Anyone ever heard of Miso? Anyone know the benefits/drawbacks? For anyone who doesn't know - it's a paste made of fermented soybeans. It's a staple in many Asian cultures. They use it probably as much as Americans eat catsup (or more).
Anyway, we eat hot pepper paste which is made of miso, sweetner (sometimes high fructose corn syrup, but I try to find it with sweet rice flour instead) and crushed hot red peppers. We eat a lot of this in our house and my mother-in-law has been eating it for years and she's a pretty healthy mama. The only thing I've noticed is that now that she is post-menopausal, she still has trouble with hot flashes. She also eats tofu and soybean sprouts, but not many "processed" soy foods. She's also not a very big fan of sugar/chocolate/sweets, etc (unless I make her some cherry/rhubarb pie

).