Soy sauce is something of a wonder condiment. It’s great as a garnish on a stack of gyoza or a leafy stir fry, and it does wonders for bringing out the flavours in tomato-y or meaty dishes.
Its characteristic salty flavour and umami quality can provide the little something-something your dish might be missing.
However, it turns out this salty Asian export can prove risky if you don’t know what you’re doing.
It might surprise you to learn that it doesn’t take much of the stuff to pose a risk to your health, and it can even prove fatal in some circumstances.
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Soy sauce has been produced for over 2,000 years, and it’s traditionally composed of fermented soybeans, roasted grains, brine, and Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae moulds.
There’s around 900 milligrams of salt in a teaspoon of it, and this is where things can prove tricky health-wise.
A typical serving of the stuff shouldn’t pose any risks, but beyond that you could run into trouble.
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Back in 2013, a 19-year-old drank around two pints of the stuff and ended up in a coma.
David J Carlberg, his doctor, said: “He didn't respond to any of the stimuli that we gave him,
“He had some clonus, which is just elevated reflexes. Basically the nervous system wasn't working very well.”
The patient had developed hypernatremia, which is essentially the body attempting to regulate salt levels by moving fluid out of various tissues. This fluid can build up in the lungs, and the brain might bleed as it shrinks from dehydration.
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Despite being treated quickly, this particular soy sauce guzzler was still unconscious for three days.
There was another instance where a woman sadly didn’t make it. She had drunk a hefty dose of soy sauce whilst suffering from a deep depression, and died from a pulmonary oedema despite her doctors’ best efforts.
This resulted from the fluid build-up in her lungs, and she was found to have suffered brain bleeds as well.
When it comes to lethal salt dosages, generally speaking it becomes fatal somewhere in the range of 0.75g and 3g per kilogram of bodyweight.
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For the average person at 68kg, that would mean the bottom end of salt they could consume before it became life-threatening would be 51g, with the top end being 204g.
250ml of soy sauce contains about 14 grams of salt, so you certainly need to drink it to excess to face problems even at the lower end of the range.
Using it in the typical fashion as a seasoning is unlikely to cause you any immediate issues, although it’s important to be mindful of your salt intake regardless.
Rachael Davis