"High blood pressure, fatty liver disease, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, panic disorder… For middle-aged and older adults, dieting is a matter of survival."
Appearance on MBC's "Good Day," MBN's "The King of Thumbs," TV Chosun's "Baekse Nuri Show," and Channel A's "I Am a Body God"
A new, lifestyle-focused diet technique for middle-aged and older adults, proposed by Dr. Kim Sa-rang, Korea's leading health mentor.

Director Kim Sa-rang, considered one of Korea's leading health mentors, has published "Immune Diet" for middle-aged and older Koreans.
Director Kim Sa-rang received training at the Department of Family Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital, worked as a specialist in family medicine at a hospital specializing in cancer patients, and has been providing health knowledge and know-how that can become a part of one’s life to middle-aged and older people through numerous TV programs, including MBC’s “Good Day,” MBN’s “The King of Thumbs,” TV Chosun’s “Baekse Nuri Show,” Channel A’s “I Am a Body God,” and JTBC’s “Addicts.”
The author emphasizes that dieting is a matter of survival for middle-aged and older people suffering from high blood pressure, fatty liver, diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, and panic disorder, and suggests an immune diet that increases the body's immunity, reduces inflammation, and changes the body's constitution.
For those who want to try a completely new diet method that is different from what they have tried before after experiencing repeated yo-yo dieting and diet pill addiction, we introduce diet techniques that are closely related to daily life, including diet, sleep, customized exercise, and mental management, in a friendly and detailed manner.

I had a difficult time during my internship, struggling with mental health issues such as panic attacks, anxiety disorder, depression, and insomnia, along with physical symptoms such as unexplained skin disease, bloody stools, and body aches. I found myself questioning whether I could continue working as a doctor, or rather, whether I could continue living.
It wasn't easy to get better with medication alone, and I went through some trial and error, but I was able to recover my physical and mental health through diet, mental management, exercise, and overall lifestyle improvements.
Looking back now, that was the beginning of the immune diet.

--- From pp.8-9 "Prologue"

As my health improved, a red flag went up for my husband's health.
I guess 'red flag' is not the right word because it is not at the level of a warning danger signal.
The five-year survival rate was only about 20-25 percent, so it was a serious condition, so it would be more accurate to say that a 'nuclear bomb' had gone off on his health.
My husband was diagnosed with 'non-compensated cirrhosis with massive ascites', commonly known as 'cirrhosis'.
A 5-year survival rate of 20 to 25 percent means that only 1 in 4 to 5 patients will be alive after 5 years.
My husband, a healthy 30-year-old emergency medicine doctor, became a terminally ill patient five years later.
(…) From then on, I started an immune diet to save my husband.
For over three years, including my residency when I barely had time to sleep, I packed lunches and devoted myself to comprehensive management and treatment to boost my immunity.
For people with chronic liver disease like my husband, managing their immune system is of utmost importance.
--- pp.9-11 From "Prologue"

Dieting isn't just for fat people.
If you look up the dictionary definition of 'diet', it has the broad meaning of 'meal, eating habits' as a noun.
Even when using the verb 'diet', the purpose of 'to lose weight' cannot be found.
Dieting isn't just about limiting the types and amounts of food you eat to lose weight.
If you manage your diet to gain weight, that too is a 'diet'.
All actions that involve managing one's diet and eating habits for health are included in the concept of 'diet'.

--- From "Prologue" pp.11-12

The immune diet is a process of finding the 'best body' to live a healthy life without getting scary diseases like cancer or dementia.
In order to express it in a short word, I had no choice but to use the term 'best body', but 'best body' is not limited to just 'body'.
The 'best body' is a state in which the overall condition of the body and mind, including immunity, disease and pain status, mental health and mood, fatigue and vitality, are at their optimal level.

--- From "Prologue" pp.13-14

Appetite suppressants make you lose weight because they make you lose your appetite and you don't eat.
However, if you stop taking the medication, your appetite will return and you will inevitably experience yo-yo weight gain.
Therefore, many people who are taking appetite suppressants are afraid of gaining weight again after stopping the medication and cannot stop taking them.
Additionally, there are too many people who are already addicted to drugs and cannot stop taking them, complaining of extreme fatigue, depression, and withdrawal symptoms without the drugs.
--- p.22 From “Diet Drug Addiction, the Dangers of Improper Dieting”

An unhealthy diet can cause inflammation and free radicals, weaken the immune system, and lead to serious diseases such as cancer and dementia.
While it may be tempting to lose weight quickly and easily, you should be aware that doing so can be detrimental to your health.
Dieting isn't just about being slim, looking good, or being seen.
(…) In conclusion, when dieting, it is important to keep your immunity from dropping, and for those who are obese or have abdominal obesity, have various underlying diseases, or are middle-aged or older, dieting to boost immunity is essential.
This is why we need an 'immunity diet' that lowers inflammation and boosts immunity, instead of a bad diet that lowers immunity and causes inflammation and cancer in our bodies.
--- pp.27-28 From “The Close Relationship Between Immunity, Health, and Diet”

When we are young, most people diet to look good.
To be pretty, to wear the clothes you want to wear.
However, as we age, the purpose of dieting often becomes 'health'.
Especially, if you are diagnosed with a metabolic disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia, dieting is necessary for the purpose of 'treatment'.
--- p.38 From “Patients with chronic diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia”

Belly fat is bad for your health, but what's especially problematic isn't the subcutaneous fat underneath the skin, but the visceral fat that resides much deeper.
Visceral fat is located between organs and secretes inflammatory substances that can impair organ function.
Liposuction surgery only removes subcutaneous fat and does not remove visceral fat.
In cases like fatty liver, fat cells are stuck between liver cells, so it cannot be resolved with methods like liposuction.
Ultimately, if you have a lot of visceral fat or fatty liver disease, you should focus on a healthy diet that reduces inflammation and liver cell damage.
As expected, these are people who need an immune diet.
--- pp.46-47 From “People with fatty liver and visceral fat”

Even if you weigh less for your height, you may actually have less muscle mass, so you may still have a high body fat percentage. Even skinny fat people need a diet that finds the right ratio of body fat and muscle.
And unlike the majority of hypertriglyceridemia patients who are obese and have high triglycerides due to their preference for a fatty Western diet, hyperlipidemia patients who are thin but have high LDL cholesterol are very common among middle-aged women in our country.
These people also need an immune diet.
The same goes for patients with dry vascular disease, which is a condition that goes beyond hyperlipidemia and has already developed atherosclerosis, a change in blood vessels that can lead to stroke or myocardial infarction.
Although you may think that you don't need to diet because you look thin, patients with arteriosclerosis, whose blood vessels are already narrow and elastic, making them prone to blockage or bursting, need an immune diet that reduces inflammation and boosts immunity.

--- pp.49-50 From “Dry obesity, dry diabetes, dry hyperlipidemia, dry vascular disease”

As the name suggests, the 'Immunity Diet' is, in a word, a 'diet that boosts immunity.'
An 'immune diet' is a diet that compensates for the decline in immunity caused by various reasons such as nutritional deficiency or deficiency while losing weight, use of harmful drugs and side effects, and increases the body's existing immune ability beyond the level of maintaining the previous immune ability.
To boost your immunity, you need to manage your overall lifestyle habits.
This is because all lifestyle habits, including diet, sleep, exercise, inflammation management, and stress management, affect immunity.

--- pp.74-75 From "Immune Diet to Boost Your Body's Immunity"