Soy has a mixed reputation of being good and bad. One important area of discussion is the allergy potential of soy. In it’s unfermented form, soy is hyper-allergenic, due to the harsh proteins contained within. Once fermented the allergy causing proteins are broken down creating a hypo-allergenic food that is rich in bio-available nutrients.
Body Ecology best explains this area of debate, and the studies below provide the evidence to support this.
How fermenting takes the ‘allergy’ out of soy and other foods.
http://bodyecology.com/articles/fermenting_allergy_soy.php
Key papers
Immunoreactivity and amino acid content of fermented soybean products.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2008
Immunoreactivity reduction of soybean meal by fermentation, effect on amino acid composition and antigenicity of commercial soy products.
Food Chemistry, 2008
‘Thus fermentation can decrease soy immunoreactivity and can be optimized to develop nutritious hypoallergenic soy products.’
Quality, antioxidative ability, and cell proliferation-enhancing activity of fermented black soybean broths with various supplemental culture medium.
Journal of Food Science. 2012
Detection of soybean proteins in fermented soybean products by using heating extraction.
Journal of Food Science. 2014
Hypoallergenicity of various miso pastes manufactured in Japan.
Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology (Tokyo). 2013
