When cooking food, seasonings are as important as the ingredients. The word "seasoning" comes from "yaknyeom" (藥念), meaning to think of seasoning as medicine. Humanity began using seasonings when they started farming and cooking their food.

Seasonings Supplement Deficiencies in Land Quality

Originally, humans ate raw foods obtained from nature through hunting and gathering. These foods were rich in minerals, vitamins, and other bioactive compounds. However, while cooking food greatly aided preservation and enhanced taste, it also led to the demise of heat-sensitive nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.

Furthermore, settling in one place and farming, while greatly benefiting food production, also led to a decline in soil quality, causing many nutrients in fruits and grains to disappear or decrease. Humanity solved these problems by adding various seasonings to food. Seasonings were medicine.

Unfortunately, the quality of the seasonings we use today is so low that their meaning as "medicine" has faded.

If you look at supermarket shelves, you can easily find: △ salt with added chemical seasonings △ glacial acetic acid derived from petroleum △ fermented soy sauce made by breaking down soy protein with hydrochloric acid △ soybean paste made with imported flour △ brown sugar colored with caramel pigment △ refined cooking oil with only the oil extracted by soaking in organic solvents △ sesame oil mixed with various cooking oils like corn oil. You can also find △ chili powder made with low-quality Chinese seasonings △ and salted fermented shrimp made with an abundance of chemical seasonings.

Poor Seasonings Act as Toxins in the Body

These seasonings are produced through mass production systems and are sold at low prices to homes, restaurants, and processed food factories. These seasonings are closer to "flavor-enhancing manufactured goods" than medicine. In particular, restaurants tend to use a lot of seasonings, glacial acetic acid, and mixed soy sauce that create strong flavors with small amounts to meet food cost targets. It is unreasonable to expect these to act as medicine in the body. The high prevalence of obesity and metabolic diseases among those who eat out frequently is not unrelated to this.

If you reduce the frequency of eating out, eat home-cooked meals, and can switch all the seasonings in your pantry to natural ones, you will greatly benefit your health. Consuming properly made seasonings not only promotes smooth metabolism but also helps prevent various adult diseases, including cancer. This is because seasonings are medicine.

It is not difficult to purchase good seasonings. Instead of mixed soy sauce, buy brewed soy sauce. Instead of seasoned salt, buy natural sea salt, bamboo salt, or boiled salt. Instead of soybean oil extracted with chemical solvents, purchase olive oil, perilla oil, sesame oil, or avocado oil pressed mechanically. For soybean paste and red pepper paste, it is best to buy those that have been fermented by hand.

While these seasonings may initially seem a bit expensive, they are not the main ingredients, so when calculated per meal, the cost is not significant. Above all, if you consider the health of yourself and your family, paying the right price for proper seasonings is beneficial in the long run.

◆ Director Park Chan-young

Director of Eo-seong-cho Korean Medicine Clinic in Sadang-dong, Seoul. Doctor of Korean Medicine from Dongguk University. He caused a detoxification sensation in Korea by appearing on TV health programs such as MBN's 'Umjiui Jegwang' (King of Thumbs). His books include 'Atopic Dermatitis Treated with Eo-seong-cho,' 'Seasonings Are Medicine,' and 'The Miracle of Detoxification.'