Nutrition and Health
Nutritional benefits of miso have been claimed by commercial enterprises and home cooks alike.
Claims that miso is high in vitamin B12 have been contradicted in some studies.
Some, especially proponents of healthful eating, suggest that miso can help treat radiation sickness, citing cases in Japan and Ukraine where people have been fed miso after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Notably, Japanese doctor Shinichiro Akizuki, director of Saint Francis Hospital in Nagasaki during World War II, theorized that miso helps protect against radiation sickness.
Some experts suggest that miso is a source of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Lecithin, a kind of phospholipid caused by fermentation, which is effective in the prevention of high blood pressure. However, miso is also relatively high in salt which can contribute to increased blood pressure in the small percentage of the population with sodium-sensitive pre-hypertension or hypertension. Based on the other results of double-blind controlled studies of sodium and hypertension, there is no definitive evidence that high sodium intake leads to negative clinical conditions such as hypertension in healthy persons. Clinical evidence indicates wide-population heterogeneity in response to sodium.
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