Kimchi: Good or Bad for You?

In the last few months, I have seen a number of  articles about kimchi and in particular, its health benefits.  As understanding of the human microbiome has grown, articles like this one talk about the probiotic and other benefits of eating it.  Years ago, Tim wrote a post about the link to kimchi consumption to certain kinds of cancer.  Yet now, some medical organizations are recommending eating kimchi, such as this one suggesting consuming it with antibioitics.  This leads to the question – is kimchi good or bad for you?

“The dose makes the poison” – Paracelsus

After reading more articles and papers on the health effects of kimchi, I would say that kimchi’s goodness or badness really depends.  This review of eleven randomized controlled trials on the health of effects of kimchi finds that there are numerous studies that show some positive benefits such as lowering cholestrol and increased fiber intake, but more rigorous studies need to be done. In places where increased gastric cancer is associated with kimchi, kimchi consumption averages 1 to 1.5 cups per day according to this article. Taking a cue from the saying from Paracelsus says and as other articles and papers suggests, moderate consumption is likely to be not problematic (I am not a doctor though).

I personally like kimchi, and after I had a round of antibiotics, I did eat extra kimchi after that. I eat it only occasionally and definitely not in the the cup per day kind of volume, so I think that given my limited intake and my taste for it, it’s good for me.

 

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American Born Chinese: Jin & Amelia

This blog post contains spoilers.

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Asian American Frozen Foods: MìLà’s “Soup Dumplings” found at Costco

I saw a friend of mine post  this photo on Facebook after she went shopping at the same Costco in Silicon Valley where I shop. I’ve been aware of MìLà‘s (formerly known as Xiao Chi Jie) Xiao Long Bao (“XLB”) or also known as “soup dumpling,” having done my search for frozen ones. I’ve been a fan of soup dumplings ever since trying them at Din Tai Fung back in 2002 in Shanghai. More recently, back in 2019, I reviewed Synear’s ‘Pork Soup Dumplings’ that I found at my local Ranch 99.

Once I did a search on soup dumplings, MìLà’s social media marketing ninjas targeted me on Facebook. I would see their social media ads all the time. Back then, they did not have retail distribution that I was aware of, so unless you lived in the Seattle area (where I believe they are still headquartered), you had to order online and had them delivered (with dry ice) and that made a 50 piece bag costs $39.99 (before tax and shipping), making it $0.80 cents per dumpling. I like XLB, but not that much! Thus I was excited to see that MìLà had distribution at my local Silicon Valley Costco – for $13.99 for 32 pieces – $0.44 cents per dumpling – with no shipping. I had to make a trip the same day, as my friend said that Costco was running out of them.

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Randall Park’s UCLA 2023 Commencement Address

This past week, actor, comedian, writer, director, and UCLA Alumnus Randall Park delivered the keynote speech at all three UCLA 2023 college commencements. In this speech, he walks through his career ups and downs and how they shaped himself to the person he is today – that the adversity you face may help pave the way for future success. His speech is both funny and wise – worth spending the time to listen to it. It’s also fascinating to see how his career has evolved since we interviewed him in 2011.

I first blogged about Randall Park way before I knew who he was in one of my first ever “Asian American Commercial Watch” series of blog posts, Asian Americans going on a date in a Wells Fargo commercial. In the ad, Park is portraying a man getting ready to go on a date. Since then, Park has had quite a career as you can see from his IMDB listing. That’s quite remarkable to see for an Asian American male actor (or for that matter, Asian American female actor), especially if you’ve grown up in the 1970s and 1980s seeing a paucity of Asian American faces in TV and movies.

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Asian American Medical Hazard: Hidden Fat and Hidden Diabetes

“Hidden fat” at first glance doesn’t look like a bad thing. Who wants to have everyone see where your fat is? But for Asian Americans Pacific Islanders and the Filipino, South Asian, and Pacific Islander subgroups in particular, fat tends to be stored around the liver and other internal organs, making these groups more vulnerable to diabetes and less likely to be diagnosed if their BMI or waistlines or A1C tests look normal and do not indicate diabetes. This is becoming an increasing concern as the number of Asian Americans with diabetes is on the rise.

These articles from NPR discuss two Asian American researchers in particular working to understand how diabetes works in their communities.  The first is Dr. Alka Kanaya who explains how hidden fat works.  Rather than ending up in the hips or thighs, fat tends to be “in all the wrong places” such as “in the liver, around the abdominal organs, in the muscle, around the heart.” We have talked before about some her work with the South Asian Americans in the MASALA project.

The second is Maria Rosario Araneta, who first noticed the problem when she heard that many Filipino American Navy men who weren’t overweight and sedentary were hospitalized with kidney damage from diabetes. This hit home for her, as she is Filipino American and has a father and grandmother who had diabetes and were thin. Another problem that Araneta has found is that the common tests for diabetes, the A1C test, does not find diabetes in many Asian Americans using the standard scale.

This article is also hits home for me as Filipino American.  My father is not overweight and is active yet has diabetes. We have done many stories on the increased vulnerability of Asian Americans to diabetes compared to the general population. I know many many Filipino Americans who are diabetic, and this study shows that many are undiagnosed. I also work with many South Asians who may be vulnerable to these same sort of problems.

The article suggests that in the long term, more studies of different Asian subgroups would be useful.  In the near team, increased monitoring is importing.  This includes checking for diabetes with Asian Americans with BMI at 23, and doing further diabetes tests for Asian Americans in the “pre-diabetes” A1C range.  Also, I have noticed that while many Filipino Americans might not be overweight, they have poor lifestyle habits that involve consuming too much sugar and not exercising sufficiently. Lifestyle changes can make a difference. The article says that for some South Asians, the South Asian Healthy Lifestyle Intervention Program (SAHELI) program has made a big difference.  The Joslin Asian American Diabetes Initiative website has many useful resources for Asian Americans concerned about diabetes.

 

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SF DocFest: How to Have an American Baby

I had first heard of ‘birth tourism’ from a former co-worker/friend of mine more than a decade ago. When I heard that Chinese women were coming Southern California to give birth so that their kids could get U.S. citizenship, I was incredulous. A few months after that, I had read this in January 2013 LA Times article:

“USA Baby Care’s website makes no attempt to hide why the company’s clients travel to Southern California from China and Taiwan. It’s to give birth to an American baby.

“Congratulations! Arriving in the U.S. means you’ve already given your child a surefire ticket for winning the race,” the site says in Chinese. “We guarantee that each baby can obtain a U.S. passport and related documents.”

That passport is just the beginning of a journey that will lead some of the children back to the United States to take advantage of free public schools and low-interest student loans, as the website notes. The whole family may eventually get in on the act, since parents may be able to piggyback on the child’s citizenship and apply for a green card when the child turns 21.

USA Baby Care is one of scores, possibly hundreds, of companies operating so-called maternity hotels tucked away in residential neighborhoods in the San Gabriel Valley, Orange County and other Southern California suburbs. Pregnant women from Chinese-speaking countries pay as much as $20,000 to stay in the facilities during the final months of pregnancy, then spend an additional month recuperating and awaiting the new baby’s U.S. passport.”

When I saw that “How to Have an American Baby” documentary was coming to the 2023 San Francisco Documentary Festival (“DocFest”), I definitely wanted to see it.

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Smartwatch Heart Rate Monitoring for Darker Skin

As a smartwatch user who uses one to track health and fitness statistics, I have wondered how accurate it is, especially since my skin tone is on the darker side (see picture).  We have written about how pulse oximeters have been shown to be less accurate on people of color, but what about heart rate monitoring using smartwatches?  Are there similar issues?

I found this systematic review of studies looking at smartwatch heart rate data accuracy vs skin tone. Out of 10 studies found, four reported a significant reduction in accuracy for those with darker skin. Four studies noted no effect, and two had mixed results. The review states that that preliminary evidence is inconclusive. The lead author of the study, Dr. Daniel Koerber, says in an interview:

Ongoing research and development of these devices should emphasize the inclusion of populations of all skin tones so that the developed algorithms can best accommodate for variations in innate skin light absorption.

I wondered why some studies would show an effect from skin tone while others did not. The systematic review pointed out that the studies were not blind and had small sample sizes while using different devices. I think the using different devices makes a large difference.  I looked up how my Garmin smartwatch that I use is affected for skin tone issue.  Garmin says that their watches compensate for dark skin by using more light. Darker skinned people may see slightly more power being used.

My takeaway from looking at this question is that smartwatch heart rate monitoring can be accurate for dark skin. Buyers for smartwatches who want to use this feature should look up for themselves whether or not the smart watch that they want for heart rate monitoring compensates for their skin tone.

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CAAMFest 2023: Review – Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story

I was supposed to review Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story (trailer here) during or around CAAMFest 2023, but I let the screener link expire and the screening during CAAMFest was on Mother’s Day. I finally reached out to the filmakers and was able to watch the documentary. When I first saw the list of films that were going to be screened at CAAMFest and saw this one listed, I knew I had to watch it.

I was a “friend” of Corky Lee, at least on Facebook but had never met him nor did I really know much about Lee (except that he appeared to be a photographer based on all of his postings) until I watched the documentary Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story:

“Born in Queens, Corky Lee, for a half-century, had been documenting New York  City’s Asian American community.   

His photos show the little-known struggle of Asians in America,  including civil rights protests, racist immigration legislation, and  violence towards Sikhs and Muslims of Asian descent since 9/11. “

Having blogged for 8Asians since January 2007, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people in the Asian American community (Corky & I have 77 mutual friends on Facebook) and learn about our history. I knew that Lee was a photographer and that was about it. After the watching the documentary, I could really relate to him, as his ethos was – that if an event wasn’t photographed, it really didn’t happen.

I also try to live by that ethos, except that I would add that if also wasn’t recorded on video, it didn’t happen. In many ways, my efforts to document events on 8Asians is the very same as Corky’s – if I’m not going to do it, who is? That’s why I’ve tried to document Asian American events or people that don’t get as much coverage that I am interested in, in particular around politics, and think I have one of the deepest coverage and focus on Asian Americans for certain events, like at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 & 2016, Fred Korematsu Day in California, the City of San Jose apology to Chinese Americans, Celebration & Commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Wong Kim Ark Day [3/28/1898] in San Francisco, etc.

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125th Anniversary of Wong Kim Ark Day [3/28/1898] – Celebration & Commemoration

Another blog post I am woefully late on (but did post the video on YouTube shortly afterwards). I had attended the 125th anniversary back on March 25th commemorating and celebrating the landmark Supreme Court decision of U.S. vs. Wong Kim Ark:

“Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco in 1873, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under a law restricting Chinese immigration and prohibiting immigrants from China from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the citizenship language in the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed the circumstances of his birth and could not be limited in its effect by an act of Congress.”

I had first learned of Wong Kim Ark maybe 5 years ago while reading a review of a documentary about birthright citizenship. I had just assumed that this was because of the Fourteenth Amendment. In reality, it was re-affirmed and codified into law because of this case.

This celebration and commemoration occured in Chinatown in San Francisco and rightfully so. I had sent out my YouTube video of the commemoration to all of my Asian American and political friends, especially those in the San Francisco Bay Area, along with a lawyer I knew, along with this Washington Post article about the 125th anniversary:

“U.S. government officials considered citizenship claims by native-born children of Chinese immigrants to be an end run around the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the racist federal law that barred most Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. Wong became the government’s “test case” — chosen with the goal of defeating birthright citizenship for the children of “undesirable” immigrants.

Wong relied on the Citizenship Clause to defend his right to remain in the United States. Wong was born in San Francisco around 1870, the son of Chinese immigrants who were barred by federal law from naturalizing based on their race. He lived in the United States most of his life, working as a cook and a laborer. Wong knew he was an American at birth.

But when Wong tried to return home after a visit to China in August of 1895, his government barred him from entering, denying his citizenship despite conceding his birth in the United States.

But the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was written in race-neutral terms. Conrad was forced to argue against citizenship for the children of all noncitizen parents on the ground they were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, as that Clause requires. This breathtaking claim would have stripped citizenship from hundreds of thousands of people born in the United States to immigrant parents.

It was also wrong. As members of the Reconstruction Congress explained in 1866, the narrow exception to birthright citizenship applied only to the children of diplomats and those born into Native American tribes, who were under the “jurisdiction” of a separate sovereign and did not need to comply with all U.S. laws. In contrast, immigrants and their children living in the United States were and are required to follow all federal and state laws or face criminal and civil penalties and so are fully “subject” to the nation’s “jurisdiction.”

After deliberating for over a year, on March 28, 1898, the Supreme Court rejected the government’s argument and held that the native-born children of immigrants are citizens at birth. Wong’s victory was a surprise coming from a court that two years earlier had upheld “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson, and that frequently ruled against a group it referred to as the “obnoxious Chinese.””

I was surprised that my SF Bay Area political friends were not aware of the Wong Kim Ark case. It made me think of SF City Attorney David Chiu’s remarks at the event that a Hollywood film should be made about him. I was especially surprised that some lawyer friends didn’t know because I thought this would be taught in law school.

In any case, I was especially moved to see that some direct descendants of Wong Kim Ark were in attendance – literally living history. One of the joys over the years while I’ve been blogging for 8Asians is to educate myself and share about all the historic and interesting events and Asian Americans I’ve come to learn about, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where some of the first Asian Americans became deeply rooted in the United States.

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Andrew Yang & Moving Forward Together with the Common Sense Party – San Francisco (4/21/23)

Speakers in the video above – in order of appearance: (click on “Watch on YouTube” for entire timestamped video segments in the video description)

  • Sara Lashanlo, Northern California Volunteer Coordinator, Common Sense Party
  • Andrew Yang, Co-Chair, Forward Party
  • Tom Campbell, Chair, Common Sense Party
  • Quentin Kopp, co-founder of Common Sense Party, former San Francisco Board of Supervisor, California State Senator, California (San Mateo) Superior Court judge
  • Lindsey Williams Drath, Forward Party
  • CEO Governor Christine Todd Whitman, Co-Chair, Forward Party

I am woefully late in this blog post that I have been working on since April (though I did publish the video shortly after the event), but back on Friday, April 21st in San Francisco, Andrew Yang, co-chair of the Forward Party joined with co-chair former Governor of New Jersey, Christine Todd Whitman, to promote the Common Sense Party in California. When I first saw the news that Yang & Whitman were visiting both San Francisco and Los Angeles regarding this, I was a little confused.

The political press didn’t report much on the alliance of the two parties, and I didn’t see the press release back in January (‘Common Sense Party and Forward Party Join Forces in California’):

“In a move to empower independent-minded California voters, the Common Sense Party and Forward Party of California are combining efforts to change politics in the Golden State for the better. Using the ‘Common Sense Party’ name, this new political coalition is the future for independent-minded and solutions-oriented politics in California. This joint effort reflects a commitment to unleashing the political power of state and local leaders to better represent our diverse communities through common sense problem solving in government. … Under California law, new parties must register approximately 73k voters to be officially recognized as a political party in the state. Forward Party members in California will now register for the Common Sense Party, joining the already nearly 30k registered Common Sense Party voters. Volunteers across the state will be able to work together at the grassroots level, leading through our shared values of cooperation and problem solving.”

I was able to attend this event in San Francisco to learn more about this coalition and also meet and interview both Yang and Whitman. You can watch the whole event in the video above and my interview below.

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US Memorial Day: Remembering Henry Chin of the Lost Battalion

Monument to the Lost Battalion

During this time when Asian Americans continue to be questioned for their loyalty and are still considered perpetual foreigners, it is worthwhile on US Memorial Day to note Asian Americans who fought and died for their country.  One such Asian American is Henry Chin, who was part of the famous Lost Battalion of World War 1. The story of the Lost Battalion became one of the most noted war time stories in the United States during that time, spawning news paper accounts and even a movie in 1919. Henry Chin is also portrayed in the 2001 movie The Lost Battalion.

The Lost Battalion, led by Major Charles Whittlesey, was a group of soldiers from the US Army 77th Infantry Division who fought to capture an objective and were then surrounded by German forces.  While taking enormous losses (> 72% casualty rate), they survived running low on food, water, and ammunition, German counter-attacks, and artillery barrages from US forces. Their resistance provided a distraction to German forces that contributed to an Allied breakthrough. Whittlesey and others received the Medal of Honor. Another famous Asian American WWI war hero, Lau Sing Kee, served in this division, although I can find no evidence that he was in the Lost Battalion incident.

More than 100 years after the Lost Battalion, it is hard to express just how much they captured the imagination of the US public at the time. The story gathered a lot of press at the time, particularly from famed newspaperman and short story writer Damon Runyon. A movie was created in 1919 that reenacted the story. Almost everyone in the United States knew the story. In the novel The Great Gatsby, Gatsby refers to war experiences that echoes the Lost Battalion. A number of books were published over the past 100 years about the Lost Battalion. The monument shown above was erected in 2008.

Getting back to Henry Chin, I couldn’t find a picture of him. As I mentioned, he is portrayed in the 2001 The Lost Battalion movie, but he isn’t on screen very long. The movie emphasizes that the 77th was mostly composed of New Yorkers, many of who were recent immigrants and whose loyalty was questioned but still were willing to fight for the their new country (it seems that some things do not change 100 years later). I thought it was fairly good (it has a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score) and would recommend it.

The Lost Battalion can be streamed or purchased on Amazon Prime. For a thorough overview on the Lost Battalion, this is a excellent talk. Our other US Memorial Day stories can be found here.

 

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A Short Review: Auntie

There comes a time in your life when a metaphorical slap in the face tells you that you are no longer the young hip person you may have thought that you once were.  In Fawzia Mirza‘s short film Auntie (IMDB entry here), lawyer Hena, played wonderfully by Vanita Kalra, goes to a meeting for South Asian lawyers and gets that slap for herself. I found this short to be very funny and particularly germane to people of my age.

Auntie movie poster

photo credit: Fawzia Mirza

As you may know, in many AAPI cultures, older people are addressed as “Uncle” or “Auntie” as a form of respect.  This is common in Hawaii, also. While I have had nieces and nephews who call me “Uncle” for quite some time, it is completely different when you get called out in public by people you don’t know. Auntie reminded me of one such moment. I went to watch a Warriors game at the Chase Center with Number Two Son and The Daughter’s boyfriend. After the game as we were waiting in line to get the escalator down and out, I hear behind me a woman say, “Uncle, can you take our picture?” I heard it but was unsure until Number Two Son said, “they are talking to you!” Turns out the Asians behind me thought I was now “Uncle” material. Number Two Son and The Daughter’s boyfriend thought it was hilarious (and yes, I did take their picture). Auntie, with its use of technology and interactions between different generations really made me think of my “Uncle” moment.

In addition to how it deals with generations, I really like Auntie‘s Asian American cultural elements.  Not my particular Asian American cultural group but with enough universality to make me identify with it. I particularly enjoyed the music which I had never heard before (Firestarter and Hot Mango Chutney Sauce).

As you can tell, I really enjoyed Auntie and recommend it. Even if you don’t, well, it’s a short!

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