Post Date December, 02 2023
01
Tofu network incarnation
——Natural enemies of patients with kidney disease and gout?
In recent years, with the popularity of the Internet, various pseudosciences about nutrition have been overwhelming. For example:
--Tofu contains more purines. Eating too much in gout patients with abnormal purine metabolism and patients with elevated blood uric acid concentration can easily lead to gout attacks. Gout patients should eat less.
--Tofu belongs to non high-quality protein, so patients with kidney disease should try to eat less.
--Tofu is made from soybeans, and its potassium and phosphorus content are very high. Pay attention to those with high blood potassium.
……
"Inferences or conjectures without scientific basis are often more likely to attract people's attention, especially in today's world where the internet is so developed, and such misinformation is even more rampant.". This makes many nephrotic friends with high uric acid dread tofu. Today, let's talk about some nutritional knowledge about tofu.
02
Lushan Real Face of Tofu
From the perspective of raw materials, tofu made from soybeans can be called real tofu. Why do you say that? For example, Japanese tofu is mainly made of eggs, and it cannot be considered a real tofu.
The reason why people misunderstand tofu so deeply is that it is made of soybean. The characteristics of soybean, which is high in plant protein, phosphorus, potassium, and purine, make everyone "love their house and love their dog." Tofu is naturally suspected and inferred to be "harmful without any benefit" for kidney disease.
So, is that really the case? Let's talk about everything in terms of data. Please take a look at the chart below.
Data "Chinese Food Composition Table"
03
Why is there a big difference between tofu and soybeans
You can also see that there are very large differences between the two, which are inseparable from the processing technology of tofu.
The normal tofu processing process is summarized as follows:
1. Pulping: Soak the soybeans in water, remove the skins and grind them into raw soybean milk.
2. Cooking: heat raw soybean milk to mature soybean milk to denature and coagulate protein.
3. Brainstorm (milk): Add electrolyte coagulants such as brine or gypsum to cooked soybean milk to make protein precipitate more easily. This stage is directly related to the quality of tofu.
4. Squatting brain: After tapping the brain, place it under constant temperature and static conditions for a period of time to let soybean milk precipitate into a solid gel, which is the precursor of tofu.
5. Squeeze: press the gel formed after squatting on the back of the head to discharge excess water and form tofu.
During this process, water will be continuously added, drained, refilled, and drained. Potassium, phosphorus, and purine are soluble in water, so most of these components are lost during tofu processing. Therefore, opinions widely circulated online such as "high purine content of tofu" and "high potassium and phosphorus content" cannot withstand scrutiny.
04
South Tofu and North Tofu
I don't know if you have noticed that the nutritional components of tofu have decreased significantly compared to soybeans, but only calcium has not changed much. What's the matter?
In fact, this is because during the brain tapping step, the amount of calcium is artificially added, such as Ca2+in brine, gypsum, and calcium sulfate, which naturally increases in calcium content. Therefore, tofu is also considered a good calcium supplement food. We divide tofu into south tofu and north tofu based on whether we use gypsum or brine to order our brains.
South Tofu
In the south, plaster is often used to dot the brain. Tofu has a high water content and is delicate, similar to the delicate personality of southerners.
North Tofu
In northern areas, brine is often used to light the brain. Tofu has relatively low water content, low hardness, and low elasticity, which is commonly known as "old tofu.". Its water content is lower than that of South Tofu, so under the same quality, the taste will be better.
05
Benefits of soy protein
Soybean protein is the only high-quality protein in plants that can rival animal protein, containing eight essential amino acids for the human body and in a balanced content. Let's take a look at the recognition of the role of soybeans in various countries.
USA
In 1997, American scientists discovered that soy protein has the effect of reducing cholesterol content in the blood. On October 26, 1999, the United States Drug and Food Administration (FDA) issued a health functional label stating that "daily intake of 25g of soy protein can reduce cholesterol content in the blood and effectively prevent cardiovascular disease.". In other words, just consuming more than 25g of soy protein per day can "reduce the cholesterol content in the blood and effectively prevent cardiovascular diseases.".
Japan
In 1994, Japan listed tofu as a health product; The nutrition goal of the "Healthy Japan 21st Century" campaign clearly stipulates that the daily intake of soybean food per person in the country should be increased from 76 g to over 100 g.
