I’ve read a lot about increasing the amount of fermented foods in the diet, but I’m surprised not to have seen miso mentioned anywhere in the Cleverguts book or on this site. Is there a good reason for that? I was hoping that miso soup might be a really good way of increasing my ferment intake, particularly on fast days.

Wouldn’t the action of heating the miso to make soup kill all the beneficial microbes?

Well this is what I wondered at first, but then I’ve read lots of things from reputable sources extolling the virtues of miso, and as we know from cooking in general heat doesn’t necessarily kill all microbes. Plus isn’t it the enzymes in fermented food that’s supposed to be good for you too?

Can you source miso that hasn’t been pasteurised, freeze dried or otherwise processed such that most of the beneficial microbes have been destroyed?

Second issue is the ingredients. Miso often contains soy, monosodium glutamate, emulsifiers or other ingredients not recommended on a gu friendly/ wholefood diet.

Enzymes are proteins, so can be denatured (structurally altered and rendered ineffective) by cooking or the acidity of the stomach.

The stuff I buy is unpasteurised, no msg, contains nothing artificial, so that’s not a problem. I’m puzzled though as lots of the cleverguts recipes contain soya sauce so what’s the problem with soya? I don’t remember reading that in the book?
This is the first time I’ve posted in this forum and I must admit I’m rather taken aback by the tone of the responses received so far….. Not exactly the “supportive” community I was expecting!

I am sorry you feel that way. The original post requested clarification/ explanation, which I took at face value.

In addition the quality and quantity of my responses are severely limited by this ancient smartphone (can’t scroll or edit in post) and my health (poor focus/ comprehension/ memory, ‘brain fog’, pain).

Dr Mosley warns that soya commonly causes gut problems (p.190) and recommends that pulses are avoided during ‘Remove & Repair’ (p.191). The majority of reactions will be food intolerances rather than food allergies, so most readers won’t need to avoid the trace amounts in filtered soy sauce.

If you make dashi from scratch, you might use that to poach your low carb vegetables and/ or low fat seafood. Then allow the soup to cool as much as possible before stirring in the miso paste. That way any probiotic microbes are warmed rather than scalded.

if you are a cookbook person, you might enjoy ‘Skinny Soups’ and ‘Skinny Salads’ (all recipes <300 cals). Or perhaps you have already come across Kathryn Bruton’s website?

HTH.

I recently brought a load of “Itsu Miso’Easy Traditional Miso” sachets in the hope that they’d give my microbes a high five. Alas, the ingredients on these particular sachets were:

soybean paste, (water, soya beans, rice, salt), water, ALCOHOL*, yeast extract powder, salt, sugar, seasoned kelp extract (kelp, salt, dextrin). *in caps for added drama.

…and I’m pretty sure that Mosley mentions somewhere in the book that alcohol will murder microbes with brutal efficiency. From reading previous replies I’m starting to think that this might do more harm than good if I were to drink it…thoughts?