Miso soup frequency, blood pressure and heart rate in Japanese adults
What it found
People who often drank miso soup had a lower resting heart rate, but their blood pressure was about the same as those who rarely drank it.
This was seen in 527 Japanese adults aged 50 to 81.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood pressure stayed similar
Average blood pressure was about the same across all four groups, whether they ate miso soup rarely or every day. The type of miso or its main ingredient did not change this result.
Lower heart rate with miso
People who reported eating miso soup most often had a slower heart rate than those who ate it less. After accounting for age, weight and other factors, frequent miso soup drinkers were still more likely to have a below-average heart rate.
Hypertension rates unchanged
Eating miso soup more often was not linked to having high blood pressure. About 26.2% of all participants were already taking blood pressure medicine.
Other findings
Salt content per bowl
One bowl of miso soup generally contains 1 gram of salt. Despite this, eating more miso soup was not tied to higher blood pressure in this group.
What the authors conclude
- They suggest that regularly drinking miso soup may be linked to a lower heart rate in middle-aged and older Japanese adults.
- They conclude that miso soup does not appear to raise blood pressure in this group, despite its salt content.
- The authors say more research is needed to understand exactly how miso soup affects the heart and nervous system.
How it was done
Miso is a major source of salt in Japan, so people are often told to eat less of it to control blood pressure. But earlier work in mice suggested miso might actually calm the nervous system and help the heart, so the authors wanted to check if that happens in people too.
They looked at health examination records from 527 Japanese adults aged 50 to 81 between October 2015 and March 2016. Participants filled out a questionnaire about how often they ate miso soup and were split into four groups, from less than one bowl a week to seven or more bowls a week. Their blood pressure and heart rate were then compared across these groups.
What it can’t tell you
- Because this study only looked at people at one point in time, it cannot prove that miso soup caused the lower heart rate.
- The researchers relied on people remembering how much miso soup they ate, which may not be exact.
- They did not measure how much salt people actually took in each day, so the true salt effect is unknown.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Kyushu Hospital, Japan
The paper
- Title
- The Effects of the Habitual Consumption of Miso Soup on the Blood Pressure and Heart Rate of Japanese Adults: A Cross-sectional Study of a Health Examination
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Ito K, Miyata K, Mohri M, Origuchi H, Yamamoto H (2017). The Effects of the Habitual Consumption of Miso Soup on the Blood Pressure and Heart Rate of Japanese Adults: A Cross-sectional Study of a Health Examination. Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan). doi:10.2169/internalmedicine.56.7538Free full textPubMed 28049996DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error