Miso Soup: A Better Bowl of Benefits

Steaming Bowl of Miso Soup

Everyone knows that chicken soup helps fight off the common cold and has been utilized and passed down from many generations, but there is another soup that actually has more nutritional benefits than chicken soup.  The soup that I'm referring to is miso soup, which is a popular staple in Asian cuisine.  Before I begin to break down and discuss the health and nutritional benefits of soup I have to advise everyone to watch out for the amount of sodium within soup.  If you buy soup or if you make your own soup, you have to make it with low-sodium stock.  Most soups have more than half a daily serving of salt for only one serving, which is usually half a can, so just be careful and avoid higher sodium soups.

Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup that is composed of stock which is called dashi and contains softened miso paste.  Other ingredients and spices differ from each culture and location but some other popular ingredients in miso soup include tofu, scallion, mushrooms, and seaweed.  The most important and defining ingredient in miso soup is the miso paste.  There are several different varieties of miso paste including red, white, and mixed.  The soup's stock is commonly composed of vegetables, dried sardines, dried kelp, and dried Shiite mushrooms.

Miso Paste

The health benefits of consuming miso soup include cutting the risk of breast cancer and other forms of cancer.  Having just one small bowl of miso soup can cut a woman's risk of breast cancer mainly because of the miso paste itself.  The fermented soy paste is the main contributor to fighting off cancer cells from forming.  Miso soup is also shown to decrease the development of the hormone oestrogen in women, which causes and forms tumors.  The nutritional benefits are also impressive by being low in cholesterol, very high in dietary fiber (59% of your daily value per serving), a great source of magnesium, copper, protein, and vitamins K, E, B12.  Miso soup is also very rich in antioxidants and the good fatty acids and the essential minerals in miso soup helps your immune system, thus fighting off and protecting you from the common cold.  So instead of following your grandmother's traditional chicken soup recipe to conquer the common cold, try miso soup and get even more of a nutritional boost in every spoonful!