We ’ve all hear of death by hot chocolate , but how would you feel about dying from too much soya sauce ? It may vocalise like a freaky circumstances – but in fact , it ’s not just possible , but surprisingly easy .
When it comes to various nutrient , there ’s not much that can come close to the humble soybean . Without this lilliputian legume , we would n’t have bean curd or soy milk ; we ’d be out miso , natto , and tempeh ; we would have neither half the vegetarian and vegan options that line our supermarket shelvesnorhalf the non - vegetarian alternative ; and , of course of study , we would n’t be able-bodied to eat on the soybeans themselves .
We ’d also have to throw overboard soybean plant sauce , the deliciously salty and umami condiment that was first invented more than two millennia ago and has since conquered just about the entire Earth . Like the bean itgave its name to , this sauce is crazy versatile : it can be added directly to recipes as an ingredient ; tote up on top of rice , noodles , or sushi ; in some post , it’seven an ice cream flavor .
But if none of that appeals , you could always just imbibe it neat and put yourself flat into a coma .
And that ’s if you ’re lucky . soybean plant sauce is amazingly pestilent for a condiment you almost certainly have in your kitchen cupboards right now : there are many , many account ofpeople overdosingon saturated salt solution , and in fact in its native East Asia it’snot unheard offor multitude to die by suicide by soy sauce .
The reason soya bean sauce is so toxic is pretty much the same reason it ’s so tasty : its insane table salt substance . Just one tablespoon of the hooey containsmore than a thirdof your recommended daily intake of sodium , making it easy to get an unhealthy dose just from seasoning your ramen too enthusiastically .
Push the soy sauce limit too far , though , and you ’re lead towards disaster . Take the case ofone 19 - year - old manwho , in 2013 , downed a dry quart of the stuff – that ’s almost a full liter , for the metrically - minded among you – only to terminate up comatose in the emergency room .
“ He did n’t respond to any of the stimuli that we gave him , ” emergency aesculapian doctor David J Carlberg , who treated the soy sauce fatal accident at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville , tell NBCat the prison term .
“ He had some clonus , which is just high-flown reflexes , ” Carlberg explain . “ Basically the nervous system was n’t influence very well . ”
Too much table salt in the rip causes a condition called hypernatremia , in which water move out of the body ’s tissue paper in an seek to equalize saltiness tier between them and the blood . It ’s very serious : not only can it cause fatal fluid buildups in places like the lungs , but as weewee leave behind the encephalon , the organ can shrink and run , have neurological symptoms like seizures and unconsciousness .
Lucky for the patient , he was taken to the ER and cover middling quickly – within four hours of the condiment chug , he was being feed 6 liters ( 1.5 gallons ) of sugary fluid via IV in an attempt to lower his sodium level . It worked tight : after piss more than 4 liter ( 1 gallon ) in an time of day , the patient role ’s sodium levels give to normal – although it would be another three days before his consciousness and genial status return to normal .
Somehow , this patient escaped unscathed from the experience – although the font report noted that his bloodline sodium point as measured at the Medical Center was the highest ever seen in an adult that had n’t either died or suffered last neurologic damage because of it . By right hand , he should n’t have been so favorable : a fatal dot of sodiumcan occurat level as low as 0.5 to 1 gramme ( 0.02 to 0.04 apothecaries' ounce ) of salt per kilo of body weight , which is less than half the amount he consume in this college dare gone wrong .
So , next time you feel like add just a piece more Glycine max sauce than the formula suggests to your arena of noodles , recall : do n’t go overboard . It might be a tasty addition to your meal – or even your dessert – but it’sprobablynot deserving a head trip to the emergency room .
