The soy sauce is a sauce made by combining to the soy: water, salt and toasted wheat. It is the fermented everything and sauces can be obtained more or less dense, depending on the taste sought. Mainly there are two types: tamary and shoyu. Both are obtained by the fermentation of yellow soy beans, but in the shoyu version it is added wheat too.
Of asin origin, the soy sauce now is very popular in the west for its taste and its nutritional values.
The soy sauce contains a large number of antioxidants, a characteristic that makes it perfect for many diets. It is not recommended in poor sodium diets, as it contains much salt.
It has been very popular in the past and is still used by Buddhist, as it gives the food a meat taste, food not permitted to practitioners of this religion.
The soy sauce is made with fermented many other ingredients, even though the original version uses only pure soybean.
As preservative can also be inserted alcohol, and it is also a good idea to keep it in refrigerator for better preservation of the product.
Some manufacturers have tried to find variations to the normal soy sauce, making different versions, from a more dense to a most soft taste. Moreover, in certain cases someone tried to create soy vinegar.
The soy sauce, so rich in antioxidants, is a good food to prevent cardiovascular disorders. A study from Singapore showed (link) that the Chinese dark soy sauce contains antioxidants 150 times more effective than vitamin C and E, and 10 times more effective than wine.
As already mentioned however, the soy sauce contains much salt. This is a problem for people with diets poor in sodium, as this can cause various disorders, such as raising blood pressure.
