
1. A 1,000-Year-Old Japanese Food Is Behind Today’s Most-Talked-About Heart Enzyme
For more than a thousand years, people in Japan have eaten natto: soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis natto.
In 1980, Japanese researcher Dr. Hiroyuki Sumi found a remarkable enzyme inside this sticky, strong-smelling food.
He named it nattokinase.
Japan is known for some of the longest life expectancies on Earth, and researchers have spent decades studying traditional foods like natto as part of that story.
There’s just one problem: most people can’t stand eating it.












