What is Miso?
Miso is a traditional Japanese food prepared by the fermentation of mold rice, soybeans, wheat, and salt and the fungus Aspergillus oryzae (1). A paste of fermented soybean is known as Miso. Miso health benefits are as follows.
How Miso is prepared?
Japan has a very long history of using soybeans in fermented foods. Fermented soybean is a part of their daily diet as a flavor in soup and solid food. One of the fermented soybean pastes is miso (2).
Preparation of miso is easy with only 4 ingredients required
- Dried soybean
- Water
- Salt
- Koji (rice or barley)
Method
- Wash the soybean and soak it overnight
- Cook the soybean for at least 30 min in a pressure cooker and strain the water after that.
- Blend the cooked beans in a processor into a paste
- Add salt and Koji (rice) and make a paste if too dry add water.
- Pack the paste in a dried clean container and add a salt layer to the top of it.
- Cover the whole thing from the top with clean polythene and put weight on it.
- Seal the container and keep it in dark.
What are the different types of Miso?
There are mainly three types of Miso. The process of preparation is the same with different types of Koji used (3).
1. Rice Miso
It is prepared with a prominent aroma of rice, made by adding rice koji to soybeans. Rice miso can be further subdivided into six types according to taste and color, namely red salty, yellowish salty, white sweet, red sweet, brown, and white.
2. Barley Miso
This Miso is made with an aroma of barley and was rich in flavor, made by adding barley koji to soybeans.
3. Soy miso
with moderate sweetness and an indelible fragrance even if during cooking, made using soybeans only.
Nutritional value of Miso
Miso contains various kinds of nutrients such as amino acids, peptides, vitamins, minerals, and polyunsaturated fatty acids and other components are as follows (4).
| Compound | Amounts per 100 g. |
| Water | 43.02 g |
| Energy | 198 kcal |
| Protein | 12.79 g |
| Total lipid (Fat)s | 6.01 g |
| Carbohydrates | 25.37 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 5.4 g |
| Sugar | 6.20 g |
| Vitamins | |
| Folates | 19 µg |
| Niacin | 0.90 mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.23 mg |
| Thiamin | 0.09 mg |
| Vitamin B-6 | 0.19 mg |
| Vitamin B-12 | 0.08 µg |
| Vitamin A | 87 IU |
| Vitamin K | 29.3 µg |
| Minerals | |
| Calcium | 57 mg |
| Iron | 2.49 mg |
| Magnesium | 48 mg |
| Phosphorous | 159 mg |
| Zinc | 2.56 mg |
| Sodium | 3728 mg |
| Potassium | 210 mg |
Health Benefits of Miso
1. Improves digestion
Miso has a compound called isomalto-oligosaccharides. This compound is good for intestinal microbiota (5). Also, increase the fecal moisture and decrease the fecal pH (6).
2. Good for physical and mental health
Miso is a probiotic food that promotes brain function, cognitive function, and learning and memory further reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease (7).
3. Prevents Obesity
Miso is a rich source of isoflavones (genistein, daidzein, daidzin, and glycitein) that suppresses fat accumulation in white adipose tissue and thus has anti-obesity effects (8).
4. Prevents Hypertension
Miso decreases blood pressure and hypertension. It also plays a minor role in the anti-stroke (9) further protect from cardiovascular disease.
5. Anti-cancerous
Miso is rich in antioxidants, phenolic acids, protease inhibitors, saponins, and isoflavones. These compounds help in suppressing lung, liver, gastric, breast, and colorectal Tumors (10, 11).
6. Strong Bones
Calcium, vitamin K and isoflavones in Miso helps in promoting and maintaining good bone health (12).
7. Healthy glowing skin
Many valuable ingredients (fatty acids, vitamins – E, B2, B12, isoflavones, lecithin) in Miso helps in improving skin moisture. Furthermore, certain miso ingredients produced by fermenting both rice and soybean stimulate ceramide synthesis that play an important role in maintaining the moisture and barrier functions of the skin (13).
8. Lowers Cholesterol
Eating Miso helps in the conversion of cholesterol into bile acids. An increase of bile acid further increases the excretion in feces and reduced lipid peroxidation in the liver. Therefore, miso exhibits significant antioxidant activity and demonstrates hepatoprotective effects (14).
9. Antidiabetic
Miso increases the activity of digestive enzymes (α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and trypsin) to a varied extent. Thus controls the glycemic index by lowering blood sugar level and prevent diabetes mellitus (15).
10. Radioprotective properties
Fermentation of Miso results in the formation of certain compounds like aglycon-type isoflavones and melanoidin. These compounds help in protecting the body from the harmful effects of irradiation (16).
Side effects of Miso
1. Allergy
Soybean is known to induce an allergic response in some individuals. However, miso contains small quantities of intact soybean allergens. Therefore, allergic reactions may occur after the consumption of miso soup (17).
2. Gastric cancer
A high intake of fermented soy foods (Miso) is associated with increased gastric cancer risk. Whereas unfermented soy foods decrease gastric cancer risk (18).
Healthy Recipes
1. Miso Soup
Miso soup is a traditional soup in Japan. Made of Stock (Fish or shitake) called Dashi, noodles, and Miso paste.
The stock of Miso soup is mainly prepared from dried baby sardine fish (Niboshi), Dried Kelps (Kombu), Dried smoked tuna, or Dried Shitake.
Preparation
Miso Soup is of many different types depending upon the stock or Dashi which is used and types of vegetables or meat to be cooked in the Dashi.
Mainly carrot, mushrooms, tofu, and fish are used, Miso suspension is added after the cooking of the vegetables or meats in the soup.
2. As a side dish
Miso can also be eaten with rice or noodles, it is also used as a salad dressing.