# Why don't you get drunk on soy sauce?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 31, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719 "2012-12-31T22:26:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/1 "2012-12-31T22:26:29Z")

</div>

It’s fermented, isn’t it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/2 "2012-12-31T22:45:02Z")

</div>

You would probably have to drink a few quarts to get drunk. And if you did that, I think being drunk would be the least of your problems.😉

Soy sauce only contains about 1-2% alcohol at most. Since most people only use a few drops at a time, you’re not going to get a significant amount of alcohol in your fried rice.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/3 "2012-12-31T22:47:46Z")

</div>

Yes, the ingredients have undergone a bacterial fermentation, and are now different than they were before. Same with black tea, and cacao beans. In none of those cases has the product of the fermentation been the chemical ethanol, which gets animals drunk. Sometimes we use the same word to mean different things, c.f – parkway/driveway.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/4 "2012-12-31T22:58:40Z")

</div>

> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> Yes, the ingredients have undergone a bacterial fermentation, and are now different than they were before. Same with black tea, and cacao beans. In none of those cases has the product of the fermentation been the chemical ethanol, which gets animals drunk. Sometimes we use the same word to mean different things, c.f – parkway/driveway.

Soy fermentation does produce alcohol that remains in the end product. Fermentation of the sugars in cacao also produces alcohol in its early stages. However, in cacao and also in sauerkraut, the alcohol is further fermented into lactic acid.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/5 "2013-01-01T04:25:56Z")

</div>

If you drank enough soy sauce to get drunk, I suspect that the sodium intake involved would be impressive, if not problematic.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/6 "2013-01-01T05:22:09Z")

</div>

I remember drinking soy sauce straight out of the bottle as a little kid.

All the salt in it made me thirsty. So, I drank more soy sauce. Which made me thirstier.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-get-drunk-on-soy-sauce/645719/7 "2013-01-01T05:30:19Z")

</div>

> [@Arkcon](#):
>
> Sometimes we use the same word to mean different things, c.f – parkway/driveway.

I like soy sauce on my jumbo shrimp.