The darker the soy sauce, the better? Three types of people should pay attention when eating soy sauce!

Rumors

1. Eating soy sauce will make your skin darker

2. Eating soy sauce on wounds will leave scars

3. Eating soy sauce will cause moles to grow or grow bigger

4. The darker the soy sauce, the better

Soy sauce is something we eat every day, but there are so many rumors about it. Which of these rumors are true and which are false? Is eating soy sauce harmful to the body? Let's see what the experts say↓

The seven necessities of life are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. The sauce here refers to soy sauce, which is an essential condiment in our daily cooking.

Soy sauce is a dark brown liquid, and its color mainly comes from the pigments produced during the fermentation of raw materials and the added colorants. In cooking, soy sauce can not only enhance the flavor, but also give the food an attractive color.

It is precisely because of the color of soy sauce that some daunting rumors have arisen on the Internet.

Image source: Copyright Library

01

Will eating soy sauce make your skin darker?

Truth: False

There is no direct link between soy sauce and darkening of the skin.

There is a type of cell in the skin called melanocytes, which can synthesize and secrete melanin into the skin. When the melanin content in the skin increases, the skin color will darken, and vice versa. Melanin is an amino acid-derived biological pigment. It is produced by melanocytes using tyrosine as raw material. Under the catalysis of tyrosinase, tyrosine is first converted into dopachrome, and then dopachrome is converted through a series of steps. In addition to being regulated by genetic information, the amount of melanin synthesis is also affected by many factors, such as ultraviolet rays, age, changes in hormone levels, inflammation, etc.

Melanoids are natural pigments in soy sauce, which are different from melanin in the skin. When melanoidins enter the digestive tract, they are broken down, so they do not deposit on the surface of the skin and affect the color of the skin, just like when we eat green leafy vegetables, our skin does not turn green.

Many foods, such as soy sauce, milk, and soy milk, contain a certain amount of tyrosine, which is a conditionally essential amino acid for the human body and has many uses in the body. Whether it is used to synthesize melanin is subject to the regulation of the body and can only be completed under the catalysis of tyrosinase.

Therefore, soy sauce does not cause your skin to darken.

02

Will eating soy sauce on a wound leave scars?

Truth: False

Whether scars will be left after the wound heals has no direct correlation with soy sauce.

Scar tissue is formed by excessive collagen proliferation in the skin after external damage, such as trauma, burns, and surgery, forming bright red granulation tissue. Whether a scar is formed and the size of the scar are affected by factors such as the constitution, location, severity, and healing of the wound. The smaller the wound area and the shallower the depth, the smaller the scar will be. The larger and deeper the wound is, or if an infection occurs, the larger and more obvious the scar will be. In addition, factors such as poor nutritional status, slow healing, and scar constitution will also increase the risk of scar formation.

During the formation of scar tissue, the color will change. Granulation tissue is red, and it will gradually turn white and fade over time. Scars of a small number of people will appear slightly darker in color, which is related to melanin deposition. During the wound healing process, the ingredients in soy sauce do not participate in it, nor will they have any impact on it, and pigments will not be deposited in scar tissue.

Therefore, the statement that eating soy sauce on wounds will leave scars is completely untrue.

Image source: Copyright Library

03

Will eating soy sauce cause moles to grow or get bigger?

Truth: Rumor

Eating too much soy sauce will not cause moles to form or grow bigger.

There are many types of moles. The manifestations of moles in daily life mainly refer to melanocytic nevi in ​​medicine. It is the most common benign skin tumor and is a type of skin manifestation caused by an increase in melanocytes in the epidermis and dermis. According to the different locations of nevus cells in the skin, they can be divided into junctional nevus, mixed nevus and intradermal nevus. Among them, intradermal nevus and mixed nevus appear as black papules protruding from the surface of the skin, with different diameters and different location distributions. Some of them will gradually increase in size with age.

The appearance of moles is mainly related to congenital genetic or developmental defects. In addition, it is related to factors such as hormone levels, ultraviolet radiation, drugs, trauma, immunosuppression, etc. It has nothing to do with dietary factors and has nothing to do with soy sauce.

04

The darker the soy sauce, the better?

Truth: Not necessarily

The quality of soy sauce has nothing to do with factors such as color and flavor.

On the one hand, during the fermentation process of soy sauce, sugars react chemically with amino acids or proteins to polymerize into melanoidins. The more melanoidins there are, the darker the color of the soy sauce will be. It also means that more amino acids and sugars are consumed, and nutrients are over-consumed. On the other hand, soy sauce with added colorants such as caramel color will also have a darker color.

In addition, the color of soy sauce for different purposes is also different. Light soy sauce is light in color and is mostly used for seasoning, while dark soy sauce is dark in color and is mainly used for food coloring. Therefore, the darker the color of soy sauce, the better.

In daily life, these people need to pay attention to the following when consuming soy sauce:

First, people with cardiovascular disease should not eat too much soy sauce, or choose low-salt soy sauce. Ordinary soy sauce has a high salt content, and eating too much may aggravate the condition.

Second, infants under one year old have incomplete cardiovascular and organ development and should not consume soy sauce.

Third, patients who are taking cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease and anti-tuberculosis drugs should not eat too much soy sauce.

So how do you choose high-quality soy sauce?

It is unreliable to judge the quality of soy sauce based solely on its price, publicity, packaging, color, and taste . High-quality soy sauce should be a clear liquid with no precipitation or floating film, and be reddish-brown in color and relatively viscous, with a soy sauce and ester aroma.

References:

[1] Zhao Junping, Lu Fei. Investigation and analysis of the use of caramel color in commercial soy sauce [J]. Journal of Bengbu University, 2012, 1 (1): 12-14, 19.

[2] Chen Jingyi. Safety and physiological function analysis of pigments in soy sauce[J]. Science Consulting, 2021, (6): 92-93.

[3] GB 1886.64-2015. National food safety standard for food additive caramel color[S].

Author: Zhang Yu, researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, doctor of medicine, and master's supervisor

Review | Zhong Kai, Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center

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