cancer patients
Most have rectal cancer above the anus
There are almost no bacteria in the rectum
All 3-10 sugars are eaten upon entry
They can't reach the end
To reach the end, you need sugars
linked together in chains of 20-30
And those chains are
called Inulin (A soluble fiber type in root vegetables)
The foods highest in inulin are
burdock, balloon flower root, yam, sunchoke, chicory
These all are root vegetables
Do Koreans, including children, eat them?
Root vegetables exist in this world
for one reason
For your gut health
God created every plant in this world
with its own unique function
What are the features of modern foods?
As people stop eating root vegetables,
the number of beneficial bacteria,
especially in the rectum, decrease
This lead to fewer immune cells,
reducing immune function
Weakened immune activity causes problems
like constipation and low immunity
So, what should you eat to restore health?
The combination of fructooligosaccharides
and inulin is called
third-generation synbiotics,
blending probiotics and prebiotics
The best option is fourth-gen
First and second-gen are mixed
along with probiotic metabolites
The best in fourth-gen probiotics is
traditional fermented foods from Korea
Traditional fermented veggies like kimchi
Fermented beans: cheonggukjang and soybean paste
Among kimchi, other types that
don’t use chili powder or salted seafood
Next, soybean paste is also salty
Cheonggukjang has a sticky, slimy texture (Produced during the fermentation)
a byproduct of probiotic metabolism
Cheonggukjang already contains probiotics
Soybean also has fructooligosaccharides
What is that slimy substance?
It's a metabolic byproduct, which includes
many beneficial substances for our body
So, actually, traditional fermented foods
from our ancestors, like kimchi
have become popular worldwide
It's the same idea
What is the best treatment for viruses?
It's Korean traditional fermented foods
Kimchi and cheonggukjang give us
a powerful weapon against COVID
To boost immunity, gut health must be good
and the best food for gut health is
traditional fermented foods from Korea
That’s why I’ve been giving many lectures
on cheonggukjang and kimchi
Since I only give lectures
many people ask for recipes
so I dressed up as a chef and cooked
I've taught how to make various kimchi
and how to prepare
and enjoy cheonggukjang
I majored in analytical chemistry
and one year, the Korean FDA analyzed
all commercial cheonggukjang products
consumed by Koreans
After the analysis, I found it hard
to encourage people to eat cheonggukjang
The recipe for cheonggukjang in Korea vary
There aren’t any companies of huge size
that properly make cheonggukjang
Most are nearly home-based businesses
So, families just make it casually
and as I traveled around the country,
the methods for fermenting cheonggukjang,
environments and the bacteria all differ
Among them, the most well-known method is
using straw when fermenting cheonggukjang
Meju is also hung on straw, right?
Are there only good bacteria in straw?
There are also bad ones too
Good bacteria promote fermentation
but, bad bacteria cause spoilage
So, everyone thinks cheonggukjang
should have a very strong smell
That smell is actually from spoilage
Cheonggukjang should never smell bad
If it smells bad,
it means it has spoiled
Commercializing it is entirely personal
Since it was mostly mothers
who fermented in traditional heating areas
many products contain harmful substances
like biogenic amines that shouldn't exist
And because of the smell
it has become a taboo food
Koreans especially started to avoid it
However, Korea is
the native land of soybeans
Soybeans were made in the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria
spreading worldwide
so we have a deep history with soybeans
During the Three Kingdoms period,
women brought Meju as part of their dowry
We had advanced fermentation technology
that we taught it to the Japanese
But they extracted only the good bacteria
and patented it as natto
They standardized the fermentation method
by managing temperature, humidity, and time
Natto is praised as a superfood worldwide
European and American hotels serve natto
in round containers at a breakfast
But in Korea?
It's completely become a taboo food
I tried to address this issue
Sunchang County is the most well-known
for fermented foods like gochujang
I met the county mayor and said that
while fermented gochujang is good,
we need to create fermented cheonggukjang
to boost immunity and help the teens
Let's develop an enjoyable cheonggukjang
At first, they laughed at me
Sir, even adults don't eat it How can they?
After several years of persuading them,
I sent a research proposal to the government
I applied for a project with Sunchang
and with five universities and three labs
got 4.5 billion in funding over five years
We're currently conducting
significant research on cheonggukjang
It's incomparable to natto
Natto is made by importing natto bacteria
from Japan and mixing with Korean soybeans
We're finding and using native bacteria
from 1,000 year old gochujang to ferment
made by grandmothers in rural Sunchang
So, I am conducting extensive research
on modernizing, standardizing,
and scientifically improving
traditional fermented foods in our country
The government is showing great interest
Like K-food, right?
During this time of COVID,
exporting foods that can help
combat the virus would greatly benefit us
These foods are wise gifts from God
and from our ancestors
so starting today
I'll try to eat
more cheonggukjang and kimchi
to boost my immunity and fight COVID
I also encourage you to start from this tonight
I've received many questions
about the lectures I've given
So, I'll pick a few from those
and answer them for you today
First question
I'm in my 30s and working full-time
I want to eat foods good for my immunity
but due to my busy work schedule
I end up grabbing a lot of takeout or quick meals
I know they're not the healthiest
but is there any way to make these meals
just a bit better for me?
That's a common concern
You know they're not good for you
so you should avoid them
but you still end up eating them
Generally, delivery or convenience foods
tend to be high in carbohydrates and fats
Too much protein would increase the cost
so they can't add it in excess
Instead, they have excessive fats, carbs
and are often spicy, salty, or sweet
So, when ordering delivery,
try to eat only half of the usual portion
Start by reducing the portion size
Next, when ordering food
it's better to choose boiled options
rather than fried or stir-fried ones
Second question
With the prolonged COVID pandemic
many people are depressed and annoyed
It's important to maintain physical health
as well as mental well-being
Are there foods that can help with both?
What should we keep in mind to ensure
that what we eat is good for our mental?
What methods of eating are beneficial?
Try to enjoy it
If you eat in anger or frustration
the food turns into poison for you
Because when we're angry
our body releases fewer digestive enzymes
Then, if the food isn't fully digested
what does it turn into in our body?
It turns into poison
Not all food becomes beneficial to us
Only when enzymes are released properly
to digest it well as we eat
it would help us
Undigested food is all poison
That's why there's a saying here:
"Don't bother even a dog while it eats"
So, how should we eat our meals?
Eat with joy, whatever the food may be
But no food alone can bring true joy
What bring joy in eating?
Eating food you love, something delicious
But what's even more important than that?
It's the atmosphere while you eat
When you eat with joy and happiness
the food become nourishing
like in Eden from the Bible
How does that happen?
When you eat in a state of frustration,
anger, or stress, all becomes poison
Please keep this in your mind
Third question
I've heard that fine dust reduces immunity
So I'm interested in foods
that help remove it like seaweeds
Do these really help with removing them?
Seaweed, kelp, and kombu
contain a sticky substance called alginate
Alginate effectively absorbs heavy metals
and helps remove them through stool
Also, the vegetables and fruits you eat
have dietary fiber, absorbing heavy metals
and increase the chances of excreting them
So if you've consumed a lot of fine dust
eating seaweed and fiber-rich foods
will help significantly boost
the chances of removing heavy metals
(Next lecture is about the two faces of nutrition)
It's good for removing fine dust
I've answered all three questions
With that, I'll finish this first lecture about immunity
Thank you