The Miracle Diet Food That Has Been Fed to the Pigs for More Than 22 Centuries

Tofu has always been the pet of the soybean family. It was discovered Batam Beach China sometime around 250 BC when someone accidentally dropped some nigari seaweed into a pot of simmering soybean milk. The nigari curdled the soymilk just as acidic substances like lemon curdle cow's milk. Voila! Tofu was born and its popularity spread throughout Asia.

Okara, on the other hand, was already Batam Lake known by then, but had been relegated to the scrap heaps. Although very similar to tofu in nutrition and taste, okara wasn't considered fit for human consumption and was fed to the pigs or used as garden fertilizer, while tofu was immediately given a place of honor in Oriental cuisine. In fact, Okara was held in such disregard, that it wouldn't even be given a name for nearly 2,000 years. Only those ultra-poor peasants who couldn't even afford rice, ate okara. Still today, tofu plants in China are usually located close to animal farms for more convenient disposal of the unwanted okara.

In the last couple of centuries, however, Okara has become popular in Korea and Japan where it is used widely in homes and restaurants in bread and pastry doughs, soups and stews, and in stir-fries and side dishes. It is very popular in batam when fermented with the fungus Rhizopus oligosporus to make tempeh, which looks something like a moldy sponge. Once you get past the appearance though, it is rather good and has won a spot on many supermarket shelves in the US. However, if you ask an American about okara itself, you will probably be pointed to okra - a green vegetable shaped something like a native warrior spearhead - in the vegetable department.

In fact, you are just as likely get blank stares from the clerks in oriental food stores in the US - even those in Chinatown. Mention that it's a soy product however, and you'll get an instant "Ahhh sooh" of recognition and be led to the well-stocked tofu shelves. No okara.

Commercially, though okara has silently found its way into soy burgers, sausages, chicken, fish, cookies, cereals, and even into cosmetics and paint.

Few people are aware of the fantastic versatility of soy and the full scope of its applications. You might be surprised to learn that in addition to creating the automobile industry, Henry Ford was also the main mover of the soy industry. In the late 1920's, Henry somehow became interested in finding new industrial uses for the rich oil and protein content of the soybean. In 1931, the year after my own birth - which had nothing to do with him - he decided to use his laboratory facilities in Dearborn, Michigan, to do soybean research and was rewarded with the discovery of an oil that made a superior enamel for painting cars, and a soybean meal that could be molded in horn buttons.

The Chinese were already working with soybeans and Ford called on Eugene Richards, his company representative in China, to investigate Chinese soybean processing methods. After visiting a major bean factory, Richards submitted a report of the factory's equipment and techniques, and noted incidentally, that the workers labored in the nude. Ford borrowed many of the ideas from the report for his River Rouge soybean facility, but didn't adopt the dress policy.

By 1935, Ford cars sported many soybean-derived parts including gearshift knobs, door handles, window trim, and accelerator pads. In 1941, Henry Ford unveiled a handmade plastic car derived from the 'honorable bean'.

But the success achieved by the bean itself hasn't been reflected in okara as a food product. Still, the very factors that have kept it from becoming popular make it an exciting product for anyone on a diet. Okara's neutral flavor is easily changed to suit any taste by by the flavor of whatever it mixed with; meat, fruit, vegetable, herb, or spice. It is high in nutritional value, with 16% of the highest quality protein, less than 20% fat, 64% carbohydrates of which more than half can be insoluble fiber. Best of all, it contains only ninety-four calories per cup, depending on its moisture content.

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