2021 Volume 15 Issue 3 Pages 119-126
Dietary guidelines recommend the use of dark, rather than light, soy sauce for salt reduction, as the sodium chloride equivalent per 100 g is 14.5 g in the former and 16.0 g in the latter. This study examined the status of light/dark soy sauce use for stewed recipes first, and then the relationship between the amounts of sugar and salt used in such cooking.
Half of the households in Osaka used light soy sauce. Therefore, we compared 4 stewed dishes: “beef and potato stew”, “stewed pumpkin”, “stewed Japanese radish”, and “stewed hiziki seaweed”, prepared using light soy sauce in Osaka and dark soy sauce in Tokyo. The sugar concentration was higher in Osaka in all cases, except for “stewed pumpkin”, and the salt concentration was also higher in Osaka in all cases. Analysis of 80 meals revealed a strong positive correlation between sugar and salt concentrations, clarifying that the amount of sugar added first influences the amount of salt used for each dish. Based on the results, it may be effective to reduce the amount of sugar added first as a salt reduction strategy when preparing stewed dishes.
