Sun & Ssukgat: The Korean Art of Self-Care, Wellness & Longevity (Michelle Jungmin Bang)

Ssukgat, or Chrysanthemum greens, are treasured in Korean culture for their healing abilities. You can coax its withered stalks to bloom again, with sun, water, soil, and care. It’s a fitting metaphor for eco-entrepreneur and CEO Michelle Jungmin Bang, who found herself in excruciating pain due to the constant sacrificing of her health and wellness for work—a trade many of us make daily.

Thus started her fascinating journey to overhaul her health and reconnect with her heritage in South Korea. She found answers in the mountains with Buddhist nuns and the keys to microbiome health, a seaside village with haenyeo (female free divers who forage for seafood) and their practice of healing with breath, centenarians with easily adoptable daily habits, and Korean bathhouse culture and its “wellness for everyone” approach to youthful skin. Natural, effective, and environmentally conscious, these traditions have been passed down for centuries in Asia, like gifted heirlooms, and they quietly and radically shift our philosophies on well-being towards preventative care.

Informed by her travels, research, and East-West nutrition training, Michelle reflects on how we can eat for healing, live sustainably, reconnect with nature, form deeper relationships with the Korean concept of Jeong (the warm, invisible connection between loved ones and places), and more. Also included are simple and delicious healing recipes that can be used for recovery, like a mushroom broth the Buddhist nuns turn to for colds; her grandmother’s secret Myeolchi (anchovy) broth; Samgyetang (chicken and ginseng soup) for combatting fatigue; as well as Hoedeopbap (raw fish bibimbap), her most-requested dish that requires no cooking.

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