Soy Sauce – History, Basic Characteristics & Impact on Human Health

Soy Sauce is a popular food product, which is used in different cuisines of the world. It is associated mainly with oriental cuisine, though nowadays it became popular in different parts of the world. Soy sauce is a liquid, which is made of soybeans or a mixture of soybeans and wheat. The liquid may have a color from light amber to light brown. The thickness of the sauce also may vary, depending on its contents and mean of production. Originally sauce was invented in Japan, but quickly gained popularity outside of the country. Nowadays, soy sauce is one of the most popular sources of the world. Along with nice taste, appreciated by appreciators of this food product, the sauce also has positive impact on human health. This effect is achieved because of unique production method and its ingredients.

Soybeans (Latin name Glycine max) or soya beans are the main ingredient of the source.  Soy beans possess rich nutritive qualities. Soy beans possess the most balanced protein mix, which makes them one of the cheapest sources of vegetable protein (Matsushita 2011).  Soy beans are also rich with minerals, such as magnesium and calcium. IN addition, soy beans contain a lot of Vitamin B.

The history of the sauce starts long time ago on the East. Through the human history people who lived on the East used sault as a way to preserve meat. The liquid, which emerged during the process of preservance they used as a sauce for other dishes. After Buddhism and Hinduism became widespread in this region, vegetarian diet became popular and people started looking for the substitute to the meaty gravy. Salty paste, attained from fermented grains became popular after some time. Japanese monk who visited China brought the recipe to his country, but he made some changes in the recipe. He changed grains to soy beans, which gave the past much better taste (Lioe, Selamat, Yasuda 2010). After some time, recipe was gradually transformed into soy sauce, which is known nowadays.  The wife of the Japan warlord named Toyotomi Hideyori learnt how to grow soy and opened the first coy sauce brewery, which produced soy sauce. News about new tasty sauce gradually became widespread to different regions and people started buy and later producing it.

Nowadays soy sauce is a popular food produce, which is used to enhance taste of different dishes. It is used for different kinds of meet, pasta, soup and vegetables. “Its sweet, sour, salty, and bitter tastes add interest to flat-tasting processed foods. The flavor enhancing properties, or umami, of the soy extract are recognized to help blend and balance taste. The condiment also has functional preservative aspects in that its acid, alcohol, and salt content help prevent the spoilage of foods” (Soy Sauce). This way, soy sauce became one of the most popular sources in the world. It is often associated with Asian cuisine, though, nowadays, it is widely used in different cuisines of the world.  In the 19th century soy beans were brought to America. Starting from the 1930s soy gained wide popularity as a food product.  During the years of the Great Depression soy beans gained special popularity in America. Soy turned to be a cheap product, which had pleasant taste and nutrition properties. “During the early years of the Great Depression, few farmers raised soybeans, but this changed in just 10 years. In 1929, American farmers produced less than 10 million bushels (352 million L) of soybeans. By 1939 production approached 100 million bushels (3.5 billion L), and in 1995, American farmers raised more than 2.1 billion (74 billion L) bushels of soybeans» (Soy sauce). Henry Ford put much effort to popularize soya. He ordered researches, to investigate the qualities of soy beans and these researches brought a lot of useful information, which helped to popularize this product.   The production of soy grows. This is explained by the fact soy beans can be used to prepare a lot food products and low cost of these products. Soy sauce became one of the most popular products, prepared from soy beans.

Latest researches illustrate that soy sauce may bring use to human health. Some researches (Kobayashi 2005; Kim et al. 2008; Choi et al. 2011) illustrate that consumption of the soy sauce can bring benefit to the digestive system. Soy sauce takes part in the creation of unique carbohydrates, which are important for the process of fermentation. “Some of the micro-organisms involved with soy sauce fermentation contain enzymes that can break apart unique fibers (hemicelluloses) found in soybeans. When these hemicelluloses are broken apart, oligosaccharides are produced, and these oligosaccharides can help support the growth of “friendly” bacteria in our large intestine. (These bacteria include the lactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.)” (Soy Sauce).  In addition to carbohydrates, soy sauce has the number of other ingredients, which can be useful for human health.

Soy sauce can become a healthy substitute for sault.  One table spoon of soy sauce has about 1,000 milligrams of salt (Kremer, Mojet, Shimojo 2009).  Two spoons of soy sauce make a recommended daily dose of salt. In contrast to most of salty food, soy sauce does not provoke cardiovascular problems and high pressure. This can be explained by the way of production. During the production process molecules of soy beans are split into smaller molecules called peptides.  These peptides have positive influence on blood pressure, since they possess ability to constrict blood vessels (Kobayashi 2005). At the same time, doctors warn people, who have health problems caused by excessive salt diet to limit the consumption of the sauce. People who have a sault-limiting diet should consult their healthcare consultants and dietologist before including soy sauce into their daily meals.

In addition, soy sauce not only lowers the risk of allergic reaction to soya itself. The number of researches, performed recently, indicated that soy sauce has positive impact on the immune system and lower the risk of allergic reactions in general (Matsushita 2008).  Soy sauce may reduce symptoms of seasonal allergy. A lot of additional research should be performed in this direction, in order to prove primary results of the research, but even first results are fascinating, since they point out that soy sauce from the group of allergy-causing products can be placed into the category of allergy-reducing ones.

Due to its unique contents and means of production, soy sauce consists of nutritious elements, which are not presented in other kinds of food.  Peptides, which are presented in proteins, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides and other nutrients can be found in the sauce (Choi et al. 2011). Components, mentioned above, stimulate immune system. In addition, they may have positive impact on cardiovascular system and digestive system.  In addition, soy sauce is rich with antioxidants.  «It is a good source of the mineral antioxidant manganese. It also contains valuable amounts of antioxidant phenolic acids including vanillic, syringic, coumaric, and ferulic acid. Isoflavonoid antioxidants in soy sauce include glycerin, daidzein, genistein, and genistin” (Soy Sauce: How Products Are Made). Due to its antioxidant characteristics, soy sauce can be effecting in decreasing the amount of hydrogen peroxide in the human body.  Hydrogen peroxide becomes the reason of oxidative stress. That is the reason soy sauce can be an effective antioxidant.

 Fermentation process, which is used during the production not the soy sauce makes it useful for digestive system. During the process of protein breakdown different elements, such has chemicals, enzymes and bacteria are involved in the process. These elements can be effective in stimulating digestive processes, since they reduce the load on the digestive tract (Kim et al. 2008).  In addition, during the fermentation of the soy sauce oligosaccharides are produced. Oligosaccharides take part in the process of production bacteria, which perform an important positive function in the large intestine.

 Polysaccharides, which are contained in the soy sauce in big amount have positive impact on the inflammatory and immune systems.  All this data illustrates the fact, that the consumption of the soy sauce has a lot of positive impacts on human health. At the same time, it is worth to remember about potential dangers, such as allergic reaction or high concentration of salt.

Latest researches illustrate that soy sauce can bring positive impact on the immune system (Kobayashi 2005). Soy beans are usually associated with allergic reactions. This happens because they occupy the eights position in the list of allergy-provoking products. Latest research illustrates that soy sauce is less inclined to become the reason of allergic reaction in comparison to other soy products (Kobayashi 2005). In addition, soy sauce can cause significant support to the immune system, which is usually associated with allergic response.

Soy sauce has been used in China cuisine for more than 2500 years. Usually it is cooked from the mixture of soybeans, salt and enzymes. These ingredients go through the stage of fermentations. This way of production is called a traditional way. Nowadays there is also a chemical way of production. In this case soy sauce is attained in the process of acid hydrolysis.  Soy sauce is a popular food product, which is presented in different cuisines of the world. It is characterized not only by specific and recognizable taste, but also by use for health.

Works Cited

Choi UK, Jeong YS, Kwon OJ et al. Comparative Study of Quality Characteristics of Korean Soy Sauce Made with Soybeans Germinated Under Dark and Light Conditions. Int J Mol Sci. 2011; 12(11): 8105—8118

Kim, Jisang, Lee , Young-Soon, (July 2008). A study of chemical characteristics of soy sauce and mixed soy sauce: Chemical characteristics of soy sauce European Food Research and Technology 227(3):933-944 ·

Kobayashi M. Immunological functions of soy sauce: hypoallergenicity and antiallergic activity of soy sauce. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Volume 100, Issue 2, August 2005.

Kremer S, Mojet J, and Shimojo R. Salt reduction in foods using naturally brewed soy sauce. J Food Sci. 2009 Aug;74(6):S255-62. 2009.

Lioe HN, Selamat J, Yasuda M. Soy sauce and its umami taste: a link from the past to current situation. J Food Sci. 2010 Apr;75(3):R71-6. Review. 2010.

Mashilipa C, Wang Q, Slevin M et al. Antiglycation and antioxidant properties of soy sauces. J Med Food. 2011 Dec;14(12):1647-53. Epub 2011 Aug 23. 2011.

Matsushita H, Kobayashi M, Tsukiyama R et al. Stimulatory effect of Shoyu polysaccharides from soy sauce on the intestinal immune system. Int J Mol Med. 2008 Aug;22(2):243-7. 2008.

McGough MM, Sato T, Rankin SA et al. Reducing sodium levels in frankfurters using naturally brewed soy sauce. Meat Sci. 2012 May;91(1):69-78. Epub 2011 Dec 22. 2012.

Soy Sauce, The World’s Healthiest Food Foundation,  The George Mateljan Foundation. Web. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=110

“Soy Sauce.” How Products Are Made. . Encyclopedia.com. 12 May. 2017<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

The Soy Sauce Handbook, A Reference Manual for the Food Manufacturer. Kikkoman Corporation., 1996.

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

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