Miso soup that gives you a delicious and satisfying feeling with reduced salt

──Traditional Japanese food is good, isn’t it?

Imagine breakfast. Miso and dried bonito used for miso soup, nukazuke [rice bran pickle], natto, soy sauce, vinegar, are all fermented foods.
The raw material for miso, soy sauce, and natto is soybeans, which is rich in protein, iron, minerals, and vitamins. In addition, it contains healthy ingredients such as isoflavones and saponins; and when fermented, its power becomes stronger. The lactic acid bacteria produced reach the intestines and increase the number of good bacteria.
The efficacy of miso is attracting attention all over the world. It is said that yeast and lactic acid bacteria of miso, unsaturated fatty acids of soybeans and isoflavones have a carcinogenic preventive effect. Experiments have also revealed that melanoidin, the brown pigment of miso, have the function of keeping the good bacteria in the intestine predominant, and have the function of excreting and suppressing carcinogens.
Other data have shown that people over the age of 60, who drink miso soup daily, have less gastritis and duodenal ulcers than those who do not. As a result of a survey of about 20,000 women in their 40s and 50s, it was also found that people who consume more miso soup are less likely to develop breast cancer.
I heard that many people stopped drinking miso soup during the low-salt boom. Certainly, the target of daily salt intake is 6-8g, but the current salt intake is around 10g. However, salt reduction can be done with a little ingenuity in cooking.
For example, you can reduce the salt by using dashi stock with dried bonito and adding plenty of ingredients in the miso soup. In a general cookbook, it says to use 1-2% bonito flakes; but in my research, using 3-4% bonito flakes with respect to the amount of water used for miso soup has a salt-reducing effect. One will be fully satisfied even with a small amount of salt. Dried bonito, a fermented food, has a satiety effect as well as a salt-reducing effect, and contains a lot of amino acids, which are umami ingredients. Using 4% dried bonito may seem like a waste, but it is the secret to reducing salt, increasing deliciousness and satisfaction all at once. The remaining dried bonito flakes can be used in cooking Tsukudani.