Purpose
Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is defined as the coexistence of several metabolic risk factors. Diet is thought to play a major role in development of MetS. We attempted to determine whether the Korean diet is related to a reduced risk for development of MetS.Methods: A total of 425 healthy Korean adults were re-cruited by advertisement to Bundang Jesaeng Hospital from January 1 to June 30, 2009; those not taking regular medications and without diagnosis of disease were included. Data were collected on three-day dietary intake, anthropometric measurements, and diagnostic parame-ters, including levels of lipid panel, glucose, adiponectin, and inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 [IL-6], tumor ne-crosis factor-α [TNF-α]) for MetS from individuals enrolled in the study. The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) scoring system was used for diagnosis of MetS. Results: Out of 425 (11.8%) subjects, 50 were diagnosed as having MetS. As NCEP scores increased, the levels of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, TNF-α) showed an increas-ing tendency, however, the adiponectin level had de-creased (P<0.0001). A greater amount of total vegetable consumption appeared to be associated with decreased risk for MetS. A higher carbohydrate consumption repre-sented by the amount of rice intake (refined starch) ap-peared to be associated with higher risk of MetS. However, increasing consumption of rice combined with Kimchi showed an association with increased high-density lip-oprotein cholesterol (56.7±1.6 vs. 62.8±2.2, P for trend: 0.0321) and decreased adiponectin level (9.0±0.8 vs. 11.4±1.2, P for tend: 0.0255). Conclusion: Among healthy Korean volunteers consum-ing an ordinary Korean diet, the prevalence of MetS was found to be 11.8%. Greater consumption of rice showed an association with greater risk of MetS, while greater consumption of rice combined with Kimchi, the main sta-ple of the Korean diet, showed an association with lower risk of MetS. (J Korean Soc Parenter Enter Nutr 2013; 5(3):110-116)