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♪ (meditative calm music) ♪
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(Ann Yonetani) It's true that natto[br]has this very unique gooey, sticky texture
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but to me that's fun!
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You know, it's interesting.[br](laughter)
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It's something to talk about.
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Natto truly is the Japanese cheese.
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It's a vegan version
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of a really complex, umami-rich,
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like washed rind cheese.
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And yeah, many cheese lovers [br]really enjoy natto
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and see that parallel in flavor profile.
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It's a food that I feel like[br]more people need to have access to
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because I think that [br]can benefit a lot of people
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by incorporating it into their diets.
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Hi, my name is Ann Yonetani,[br]I'm the founder and owner of NYrture Food
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which makes natto in Brooklyn, New York.
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Natto is really a ubiquitous food,
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an everyday food that's most commonly[br]eaten for breakfast.
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Yes, I feel like I have sort of taken on[br]the mission of being a cheerleader,
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a spokesperson,
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an evangelist for natto in America.
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And it really is because I truly believe
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that natto is just so special,
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so unique...
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I think if there's any food on earth[br]that deserves to be called a superfood
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is natto.
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♪ (slow piano music) ♪
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It's good.
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In a weird way, I'm an urban farmer,
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an urban micro farmer.
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I grow bacteria, [br]and those bacteria eat soybeans,
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and they help me produce natto.
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Yeah, I'm a nerd. [br](laughter)
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This is day one of[br]Nyrture's natto-making-process.
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Every batch starts with this step,
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which is me hand-sorting[br]through the beans.
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I kind of love this step--[br]I love this step and I hate this step
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but there's something very meditative[br]about the process
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and our beans are beautiful,[br]I mean, they're so clean,
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you know, 99.9% of them look fantastic.
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I'd like to think that [br]every single natto bean we sell
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has passed underneath my eyes.
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I'm a microbiologist, actually,[br]that's how I got into this business,
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just being fascinated by[br]the power of the microbial world.
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I'm interested in how consuming[br]some of these good bacterias,
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these probiotic-types of bacteria[br]in the form of fermented food
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has that impact in human health.
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Our first products--
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So those little white dots[br]are actually chemically-pure umami taste.
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There is written documentation[br]describing natto for over a 1000 years.
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In the West and in America[br]is virtually unknown.
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It makes me think that if more adults[br]will come to natto with just an open mind,
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a lot more of them might find[br]that they actually like it. (chuckles)
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This might be excessive[br]but I wash them ten times,
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you know, soak them, entertain them,
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and then, dump out the water.
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And then, they sit in the bath overnight,
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so that the beans are able to hydrate.
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They will swell to over twice[br]their weight and volume.
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When I first learned how to make natto
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from a fifth-generation [br]natto-maker in Tokio,
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he told me that the most important step
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was to choose the best beans you could[br]to start with,
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and he was right.
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The best natto soybeans in America
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are grown in the northern midwest,
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mostly in North Dakota.
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And something that [br]a lot of people don't realize
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is that most of the natto [br]that is made in the world,
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i.e. the natto that is made[br]and sold in Japan,
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it's actually, most of it, [br]is made from US-grown soy,
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and the bulk for that, also,[br]from North Dakota, specifically.
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We also have black soybeans
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and then, we have another brown bean[br]which is certified organic.
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Natto soybeans are very different[br]from the typical commodity soybean.
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That's their non-GMO certified definition.
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But soybeans that are used to make natto[br]by any decent natto-maker
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are really beans that have been[br]carefully selected over generations
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to be ideal for this particular[br]fermentation process.
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♪ (music) ♪
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What makes Nyrture's natto unique:
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Our natto is fresh,
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it's never been frozen,
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unlike all the natto[br]that is imported from Japan--
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it's frozen before export.
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That's important,
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one, because freezing and thawing food[br]can really affect its taste and texture,
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but two, if people are motivated[br]by eating natto for its health benefits,
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freezing and thawing, [br]also, significantly damage
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those health benefits, as well.
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(Liza) How is it?
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Good, they're nice and soft,[br]has some sugar to it, it's sweet...
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It has at least three [br]completely unique properties
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that are unlike any other food on earth.
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Number one, it's probiotic.
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It's fermented with Bacillus subtilis,
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which is a member [br]of the healthy gut microbiome,
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so it's a probiotic bacteria
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that isn't found in any other[br]fermented food certainly in the West.
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The second one is that
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natto is the most concentrated [br]food source of vitamin K2
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of any food on earth,
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and it beats any other[br]by an order of magnitude.
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Vitamin K2 is essential for bone health
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but it's also very important[br]for cardiovascular health.
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It doesn't matter [br]how much calcium you eat,
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if you don't have enough vitamin K2
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to help recruit it out of your bloodstream[br]and bring it to to your bones,
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it accumulates and causes [br]arterial calcification,
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and leads to heart disease.
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The third reason is that[br]there's an enzyme named after natto;
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it's called nattokinase,
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and this enzyme is [br]a natural blood thinner.
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It has an enzymatic activity which, [br]actually, has been shown
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to be capable of[br]breaking down blood clots,
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and the only natural source of it
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is natto.
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Well, there are some cardiologists[br]who are starting to promote natto.
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We're really hoping to work[br]with healthcare providers
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to educate them and help them[br]educate their patients.
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Whether your reason is the vitamin K2,
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or the nattokinase content,
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or the probiotics,
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why not at least give it a try[br]and eat the food which is,
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one, delicious, I think,
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two, cheaper than taking a pill,
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and three, you get all three[br]of these benefits at once.
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They sit here and age and acquire[br]flavors in a week or so.
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Many Japanese people have told me[br]that our natto is the most delicious natto
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that they've ever had [br]either here or even in Japan,
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which is great to hear.
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I've also gone to [br]the National Natto Competition in Japan
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and met many natto producers from Japan,
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and also have gotten very high praise[br]from natto producers in Japan.
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♪ (exciting music) ♪
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I think the favorite moment of mine
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in the entire week-long-process[br]of making the natto
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is that moment after the fermentation[br]is complete
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when I get to just pull back the film
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on a fresh tray of natto
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and just see that neba-neba stickiness,
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those spiderwebs[br]sort of coming off the beans--
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And sort of, the more resistance [br]I have from those strings,
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the better I know the fermentation is,[br]the better the natto,
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so it also serves as a quality control [br]assessment at the same time,
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but I love that feeling [br]of the biofilm resisting my pull.
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(laughter)
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♪ (exciting music) ♪
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So yeah, we really look at this [br]as a long game
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and we're at the very beginning[br]of it right now
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but I suspect it may take 10 years,[br]maybe 20 years,
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for natto to become known enough
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for people to recognize it
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as a thing, as a food.[br](chuckles)
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It'll take a while and a lot of education,
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and exposure like this,
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to just spread the word.
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♪ (gentle music) ♪
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Our logo... many people[br]comment on our logo.
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It's actually a mathematical function,
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it's a Fermat's spiral [br]or a parabolical spiral,
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and I love it because at the center of it
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it kind of look like a ying-yang symbol,
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and to me it represents[br]the two ingredients in our food,
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the soybean and the probiotic bacteria,
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that are coming together and synergizing
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and making something better,[br]bigger, more beautiful
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than the two components alone.
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♪ (outro music) ♪
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Subtitles by Jenny Lam-Chowdhury[br]www.eatingwithmyfivesenses.com