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Healthy Food Containing "Nutrition" and "Functional Materials"

Being called the “meat from the field,” the soybean, the ingredient of natto, richly contains high-quality proteins which are essential in creating body structures such as blood, muscles and internal organs.

Natto is made by planting natto yeasts on boiled soybeans. As natto yeasts abundantly contain "enzymes" which facilitate chemical reactions, they efficiently dissolve the ingredients that are useful for our body such as soybean proteins and lipids. Therefore, natto increases the rate of protein absorption; i.e., the rate of absorption rises from about 65% for boiled soybeans to more than 80% if processed to natto.

For your information, 100 grams of natto contains about 10 grams of proteins, which is equivalent to those in 3 eggs, 80 grams of beef, or one pork cutlet (120 grams). Better still, natto contains no cholesterol despite its high protein content. This is the big difference from other high protein foods like meat and fish.

In addition to these high-quality proteins, natto abundantly contains fibers, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and the like.

Moreover, besides the nutrition essential to make human body, it has gradually come to be known due to the researches that natto contains a lot of functional materials which work like medicine.

The functional materials contain a wide variety of ingredients which are essential to maintain our health, including substances: to prevent “excessive active oxygen” - that hurts DNA and causes diseases - from working; to prevent and cure lifestyle related diseases such as vascular disorder and osteoporosis; to prevent ageing of the brain and to improve our memory; and to restrain bad bacteria in the large intestine and thus effective in preventing and curing food poisoning.

”Natto” was born by combing very nutritious ingredient “soybeans” and the useful bacteria “natto yeast.” Within its small body, it has huge potential power to protect our health.

Nutrition and effects of natto
Natto retains the nutrition of its ingredient soybeans and further creates excellent components of its own by the work of natto yeasts.

  Natto Beef Chichen   Natto Beef Chichen   Natto Beef Chichen
Water(g) 59.5 71.8 74.7 Calcium(mg) 90 4 55 VitaminB2(mg) 0.56 0.21 0.48
Protein(g) 16.5 21.2 12.3 Phosphorus(mg) 190 181 200 Niacin(mg) 1.1 4.9 0.1
Carbohydrate(g) 10.0 5.6 11.2 Iron(mg) 3.3 2.2 1.8 VitaminC(mg) 0(φ) 2 0
Carbohydrate(g) 9.8 0.3 0.9 Sodium(mg) 2 57 130 VitaminE(mg) 0.9() 0.29 1.1
Fiber(g) 2.3 0 0 Potassium(mg) 660 363 120 Energy(Kal) 200 144 162
Ash(g) 1.9 1.1 0.9 VitaminB1(mg) 0.07 0.09 0.08 Cholesterol(mg) () 900 470

※1.Numbers indicate those contained in 100 grams.
※2.Component values of vitamin E and cholesterol of beef are those of chuck. Others are component values without fatty meat.
※3.( ) indicates the component value of boiled soybeans.
※4. Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan, Fourth Edition