The best Miso recipes for Westerners

Try cooking with Miso!

Miso, the fermented soybean paste, is one of the principal staples of Japanese people, and we have explained its benefits as one of the secrets of healthy Japanese people. It is rich in essential amino acids, highly nutritious, and has the effect of preserving food and softening meat and fish. The most famous application of Miso internationally will Miso soup. But Japanese people utilize it as one of their main seasonings in various dishes. We recommend trying our natural supplement Juveriente® Effisoy® to take their health benefits if you like to do without trying the new flavor for you. But nowadays, you can purchase it online even in other countries. If you try some of the best Miso recipes, you may like it.

 

Best Miso Recipes

You can find the best Miso recipes in a Japanese website through Google translate from here. The destinations of the links in this page will be translated, too.

Here I pick up some of them, which I believe you can easily try in terms of the cooking and the taste.

Miso marinated grilled chicken

Miso Marinated Chicken

“Chicken miso-zuke-yaki” is marinated in miso and grilled to make the meat tender. The seasoning does not fail, so it is a very helpful recipe even when you are busy.

Salmon pickled in miso that can be frozen

It can be frozen, which is very convenient. If you pickle a lot of fillet fish when it is cheap, it will be useful when you are not sure about making a lunch box or a menu before payday. The miso sauce soaks in and goes well with rice.

Take the health essence of Miso through a natural supplement!

Fermented foods are often hard to eat for people of other dietary cultures. But you can take the essence easily through the supplement. Effisoy is the only supplement brand to bring you fermented soy extract outside Japan.

LEARN MORE About Effisoy, made of fermented soy bean germ
The only supplement to contain fermented soy isoflavone beside Japan.

Anti-aging benefits of a Japanese fermented food; Miso

Benefit of Miso; Fermented Soy As a Secret of Healthy Japanese People

A Japanese woman taking the benefit of miso
A Japanese woman and miso soup

Anti-aging effect of Miso: the skin beautifying effect and bone strengthening

Miso is a typical Japanese fermented food made by fermenting soybeans. (Primarily famous as Miso soup internationally.) The fermentation with Koji (a fungus having various resolution enzymes) adds far more nutritional value and flavor to soybeans. Recently, they have revealed various health benefits of Miso; it has positive effects on health, beauty, and anti-aging, such as beautifying the skin and strengthening bones.

Nutrients of soybeans

Miso has supported the Japanese diet for 1,300 years. Japanese people have been saying that “miso keeps the doctor away” traditionally. The fermentation process produces abundant nutrients of Miso.

Even before the fermentation, soybeans contain high-quality vegetable protein, linoleic acid, which lowers cholesterol, and isoflavones. The human body absorbs such nutrients through digestion. But digestion capacity is limited depending on the person. The fermentation process will decompose such nutrients externally instead of digesting them and make them easy to absorb.

Nutrients that the fermentation adds to soybeans, as a Japanese fermented food

Furthermore, the fermentation will generate more nutrients, like a large amount of free essential amino acids and vitamins. These are not found in soybeans or are only present in small amounts. But the fermentation produces them in large quantities and brings about umami and sweetness.” Says Professor Yutaka Kashiwagi of the Department of Brewing Science, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences.

Recently, we have elucidated some health benefits of Miso. They are like the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases, cancer, and osteoporosis. Professor Noritoshi Maeda of the Department of Applied Biology at the Tokyo University of Technology said, “The free linoleic acid produced during the fermentation process from the lipids of soybeans will have the effect of suppressing the production of melanin. Recent research has shown that two bowls of miso soup will provide such an effect. I also learned that drinking Miso soup reduces the spots on my cheeks.”

In addition, melanoidin has an antioxidant effect and is expected to have an anti-aging effect. It is a brown substance produced by the reaction of amino acids and sugars during the fermentation and maturation process.

Miso contains various nutritional components as a Japanese fermented food

Miso contains eight essential amino acids for the human body, vitamins such as B and E vitamins, minerals such as potassium and calcium, fatty acids, dietary fiber, and polyphenols such as soy isoflavones. This Japanese fermented food is reported to be beneficial for metabolic syndrome and breast cancer prevention.

Metabolic syndrome prevention

Soybeans contain ingredients that lower bad cholesterol, such as linoleic acid, soybean lecithin, and saponin. An animal study reports that intake of one cup of Miso soup everyday through 6 months in conversion as a human suppressed the accumulation of triglycerides.

Breast cancer prevention

There is a research report that people who drink a lot of miso soup every day are less likely to get breast cancer. A study of 21,852 women aged 40 to 59 found breast cancer onset rates were lower by 26% in those with two drinks per day and 40% lower in those with three or more drinks per day compared to women with one per day or less.

Take the health essence of Miso through a natural supplement!

Fermented foods are often hard to eat for people of other dietary cultures. But you can take the essence easily through the supplement. Effisoy is the only supplement brand to bring you fermented soy extract outside Japan.

LEARN MORE About Effisoy, made of fermented soy bean germ
The only supplement to contain fermented soy isoflavone beside Japan.

Health and self care in the highest life expectancy prefecture in Japan

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Health and self care campaign

(Continued from “The best region among the high life expectancy in Japan”)  In 1945, Dr. Wakatsuki was assigned to Saku General Hospital, and in 1959, Dr. Yoshizawa was assigned to Kokuho Asama General Hospital in Saku City, Nagano as the director. They walked around from one local community center to another to preach health and self care to farmers. They preached them, “Let’s learn that too much salt is the reason for a stroke, and let’s prevent it.”

In 1980, this activity came to fruition as the “Prefectural Residents’ Salt Reduction Campaign” throughout Nagano Prefecture. As a result of this activity, the amount of salt intake per day was reduced from 15.9g to 11g in 1983.

Dr. Minoru Kamata, the director of Suwa Central Hospital, took over the activity later and continues to this day. The preachers enjoy their long lives on their own. Mr. Wakatsuki is 96 years old, Mr. Yoshizawa is 93, and Mr. Kamata is still active at 72.

“A trace amount of poison” of vegetables is good for the body.

The “Nagano Model” emphasizes improving and enhancing eating habits. Let’s take a look at its features.

The first is the amount of time spent eating. Nagano Prefecture’s average is 104 minutes per day, the third longest in Japan. This means that they are chewing their food well. Chewing well prevents overeating and reduces obesity. As a result, Nagano Prefecture has one of the lowest rates of obesity, which is the cause of illness.

It is also known that dementia increases when the number of chewing decreases. Chewing well is also vital in that sense.

The second is the amount of vegetable intake. Everybody knows that vegetable is good for your health. But even experts vary in their idea of why it is good actually. One of the ideas becoming mainstream nowadays is that a trace amount of poison in the vegetable helps your health.

Nagano Prefecture is the number one producer of Chinese cabbage and lettuce in Japan and is also one of the top producers of cabbage and tomatoes.

At the same time, their intake of vegetables is also the highest in Japan as consumers for both men and women. The Japanese national average daily vegetable intake is 301g, while it is 379g in Nagano Prefecture.

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Local food production and consumption

Nagano Prefecture produces red wine with a high proportion of their consumption. Red wine contains polyphenols and is known to be suitable against heart disease, especially arteriosclerosis.

In addition to vegetables and red wine, Nagano Prefecture is the number one producer of other foods in Japan. “Shinshu (Nagano) miso” accounts for about half of Japan’s total miso production. (Miso is fermented soy paste, one of the Japanese staples.)
Nagano’s Mushrooms also account for about one-third of the Japanese national production.

Also, regarding consumption, Nagano Prefecture ranks first in Japan in miso and mushrooms per capita.

One of the reasons why miso and mushrooms are good for the body is because they are rich in substances called polyamines. Recently, it has become clear that this polyamine is good for health and is particularly effective in preventing aging.

Lesson: Take care of your health before getting sick and pursuing the best treatment.

Among various lessons we can learn from the Nagano model, the essential wisdom is what Dr. Yoshizawa preached: to be conscious of protecting your health. It is that each person works proactively for their health.

Ultimately, the essence is that we should take care of our health before getting sick instead of pursuing excellent treatment after getting sick.

Take the essence of fermented soy (miso) through a natural supplement!

Fermented soy is a staple of the Japanese cousin mostly as “miso soup”, and it is one of the secrets of anti-aging of Japanese women and the high life expectancy in Japan. Fermented foods are often hard to eat for people of other dietary cultures. But you can take the essence easily through the supplement.

LEARN MORE About Effisoy, made of fermented soy bean germ
The only supplement to contain fermented soy isoflavone beside Japan.

The best region among the high life expectancy in Japan

The highest life expectancy region in Japan, Nagano prefecture

Most of us know the high life expectancy in Japan and some people seek for the secret behind it. Even there, Nagano prefecture boasts the highest life expectancy even in Japan.

Nagano wasn’t originally a long-lived prefecture. According to statistics from 1965, the life expectancy was 9th in men and 26th in women there, among all 47 prefectures in Japan.
Mountains on all sides surround Nagano Prefecture, and they traditionally eat preserved foods with salt. For this reason, Nagano Prefecture had Japan’s fourth-highest salt intake and a high mortality rate due to high blood pressure and stroke around 1960.

However, since 1990 for men and 2010 for women, Nagano has remained to boast the longest average life expectancies in Japan.

Nagano is also the top healthy life expectancy region.

Furthermore, Nagano Prefecture’s elderly employment rate is 26.7%. It is also the highest in Japan.
In other words, not only is life expectancy high in Japan, but healthy life expectancy (the age at which people can live independently) is also long there, ranking first for both men and women.

Nagano is an ideal model for the aging society of healthy and long life.

What makes them lowest from cancer mortality?

Nagano Prefecture has the lowest cancer mortality rate in Japan.

However, Nagano Prefecture is one of the few prefectures in Japan that does not have a “cancer center” that many other prefectures have. The number of general hospitals is below average at 33rd out of 47 prefectures.
On the other hand, the number of community centers responsible for citizens’ health care and disease prevention is the highest in Japan. Its number of public health nurses is also the second highest in the country.

It shows one secret of Nagano Prefecture’s success lies in “preventive medicine,” They place priority on the prevention of getting sick rather than medical treatment after they become ill.

This kind of medical care in Nagano Prefecture, now called the “Nagano Model,” started with the “salt reduction campaign” initiated by doctors who were enthusiastic about regional medicine.

(Continued to the next post, how come Nagano turned a healthy region?)

Take a Japanese anti-aging secret through a natural supplement!

Fermented soy is a staple of the Japanese cousin mostly as “miso soup”, and it is one of the secrets of anti-aging of Japanese women and the high life expectancy in Japan. Fermented foods are often hard to eat for people of other dietary cultures. But you can take the essence easily through the supplement.

LEARN MORE About Effisoy, made of fermented soy bean germ
The only supplement to contain fermented soy isoflavone beside Japan.

The history of Japanese food

When did the history of Japanese food begin?

Since rice has been a staple food since the Neolithic period in Japan, it is no exaggeration to say that Japanese cuisine began in the Neolithic period. However, since rice farming came from the China continent, only rice eating can’t be called “Japanese food culture” yet. The history of Japanese food with its unique culture began in the Heian period (AD 9th – 12th century, before the Samurai’s governing.)

When Zen Buddhism became popular in the Heian period, cooking methods such as soup stock prevailed. Zen Buddhist monks could not eat meat and began eating soybeans.

The Shojin Ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine) that Zen Buddhist monks ate has evolved into today’s Japanese cuisine.

The history of sushi

Sushi is the most famous dish in Japanese cuisine.We can’t talk about the history of Japanese food without sushi’s history.
Most people worldwide know it, but how many people know the history of sushi?
The current style, placing raw fish on top of vinegared rice, was created in the Edo period (AD 17th – 19th century, the last Samurai and pre-modern period.)

Until then, fermented sushi was mainstream. The primary purpose of this cooling method was to preserve fish in vinegared rice or grains.

Today’s sushi style that everybody in the world knows is actually a newer type called Edo-mae sushi. Edo-mae means Tokyo downtown. Edo was the old name of Tokyo in the Samurai era.  Many of the people who lived in Edo were short-tempered. Sushi that could be prepared and served quickly exploded in popularity and came to be called “Edo-mae sushi.”

Even now, when I go to a sushi restaurant and see the chef making sushi quickly, I think it’s “art.” But in the Edo period, there is a Haiku that says, “The chef makes sushi in an instant like a witchcraft.”

The history of Japanese food upon the hospitality

Unesco registered Japanese cousin as a World Intangible Heritage on December 4, 2013. (It was not registered as a kind of cousin but as a food culture.)

The principal elements of Washoku are said to be the following four. 

Balanced nutrition
Ingredients
Cooking methods
Hospitality

Japan is one of the countries where we can feel the beauty of the four seasons.
The successive generations of chefs have been upholding the hospitality to make guests feel the four seasons’ beauty. We believe that the accumulation of such hospitality from generation to generation has shaped the Japanese cousin. 

Take a Japanese anti-aging secret through a natural supplement!

Fermented soy is a staple of the Japanese cousin mostly as “miso soup”, and it is one of the secrets of anti-aging of Japanese women. Fermented foods are often hard to eat for people of other dietary cultures. But you can take the essence easily through the supplement.

LEARN MORE About Effisoy, made of fermented soy bean germ
The only supplement to contain fermented soy isoflavone beside Japan.

Take Best Fermented Foods In An Easy Way

Skin healing with fermented foods

I watched a TV program in Japan for health, where a researcher of fermented food advised a woman to take a bit of fermented food every meal for one week. She had a problem with her bowel movement, and it led to her skin problems. After the week of the trial, she got a significant improvement. She was excited about the excellent condition of her skin.
The fermented food she tried in that trial were yogurt, wed kimchi, miso soup, natto, fermented rice, onion, etc.

Umami is global, flavor is local

Maybe you can try. They are some of the best options. But there is a problem. Dr. Fushiki of the University of Kyoto, a famous scholar for fermented food, says, “Umami (savoriness) is global, but the flavor is local.”
Fermentation generates rich umami in food in most cases, but it usually accompanies a specific flavor, which often smells and tastes odd to people from other dietary cultures.

For example, as an ultimate example, most Japanese love natto (fermented soy with bacillus natto), but most people other than the Japanese will think of is “rotten” by its gooey outlooking and probably stinky smell.
Even such Japanese people can’t eat the “surstromming” of Sweden. (It’s a fermented canned fish called “the world’s most stinking canned food.”)

Those 2 are ultimate examples, but any fermented food presents the same challenge more or less to people from different dietary cultures.

Start with your familiar flavor

But, it will be better that you keep a healthy diet with less challenge than trying something too special and can’t continue. It will be good for you to take your familiar fermented food every day, even by a little.

Yogurt is already popular in the USA.
You may not see wine as a fermented food, but it’s a fermented grape extract. Wine has rich polyphenols as the following;
(1) From the skin: Anthocyanin, Resveratrol, Tannin
(2) From the pulp: Anthocyanin
(3) From the seed: proanthocyanin, tannin, quercetin, catechin
Some people may be happy to find that wine makes you healthy as well as feeling good!
But, you can have too much of a good thing. Be careful to drink it just for your health, and never drink too much.

Total Anti-Aging Benefits of Effisoy®

The reasons why you should take Effisoy® continuously in the long run

Hello!

Maybe you recognize our Effisoy® only as a natural menopause supplement to mitigate hot flash and night sweats. But, its key ingredient, AglyMax®, has multiple anti-aging benefits by balancing waned hormone precursor (DHEA) naturally.

old lady is depress because of her anti aging treatment

It is not only for unpleasant menopause symptoms improvement, but will also help your healthy life in various aspects. There are many reasons that you take Effisoy® continuously in the long run.

  • Menopause Relief from;
    Hot Flash
    Night Sweats
    Insomnia
    Osteoporosis
    Weight gain, etc.

  • Anti Aging Benefits like;
    Fatigue mitigation
    Recovery of lost muscle by age (= recovery of metabolism) (= weight management)

  • It has high Antioxidant Capacity (the following is from a leaflet by the manufacturer of AglyMax®.)
AglyMax® has multiple anti-aging benefits

We are introducing the health benefits of Miso soup in the Effisoy®’s product page, and Effisoy® will bring you the essence of that traditional Japanese diet. Try it now, and continuously!

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