Soybean efficacy and function

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The therapeutic and health-care effects of soybeans are highly respected from both the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that soybeans are sweet, neutral, neither warm nor dry; they can strengthen the spleen and eliminate dampness, replenish blood and nourish deficiency, and detoxify. They have good therapeutic effects on people with weak spleen and stomach, those who are thin and have little appetite, or those with dampness, cramps, edema, and difficulty urinating.

Soybean efficacy and function

Soybeans are good, but how to eat them is a science. Soybeans are high-protein foods, containing about 35% protein, but most of these proteins are found in the cells of soybeans. People with some knowledge of biology know that one of the differences between plant cells and animal cells is whether the cells have cell walls. Plant cells have cell walls, and animal cells do not. These rich proteins are tightly wrapped in the cell walls of soybean cells. Because the human body cannot digest the cell walls, it is difficult for the human body to absorb and utilize the proteins. Editor's Recommendation: Isoflavones in soybeans are beneficial to postmenopausal women

When people cook and chew soybeans, only a part of the cell wall is destroyed and the protein is released, and a large part is still "embraced" by the cell wall. In the end, most of it is excreted as feces. Therefore, this can be said to be a waste, so our ancestors developed many ways to solve this problem. Although they did not know this principle, sometimes it is difficult for us to understand the wisdom of our ancestors. Making soybeans into tofu is one of the good ways to improve the utilization rate of soybeans. After grinding, the cell wall of soybeans is fully destroyed, and the protein is naturally released. In this way, the digestion and absorption rate of the protein in the human body is greatly improved, and the absorption rate is increased from about 50% to about 90%. This can be said to have greatly improved the nutritional value of soybeans.

The principle of grinding into soy milk is the same, but the method is slightly different. In addition, fermentation can also destroy the cell wall and improve the utilization rate of protein. But it should be noted that although the utilization rate of protein from eating whole soybeans is not high, the other water-insoluble components of soybeans still have quite good utilization value for the human body, so eating whole soybeans is also of great significance; similarly, the bean dregs produced after grinding also have good health effects, and can be used as stuffing or in other ways, and should not be discarded.

Notes on eating soybeans

Although soybeans are good, you should not eat too much. Adults can eat 50g a day, which is about the amount of a handful of soybeans. They should be soaked in water for about 4 hours before cooking to soften the soybeans for cooking. At the same time, the phytic acid contained in the soybeans can also be partially degraded by soaking. Phytic acid is not good for the absorption of other nutrients in the human body. In addition, eating too much soybeans can easily cause flatulence and farting. This is because it contains raffinose and stachyose. Eating tofu and soy milk will not have this problem. Eating too much soybeans may also lead to the absorption of certain minerals, such as iron, zinc and iodine.

It should also be noted that soybeans contain anti-trypsin, hemagglutinin and other substances. Anti-trypsin will affect the activity of human trypsin, and hemagglutinin will cause hemolysis of red blood cells in the human body, that is, cell rupture. However, it can be destroyed after steaming. Special attention should be paid to the saponin in soybeans. There is a "false boiling" phenomenon, that is, the actual boiling temperature has not been reached, but the whole pot is full of bubbles, as if it is boiling. This is the saponin at work. Just continue to cook until the bubbles disappear and then cook for about ten minutes, otherwise it is easy to cause poisoning and other side effects.