I have a miso soup about 4 days a week - its cold in Toronto!!
I will add a shredded zucchini (or other veggies)
after removing it from the heat.
And Wakami.

Is there anything wrong - bad about miso?

it's cooked

I have had some brown rice Miso that was raw, I like it every so often but I tend to stay away from grains as they are quite inflammitory.

They have some of best misos [www.southrivermiso.com]

No, miso is never raw.

Since it's fermented, it is considered "live".

It has way too much salt, which can be very very hard on your system, even if you are only eating a little bit of it.

Also, it you are eating a kind that has soy in it, that can cause problems, too.

Some people also say that ferments are unhealthy in general.

Use your judgment. I used to eat South River chickpea miso (no soy), and after eliminating it from my diet, I feel much better.

I love miso. I also use South River Miso. It is a living food and has many health benefits.

[lists.topica.com]

Radiation: Miso for the body/rock dust for the soil, virtues of

ABOUT MISO:


As the collective consciousness in the United States grows ever more agitated
and fearful, we scurry to find magic bullets for bioterrorism: anthrax, smallpox
and the black plague. Based on current statistics, the odds of being exposed to
and dying from anthrax in the U.S. are one in 35 million. Before >anthrax hit
the headlines, we listened to the international threat of mad cow disease
(bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease, or CJD, in humans). The threat of chemical, bacteriological and
radiological (CBR) warfare forms a constant undercurrent to our national
hysteria‹conscious and subconscious. After all, we have been preparing CBR
weapons at Ft. Detrick ever since World War II.

Clearly, we face daunting challenges to our quality of life and indeed, to life
itself. Today's threat calls for a miracle of transformative scope. We look up
to the government and to pharmaceutical companies for a fix, knowing full well
that their bag of tricks is limited to petrochemical drugs and antibiotics.
We're in need of some alchemy capable of transmuting sickness into health, fear
into wisdom, hysteria into harmony.

In our search for such an alchemical remedy, I'd like to shine a light inward
toward our own biological terrain, and downward to the nurturing black earth.
Seeing ourselves as co-creators of our terrain‹that is, of our daily biological
condition‹and then understanding that terrain as the single most significant
factor in whether we succumb or not, empowers us mightily.

Pondering which daily food grounds me most deeply and most thoroughly enlivens
my terrain, I know the answer immediately. An earthy, aged, fermented food
dating back at least 2500 years to ancient China, miso (chiang in Chinese)
originated from a culture whose world view revered food as medicine. Despite its
Oriental origin, miso is now widely available in much of the world. It is a
relatively inexpensive condiment‹a food that gently and effectively restores
dynamic digestion and assimilation. A morning bowl of miso soup‹mild, gentle,
unassuming‹stimulates your appetite for the day's adventures and strengthens you
from the inside.

Food for the Ages

Scientists now believe humanity's first cultivated plants were not grains and
vegetables, but rather the microorganisms that cause food to ferment. They
discovered‹undoubtedly by accident at first‹that adding the right amount of salt
to food‹cultivated friendly bacteria and enzymes not only prevented spoiling and
deadly toxins, but also transformed the food's molecular structure, making it
more healthful, digestible and delicious.

Fermentation, they realized, acted like an external digestive system that
preserved the food and qualitatively transformed it. Compare sulfurous cabbage
with sparkling sauerkraut, mild milk with tangy yogurt, bland soybeans with the
deep, earthy flavor of miso.

Miso fermentation is alchemy working its miracle with microscopic bacteria,
yeasts, molds and enzymes on our daily food: grains, beans and salt. It is very
similar to the miracle that transpires within our intestines where, with the
help of friendly intestinal flora, we transmute food into blood via the
hair‹like villi on our intestinal walls. And it is like the miracle that springs
up from the earth where, thanks to myriad microorganisms and the warming sun,
germinating seeds burst into green shoots.

Our life blood begins in our small intestine (called the cauldron by the
Chinese), where we cook/transmute food into blood. The intestines are, in fact,
our ancient brain; they actually make neurotransmitters just as our brain's
neocortex does. Virtually all cases of learning disabilities and attention
deficit challenges involve intestinal imbalances and inappropriate food choices.
Miso's alchemical gift nourishes this ancient brain and cauldron of our life.

Alchemy (from the Arabic, meaning black earth) draws the parallel between the
miracles of gardening, fermenting and digestion/assimilation, our own internal
fermentation. Alchemy suggests that fermentation is actually a further
cultivation of a food beyond what it draws from the garden soil. Miso epitomizes
the brilliant diversity possible with that fermentation. Japanese mythology
extols miso as a gift from the gods for health, happiness and longevity.

As a food, miso can be thought of as an all-purpose and delicious seasoning for
flavoring soups and vegetable dishes, or for making salad dressings, sauces and
spreads. It is used in many of the same ways that we in the West would use salt.
It is a condiment in the sense that only a few spoonfuls are used per person on
a daily basis due to its high salt content (4-12% by weight). At the same time,
miso is such a concentrated source of high-quality protein and other nutrients
that only a small amount enhances and dresses up grain, bean and vegetable
dishes.

As the high level medicine that Dr. Akizuki refers to, miso creates a truly
resilient terrain in those who consume small amounts of it daily in soups,
sauces, condiments and salad dressings. There has been no specific work done
with miso and anthrax that I know of, and my thrust here is to offer way-of-life
foods that strengthen the body and mind rather than heroic remedies that fit
into the this-for-that pharmaceutical approach. That said, one researcher
introduced some miso into a petri dish containing a culture of the disease
bacteria Streptococcus. The good bacteria in the miso overcame and completely
destroyed the Streptococcus!

Cultures throughout the world developed fermented foods that enhanced the foods
they consumed. Most of these fermented foods and drinks rely on the action of
lacto-bacilli. Miso making originated among grain-eating farmers and gardeners,
people whose lives and livelihood were rooted in the earth and whose diet
centered around grains, beans and vegetables. Among nomadic people whose
lifestyle did not permit staying in one place for years at a time, yogurt became
a digestive aid. And among animal-herding, meat-eating cultures, people cultured
grapes into wine. Wine helps break down the toxins in animal foods, whether it
is used to marinade the meat or is drunk with the meat. Ancient people, more in
tune with Nature and with their own nature, were sensitive to the energetics of
the foods they ate. They were aware of the warming or cooling, drying or
dampening, acid or alkaline qualities they experienced as they ate particular
foods. They knew how to influence a food's energetic qualities by cooking with
fire and through fermentation (cooking without fire).

Like modern food scientists, these ancient people recognized the great value of
the soybean as a complement to grains. However, unlike modern food scientists,
the ancients recognized how extremely difficult to digest, and how over-cooling
raw and unfermented soybeans were to the body. Ingeniously,
they devised (in concert with natural micro-organisms in their environment) an
intricate fermentation process that transformed the problematic soybean into a
rich, hearty, alchemical substance of high order.

An aged, fermented soybean paste with living enzymes and friendly bacteria, miso
is made by mixing cooked legumes (usually soybeans, though chickpeas, black
soybeans, aduki beans, even peanuts make delectable misos) with sea salt and a
cultured grain called koji (usually rice or barley). This fermenting mixture is
then aged in wooden vats, sometimes for as long as three years.

Like a fine wine, each miso has its own unique color, flavor and aroma. Miso
colors range from rich chocolate browns to loamy blacks, from russets to deep
ambers, clarets and cinnamon reds, from warm yellows to light tans. Flavors
range from hearty and savory to sweet and delicate.

In selecting a miso, you would usually choose darker, longer-fermented misos for
colder seasons; lighter, shorter-fermented ones for warmer seasons and climates;
and red, moderately fermented ones year round. To balance your internal
condition, you look also at the internal climate of your terrain. To
strengthen a weak, deficient, over-acid cold condition, you would go to a dark,
longer-fermented variety. And to balance an over-heating, excessive condition, a
lighter, sweeter, less salty miso is preferred.

An excellent source of digestive enzymes, friendly bacteria, essential amino
acids, vitamins (including vitamin B-12), easily assimilated protein (twice as
much as meat or fish and 11 times more than milk) and minerals, miso is low in
calories and fat. It breaks down and discharges cholesterol, neutralizes the
effects of smoking and environmental pollution, alkalinizes the blood and
prevents radiation sickness. Miso has been used to treat certain types of heart
disease and cancer. It helps with bed wetting, tobacco poisoning, hangovers,
burns and wounds. A fine food for traveling (dry it by roasting over a low flame
in skillet), miso gives warmth and life and the wisdom of age to those who
consume it daily.

Studies in Japan's Tohoku University have isolated chemicals from miso that
cancel out the effects of some carcinogens. We are all inevitably exposed to
carcinogens in our foods and our environment. We are also exposed to
non-ionizing radiation (ELFs and EMFs) given off by power lines, transformers,
electrical stations, computers, hair dryers, microwave ovens and air
conditioners.

Miso and Radiation Sickness

Thanks to nuclear accidents and leakage worldwide, we may be exposed to ionizing
radiation as well. In the decades since the first atomic bombings, scientists
have confirmed that miso (as well as sea vegetables) help protect the body from
radiation by binding and discharging radioactive elements. Two
weeks after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, all miso and seaweed disappeared
from European store shelves.

At the time of the world's first plutonium atomic bombing, on August 9, 1945,
two hospitals were literally in the shadow of the blast, about one mile from the
epicenter in Nagasaki. American scientists declared the area totally
uninhabitable for 75 years. At University Hospital 3000 patients suffered
greatly from leukemia and disfiguring radiation burns. This hospital served its
patients a modern fare of sugar, white rice, and refined white flour products.
Another hospital was St. Francis Hospital, under the direction of Shinichiro
Akizuki, M.D. Although this hospital was located even closer to the blast's
epicenter than the first, none of the workers or patients suffered from
radiation sickness. Dr. Akizuki had been feeding his patients and workers brown
rice, miso soup, vegetables and seaweed every day. The Roman Catholic Church‹and
the residents of Nagasaki‹called this a modern day miracle. Meanwhile, Dr.
Akizuki and his co-workers disregarded the American warning and continued going
around the city of Nagasaki in straw sandals visiting the sick in their homes.

Since the 1950s, Soviet weapons factories had been dumping wastes into Karachar
Lake in Chelyabinsk, an industrial city 900 miles east of Moscow. Many local
residents began to suffer from radiation symptoms and cancer. In 1985, Lidia
Yamchuk and Hanif Sharimardanov, medical doctors in Chelyabinsk, changed their
approach with patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and other disorders
associated with exposure to nuclear radiation. They began incorporating miso
soup into their diet. They wrote: "Miso is helping some of our patients with
terminal cancer to survive. Their blood improved as soon as they began to use
miso daily."

Over a 25-year period, the Japanese Cancer Institute tested and tracked 260,000
subjects, dividing them into three groups. Group one ate miso soup daily, group
two consumed miso two or three times a week, while group three ate no miso at
all. The results were stark: those who had not eaten any miso showed a 50%
higher incidence of cancer than those who had eaten miso.

Twelve years ago, Dr. Evelyn Waselus, a California surgeon suffering from breast
cancer, underwent a double radical mastectomy. Reading how Dr. Akizuki had used
miso as an external plaster to treat people with radiation burns, she applied a
miso plaster on her own wounded breasts, and for the first time in months was
relieved of the gnawing, burning pain she, like so many cancer patients, had
been experiencing.

Later Dr. Waselus opened Universal Life Center in Weed, California, where she
works with cancer and AIDS patients. Many of these people cannot maintain
sufficient body weight because they have lost their natural powers of digestion
and assimilation. Dr. Waselus premixes their food with three-year old barley
miso, then allows it to sit for several hours. The miso predigests the food so
patients can more easily assimilate nutrients needed to maintain body weight.
Dr. Waselus prescribes miso soup, again with three-year barley miso, to her
outpatients undergoing chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments at local
hospitals. For such people, restoration of the beneficial microorganisms of the
intestines is crucial. Her patients do not generally lose their hair, as usually
happens with chemotherapy, Dr. Waselus reports. (There is a direct correlation
between the intestinal villi and the hair on our heads.) For patients receiving
radiation treatment, Dr. Waselus administers an external plaster of miso mixed
with aloe vera extract on the area being irradiated, with excellent results.

Spiritual fulfillment and biological resilience in these troubled times comes, I
believe, by looking inward and downward. What we find there is something as
humble as miso, a simple, whole food alchemically transformed by the power of
microorganisms, giving us the inner resources and intestinal force to transmute
even the most terrible threats to our own health, happiness and longevity, as
well as that of the earth.

How to Improve Topsoil

A Letter on Rockdust and Nuclear Radiation
Eva G., Member
Swedish Green Party

Hi Eva,

This letter follows our brief encounter at the Buddhist Peace Pagoda in Grafton,
New York on Sept. 28, where you spoke on nuclear contamination from Chernobyl.
I'm concerned, too, since my catastrophic injuries occurred on Hiroshima Day
1992. But that's another tale to tell.

I told you I was sitting on a remedy for radioactive contamination and
sickness‹referring to a 50 pound bag of trace element fertilizer on my
wheelchair. I said quickly how, after Chernobyl meltdown, Austrian farms with
soil remineralized with a similar rockdust had greatly reduced‹even
negligible‹radioactivity in their crops and milk. I also said remineralization
can increase human tolerance to radioactivity‹even repair
radiation-damaged DNA.

You said Dr. Rosalie Bertrell mentioned a link between minerals and radiation.
Then you had to depart with two monks. Let me now amplify my statements.

At the time of Chernobyl meltdown, a few Austrian farms had remineralized their
soil by fertilizing fields with rockdust. In the meltdown aftermath, routine
radiation tests of foods found cheese from remineralized dairies weren't
radioactive, and were much sought after. People stood in line to get them. For
information about these Austrian farms:

* Georg Abermann
Sanvita z.H. Ing. Franz Cervenka Postfach 44, A-6370 Kitzbuhel, Austria
tel. 0043-5356/4333

* Robert Schindele
Superbiomin Kicking 18, A-3122 Gansbach, Austria
tel: (43) 2753/289; fax: (43) 2753/276

Robert Schindele said a ton of rock dust was trucked to Chernobyl victims. A ton
isn't much, but if field tested and proved, suitable supplies of powdered rock
can be found closer.

Early investigations indicate this reduced uptake of rafioactive isotopes
occurred due to several factors.

First, plants grown in mineral-rich soil don't take up radionuclides, whereas
plants grown on mineral-poor soils readily absorb radioactive elements. When
plants are supplied a menu abundant in all elements required, they are able to
selectively absorb minerals from soil. Biological organisms are sensitive and
intelligent enough to self-select only elements which precisely fit their
biochemical pathways.

An example of this involving lighter elements calcium (Ca) and aluminum (Al) is
well documented in animal husbandry. Plants grown on calcium deficient soil will
take up aluminum as a replacement. However, these plants will grow more weakly
and with a paler green. And animals fed these low-Ca, high-Al plants will
develop signs of aluminum toxicity: joint arthritis, neurological impairment;
lowered fertility, increased miscarriage, etc.

Second, the bag on my wheelchair was "trace element" fertilizer. Science knows
plants need at least 18 elements‹probably more. Specialized soil bacteria have a
wider range of atomic appetite. Chemical farming supplies three major (N, P, K)
and two minor (Ca, Mg) elements. Biological farmers may supply a few other minor
and trace elements. Nursing a vital strong soil ecosystem of bacteria,
earthworm, insect, and plant must provide this bio-community a complete menu of
minerals‹a full spectrum of all elements.

Like DNA, the Table of Atomic Elements is a spiral stairway to heaven, not
square blocks stacked in two peaks and a valley. To build a staircase, you must
put each step in; leave one out, the whole stairway may fail. Geometric fit of
element-to-enzme is very complex and precise.

Therefore, bioremediation with rockdust must supply a full spectrum of all
elements, especially trace elements, each with their unique bonding geometry.
Not all rocks are created equal, and there are as yet no set standards for
elemental composition or chemical form.

Third is bioremediation of contaminated soil. Trace element fertilization with
rockdust feeds a bacterial bloom in soil. It's microbes that actually dissolve
and digest minerals, package them in protoplasm, synthesize simple nutrients and
complex enzymes, and feed this to roots. This "symbiosis" of specialized
bacteria with plant roots is well documented, yet still inadequately
investigated and dimly understood. A prime example are Rhizobia bacteria which
inhabit root nodules of legumes: the bacteria fix nitrogen from air as nitrates,
while legumes synthesize proteins and feed carbohydrates to the bacteria.
Earthworms and certain creatures also eat minerals.

Certain bacteria can transmute unstable radioactive isotopes into harmless
elements. Strong doses of rockdust nurture a bacteria population boom, thereby
enhancing transmutation activity to remove radioactivity from soil.

There's little scientific evidence of this. Yet, it occurs, and a few scientists
know this. As one appropriate example, Bechtel, world's largest construction
contractor, currently has a high-level science team at Chernobyl. One strategy
they're using is bacteria to consume and neutralize radioactive elements‹a
strategy successful with oil spills, PCBs and hazardous chemicals.

Four, remineralization protects not only soil and plants from radioactivity, but
humans, too. Supplying abundant minerals‹especially trace elements‹to the human
body improves radiation tolerance, immune system integrity and radiation
exposure recovery. How? A main effect of radioactivity on biological systems is
to disrupt metal ions critical to biochemical reactions and enzymes‹by direct
ionization, or interaction with other free radicals. One symptom of radiation
exposure is metallic mouth taste, indicating discharge of damaged metals and
associated enzymes. Individuals with mineral deficiencies will be more strongly
impacted by this than those with abundant minerals in blood and tissue.

Food and water are our main source of minerals, so foods grown on remineralized
soils can improve radiation tolerance. There are other ways to enrich minerals
in human blood and tissue, but food is fundamental and natural . And food comes
from soil. Unfortunately, modern chemical treatments dramatically reduce
minerals available in our water, soil and food.

Fifth, remineralization can improve recovery from exposure to radioactivity,
including repair damaged DNA. Robert Schindele says research at University of
Vienna and in Russia showed rockdust fertilization does take radioactivity out
of the body. Other data show seaweeds‹also rich in minerals, including trace
elements‹help remove radioactive strontium and other isotopes from human bodies.
Chelation is known to remove radioactive metals.

Repair of radiation-damaged genetics is a greater challenge. Minerals alone
can't mend broken DNA. But biological systems are created in evolution by
conservative, self-protective and intelligent processes. Supplied all essentials
for healthy, balanced, full function, they can‹both individually and as
collective community‹remove damaged genetic material. Such healing is
extra-ordinary, but not unnatural, nor impossible.

Regrettably, my catastrophic accident so disrupted my body and life that I can
no longer access my information resources and networks. Therefore, I can't
readily send documentation of these ideas. However, I initiated a search for the
data and will forward it later, if you wish. Meantime, my Internet
webpage‹[www.championtrees.org]‹has a few basic essays on
remineralization.

for a green and peaceful planet,

David Yarrow