Thank you BBC for giving kimchi fanaticism more 'facts' to work with . . .

I saw this on the BBC's top 5 stories this morning, Korean dish 'may cure bird flu.

I was immediately curious about who the author of this fine piece of reporting was--By David Chazan, BBC News--but he isn't Korean.

From the article, "The researchers said the results were far from scientifically proven and if kimchi did have the effects they observed, it was unclear why. " (my bold, my italics)

"Kimchi was reported to have helped to prevent Sars. The claim was never scientifically proven, but according to some Koreans, people in other countries followed their example and started eating kimchi. So one of Korea's national specialities may soon find a much bigger market. Whether it really is an effective remedy, only time and more research will tell." (my bold, my italics)

Of course, none of these things are going to matter . . . the only thing I'm going to hear about if this is brought up next week is that kimchi was in a news story on the BBC about how it prevents SARS.

Thank you BBC--not!
J