Scientist Yuka Yamamura grew up in Tokyo and moved to Australia 12 years ago because she was drawn by the pull of nature and the outdoor lifestyle including spear fishing, surfing and camping. The one thing she didn’t reckon on was that by changing to a more Western-style diet, she was lacking in some of the essential food that had previously kept her healthy: namely Miso.
Here, she tells her story about how she got her health back from increasing the amount of fermented food in her daily diet and in the process she and her husband Yuki launched their business Fermenstation and now produce Organic Sunshine Miso and Organi Salt Koji, Organic Chickpea Miso, Tamari and Sweet Koji.
HOW MISO HELPED GET MY HEALTH BACK
Five years ago, I was sick all the time. Every month I had fever, my glands were swollen all the time. I was catching colds numerous times without any particular reason, even in summer!
One day, I heard an interesting story about Miso being good for gut health.
Miso is a traditional fermented food from Japan. It is also good for your health.
Despite growing up in Japan, we had no idea Miso was so important to our health.
Living in Tokyo, we used Miso for soup and other dishes everyday but for some reason stopped using it when we moved to Australia.
Since, I learned more about the health benefits of Miso we started having more meals with Miso. After a while, I realised that having been sick for almost four years I suddenly felt better! My fever was gone and glands were no longer swollen.
Our aim is to let all Australian people know and enjoy Miso and Koji (a Japanese rice) just because it is so good for you and delicious.
You may be still wondering what Koji is?? Koji is basically cooked rice that contains a rice culture. It is a major component in many common Japanese products such as Sake, Soy sauce, Mirin and Miso.
Koji breaks down protein to amino acid, so that if you add Koji to your food, your food will be full of Umami flavour. Koji also helps digestion and the absorption of nutrients, and contains vitamins as well.
Now, my husband and I sell organic Koji (Salt Koji, Tamari Koji, Sweet Koji) on the Sunshine coast and you can buy our locally produced Miso at the Marrickville and King’s Cross markets in Sydney via True_Blue_Organics.
“GUT IS THE SECOND BRAIN”
Since my sickness was no longer a problem, we became increasingly curious about the benefits of fermented food. The gut is called the second brain. Gut environment is very important to our immune system. And, fermented foods have so many good probiotics which improve gut environment!
“YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT”
We’ve started our business because we wanted to educate Australian people more about the benefits of great Japanese food such as Miso and other fermented food.
Find out more about FermentStation here
