History of Natto and Its Relatives (1405-2012 - SoyInfo Center

survey.
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Talk with Roger Stevens. 1997. March 10. The 1997
directory was fi rst available in January 1997. About 100,000
copies of this directory were printed, and all but 7,000 have
already been sent out free of charge. About 77,000 copies
were sent to registered dietitians nationwide; all are members
of the American Dietetic Association. Another 10,000
copies were sent to the American Association of Family
and Consumer Sciences–basically extension personnel at
the Cooperative Extension Service in each county; these
people provide a lot of consumer information about foods
and agriculture. About 500 copies were sent to each of the
20 state soybean development councils. The remaining 6,000
copies were sent to callers who left their name and address at
a toll-free answering service. The next step is to do a media
tour in Indiana. Traveling with a registered dietitian, they
expect to generate a lot of requests from citizens of Indiana.
One of the goals is to show other states that if you promote
soyfoods in this manner, you will get a lot of interest.
Roger hopes to encourage other states to take a more active
role in promoting soyfoods. The directory has generated a
tremendous amount of information on the part of dietitians
who call the toll-free number and have many questions about
soyfoods; Roger tries to refer them to people who have the
answers–such as 1-800-Talk-Soy. The Indiana Soybean
Council has had to hire a new person just to handle the
requests for this directory.
Next Roger plans to do a survey of registered dietitians
to learn more about their responses to the 1997 directory.
He might ask: Did you receive the book? Do you use it? If
so, in what way and how often? How many people do you
infl uence with regards to soyfoods as a result of this book?
So if each of the 77,000 dietitians infl uences, on average, 10
people a year, the directory has reached more than 750,000
people. One major goal of this book is to help dietitians
include more soyfoods in their own diets and in the diets of
their clients. How can we better help you do this? Do you
want a cookbook? A starter kit? Shall we include coupons?
From the focus groups he has already conducted, Roger
thinks that future editions of the directory will be presented
more like a cookbook or recipe book, with the directory in
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
HISTORY OF NATTO AND ITS RELATIVES 488
the back. “People really like the recipes. They just hand them
out to their clients. We get requests for 100 books at a time
from dietitians, who give the entire book to their clients at
classes, in their offi ces, etc.” Roger has the funds to do the
research to fi nd out exactly what dietitians want in the way
of soyfoods recipes and how they want them organized.
Other possible questions: Which part or parts of the
book do you fi nd most valuable? Which do you fi nd least
valuable. Is there any information which is not in the book
that you wish were included?
Roger would also like to develop for the next edition
of this book a graphic presentation of the inside of a typical
supermarket showing all the different products which contain
soy.
Note: The word “soyoil” is used instead of “soy oil”
throughout this directory. Address: Stevens & Associates,
4816 North Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis, Indiana
46205. Phone: 317-926-6272.
1571. Pearce, Jean. 1997. Getting things done: Starting out
on soy. Japan Times (Tokyo). Feb. 12. p. 17. Wednesday.
[Eng]
• Summary: “Last week’s columns reported on recent
research pointing to the dietary benefi ts of soybean products
in relieving complaints associated with menopause.”
Discusses isofl avones and the isofl avone content (in
micrograms per gram) of kinako (roasted soy fl our, 2,589),
roasted soybeans (1,625), edamame (1,354), natto (1,273),
regular tofu (509), fried tofu (695), soy milk (357), miso
(373), shoyu (16).
Gives several tofu recipes and recommends The Book of
Tofu by Shurtleff & Aoyagi.
“And fi nally, kudos to Japan Airlines for creating natto
in a palatable form, freeze-dried and fl avored... It has been
tremendously successful. In two years, total sales amounted
to ¥56 million. Just think of all those isofl avones.” A photo
shows Jean Pearce. Address: Columnist.
1572. House Foods America Corporation. 1997. House
Foods America Corporation. Garden Grove, California. 12 p.
28 cm.
• Summary: This color booklet is written in 4 languages:
English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Thus four blocks
of text, each with the same message, appear on each 2-page
spread. Contents: Introduction. House Foods products. Tofu
& tofu products. Restaurant–Curry House. Factory.
“House Foods Corporation is the biggest spice
manufacturer in Japan, selling processed foodstuffs such as
curry mix and stew mix products. In 1981, we established
the Los Angeles offi ce to introduce Japanese style curry...
In 1983 we opened a curry restaurant in Little Tokyo,
where our customers enjoy cuisine created with a Japanese
sensibility. We also [in 1983] started manufacturing tofu, the
healthy food low in fat and high in protein. Tofu has become