Do You Want to Slim Down? Eat Doenjang!

A local university research team has found doenjang or Korean soybean paste is much more effective than gochujang or red pepper paste, in preventing obesity. Prof. Park Geon-young at Busan University said a 143g mouse ballooned up to 287.4g, after 30 days of a high-fat diet; another mouse was fed the same diet, but with its consumption of 10% of calories from soybean paste, increased in weight to just 246.6g. Soybean paste Doenjang is one of Korea’s traditional fermented foods. It is made of fermented soybean, called “meju” in Korean. Meju is put into brine until the brine is fermented, and the liquid, separated from the meju, is made into ganjang or soy sauce, and the meju lumps into doenjang or soybean paste. Doenjang and ganjang are basic flavorings for Korean foods. Soybeans and meju It is no secret that the soybean is good for one’s health. It contains protein (40%), carbohydrate (30%), and vegetable fat (20%), plus various vitamins, calcium, phosphorous, iron, potassium and other minerals. It is much better than meat in terms of nutritional composition, but difficult to digest in its raw form. Fermentation is the solution. 100 grams of beans, if fermented, will produce more than 100 billion quality digestive enzymes. Fermented beans are much better in terms of digestion and absorption. Meju is made by boiling and mashing soybeans, shaping the mashed beans into rectangular lumps, and drying and fermenting the soybean lumps. The fermented soybean lumps, or meju, are used for ganjang and doenjang. Medicine? Or Food? Beans are known as a perfect nutritional unit, and it is needless to say how salubrious fermented beans are. Doenjang or fermented soybean paste is so good for health that an ancient Korean medicinal book, entitled “Dongeui bogam” in Korean, considered doenjang as a cure-all. The ancient book says that doenjang is effective in curing headache, chills & fever, various organ problems and excessive sweating. It also claimed it could mitigate medicinal poisoning, treat malaria and dilute toxins in the human body. The book pointed out that doenjang facilitates sweating if it is taken together with onion. Proven effectiveness Prevention of constipation and colon cancer Anti-oxidant effects Strengthening of decomposing cholesterol and neutralizing of poisons Anti-aging effects and reduction of wrinkles Nutrition of doenjang 100 grams of doenjang contains 128 calories, Doenjang?good for slimming down Prof. Park said the protein of soybean, the major ingredient of doenjang, decomposes into peptide and if left for further fermentation, decomposes into amino-acids that have anti-obesity effects. Result of research   Mouse on ordinary diet Mouse on doenjang diet Weight 287.4g 246.6g Liver 11g 8.7g Cholesterol (g/100g in body weight) 66.3 48.4 Do you want to be beautiful and healthy? Give doenjang a try.