The Dangers of Eating Soy

Myths and Truths About Soy

Myth: Use of soy as a food dates back many thousands of years.

Truth: Soy was first used as a food during the late Chou dynasty (1134-246 BC), only after the Chinese learned to ferment soybeans to make foods like tempeh, natto and tamari.

Myth: Asians consume large amounts of soy foods.

Truth: Average consumption of soy foods in China is 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) per day and 30 to 60 grams in Japan. Asians consume soy foods in small amounts as a condiment, and not as a replacement for animal foods.

Myth: Modern soy foods confer the same health benefits as traditionally fermented soy foods.

Truth: Most modern soy foods are not fermented to neutralize toxins in soybeans, and are processed in a way that denatures proteins and increases levels of carcinogens.

Myth: Soy foods provide complete protein.

Truth: Like all legumes, soybeans are deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. In addition, modern processing denatures fragile lysine.

Myth: Fermented soy foods can provide vitamin B12 in vegetarian diets.

Truth: The compound that resembles vitamin B12 in soy cannot be used by the human body; in fact, soy foods cause the body to require more B12.Myth: Soy formula is safe for infants.

Myth: Soy formula is safe for infants.

Truth: Soy foods contain trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and adversely affect pancreatic function. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors led to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders. Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D, needed for strong bones and normal growth. Phytic acid in soy foods results in reduced bioavailability of iron and zinc which are required for the health and development of the brain and nervous system. Soy also lacks cholesterol, likewise essential for the development of the brain and nervous system. Megadoses of phytoestrogens in soy formula have been implicated in the current trend toward increasingly premature sexual development in girls and delayed or retarded sexual development in boys.

Myth: Soy foods can prevent osteoporosis.

Truth: Soy foods can cause deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D, both needed for healthy bones. Calcium from bone broths and vitamin D from seafood, lard and organ meats prevent osteoporosis in Asian countries—not soy foods.

Myth: Modern soy foods protect against many types of cancer.

Truth: A British government report concluded that there is little evidence that soy foods protect against breast cancer or any other form of cancer. In fact, soy foods may result in an increased risk of cancer.

Myth: Soy foods are safe and beneficial for women to use in their postmenopausal years.

Truth: Soy foods can stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors and cause thyroid problems. Low thyroid function is associated with difficulties in menopause.

Myth: Soy foods protect against heart disease.

Truth: In some people, consumption of soy foods will lower cholesterol, but there is no evidence that lowering cholesterol lowers one’s risk of having heart disease.

Myth: Phytoestrogens in soy foods can enhance mental ability.

Truth: A recent study found that women with the highest levels of estrogen in their blood had the lowest levels of cognitive function; in Japanese Americans tofu consumption in mid-life is associated with the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease in later life.

Myth: Soy estrogens (isoflavones) are good for you.

Truth: Soy isoflavones are phyto-endocrine disrupters. At dietary levels, they can prevent ovulation and stimulate the growth of cancer cells. As little as four tablespoons of soy per day can result in hypothyroidism with symptoms of lethargy, constipation, weight gain and fatigue.

Myth: Soy isoflavones and soy protein isolate have GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status.

Truth: Archer Daniels Midland recently withdrew its application to the FDA for GRAS status for soy isoflavones following an outpouring of protest from the scientific community. The FDA never approved GRAS status for soy protein isolate because of concern regarding the presence of toxins and carcinogens in processed soy.

Myth: Soy foods are good for your sex life.

Truth: Numerous animal studies show that soy foods cause infertility in animals. Soy consumption lowers testosterone levels in men. Tofu was consumed by Buddhist monks to reduce libido.

Myth: Soybeans are good for the environment.

Truth: Most soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered to allow farmers to use large amounts of herbicides, creating toxic runoff.

Myth: Soybeans are good for developing nations.

Truth: In third world countries, soybeans replace traditional crops and transfer the value added of processing from the local population to multinational corporations.

Soy is a very common allergen, is high in fat and is hard to digest. Here are the reasons to not use soy;

· High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.

· Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.

· Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.

· Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

· Vitamin B₁₂ analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B₁₂.

· Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D.

· Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.

· Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.

· Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.

Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

Recovery from Soy

Getting Over Soy

By Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN

Hidden soy exists in thousands of everyday foods and cosmetics as well as products such as cardboards, paints, cars, biodiesel fuels, fabric softeners, mattresses and even books printed with soy ink. This is a nightmare for people who are allergic to soy and a challenge for those who are sensitive to it or who just want to avoid it. When New Trends printed The Whole Soy Story: the Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food in 2005, we went "green" and boasted on the copyright page "Printed with soy ink, an appropriate use of soy." Soon after, we learned, to our dismay, that people who are highly allergic to soy cannot read the book!

Warning Labels

Books printed with soy ink don’t yet require warning labels but luckily foods now do. In January 2006, help for consumers came with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act. The law requires food manufacturers to clearly state whether a product contains any of the top eight allergens—milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy protein—and to put the warning in plain English. That means companies have to spell it out S-O-Y and not hide behind confusing and little-understood terms like "hydrolyzed plant protein" or "textured vegetable protein."

That’s good enough for people who simply prefer to avoid soy. For highly allergic people, the new labeling law is not enough. Soy oil, lecithin and vitamin E (often added as a preservative) do not fall under the labeling requirement. (The FDA reasons that such products are free of soy protein, which is only true when they are manufactured under perfect conditions.) Animal products too may unexpectedly contain "hidden" soy. Some will appear on labels such as "extenders" added to ground meat, "plasticizers" used to hold patties, meat balls and hot dogs together or soy oil pumped into pre-basted turkeys. But labeling won’t help the increasing numbers of people who are starting to react to the flesh of fish, poultry, lamb or cattle that were fattened on soy feed and to eggs laid by soy fed chickens.

Inaccurate labeling is yet another problem. Both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Canadian Food Inspection Agency recall hundreds of products each year, usually because of undeclared allergens. Three factors are usually to blame: omissions or errors on labels, cross contamination of manufacturing equipment and mistakes made by suppliers of ingredients. With the new labeling law, some health food store companies have voluntarily taken the precaution of stating clearly on their labels whether a food product was produced in a "facility that also processes soy." Likewise, some supplement companies may indicate that a probiotic was grown on a culture containing dairy and soy, even though soy is not officially an ingredient and is extremely unlikely to appear in the final product. Such companies, however, are the exception and not the rule.

Nothing to Eat

Since The Whole Soy Story came out, hundreds of allergic people have told me that they live lives of angry desperation. Trips to the supermarket or health food store mean hours of poring over food labels and finding little or nothing to eat. Making matters worse, many react to soy dust in the bulk bins and/or smells in the cleaning product and cosmetic aisles. Some of these people use up tremendous amounts of energy venting in letters to the FDA and to food manufacturers. Their entire lives revolve around fear of soy and the frustration of trying to completely avoid it. What they want is for the government to outlaw soy entirely, so they can be happy again.

Why Avoidance Isn’t Enough

The mistake most of these highly allergic people make is to put all their energy into avoiding soy. Vigilance is essential, of course, especially for those who might go into anaphylactic shock. But the downside is an increasingly limited diet that can precipitate additional food allergies. Think how many of the soy allergies develop in the first place. A baby, child or adult reacts to commercial dairy products only to be switched to soy infant formula or soy milk. Or, parents of an autistic child will go on a gluten-free and casein-free diet and end up using soy flours, soy protein and soy milk. The overuse of soy then leads to soy-related digestive disorders, allergies, thyroid damage and other health problems. Every week I get letters from people wanting "protein powders," "energy bars" and other convenience foods free of whey and soy protein. The food industry’s latest answer is pea protein, but people who take pea protein every day will likely develop allergies or sensitivities to it as well. In any case, 100 percent soy avoidance is well nigh impossible.

A better solution is to reduce—or even eliminate—the sensitivity and reactivity. This is not always easy, but is possible using the combination of right diet and high-quality soy-free supplements. To get started, here are four tips.

Tip # 1: If It Has A Label, Don’t Buy It!

Live by this rule and you’ll eliminate the frustration of poring over food labels at supermarkets. Basing their diet on readymade food products without any soy or other bad ingredients is the reason people with allergies think there’s nothing they can eat. With the time saved, put your energy into preparing real foods, whole foods and slow foods. Eat a variety of them. This is the best way to avoid soy and will give your body the nourishment it needs for soy recovery.

Tip #2: Bone Up

People with allergies and food sensitivities almost always suffer from impaired digestion and a "leaky gut." Heal both with homemade bone broths rich in gelatin, cartilage and collagen. (Canned, packaged, restaurant or deli soups won’t do the trick as they are almost never made properly.) Directions can be found in Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat/Lose Fat. Both books contain broth-based recipes but feel free to use any of your old favorite soup or stew recipes after including the three key ingredients of bones, water and vinegar. Chicken, turkey, lamb, beef and fish broths are all good. In addition to making homemade soups and stews, use bone broth as the liquid when cooking rice and other grains to improve nutritional content and digestibility. Bone broth provides good levels of absorbable calcium for people who cannot tolerate dairy, even raw dairy.

Tip #3: Support Yourself with Coconut

The number one question I hear from readers is, "I can’t drink milk so what do you recommend instead of soy milk?" Most people choose rice milk, a beverage that is high in sugar and low in nutritional value. The best non-dairy, soy free alternative is a homemade coconut tonic made with coconut milk (full fat, not "lite"), water, dolomite, vanilla and a little maple syrup or stevia for a sweetener. Thanks to the dolomite, it’s rich in calcium and magnesium (see recipe below). Use coconut oil liberally as well. Coconut supports the immune system, always a weakness in people with allergies.

Coconut Milk Tonic

1 can whole coconut milk 3/4 cup filtered water
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon KAL brand dolomite powder

Mix all ingredients and heat gently. Serve in a mug. Note: Coconut Milk Tonic contains the same calories, fat and calcium as whole milk. However, this recipe should not be used as a substitute for raw milk in recipes for baby formula. The tonic is still missing many compounds and nutrients found in raw milk. However, Coconut Milk Tonic can be used as a substitute for milk in a diet containing a variety of whole foods.

Tip #4: Bring In the Wee Beasties

Improve your intestinal flora and fauna with unpasteurized cultured vegetables, kombucha and other fermented foods and beverages. The problem is that few people do it. Those who get past the taste often give up after experiencing uncomfortable detoxification reactions such as bowel upsets, headaches and flu symptoms. Such reactions can be minimized by going slowly but surely. In addition, I recommend working with a health professional who does laboratory testing and can recommend a high-quality probiotic, customized digestive and metabolic enzymes, and other gut-healing supplements. Enzymes are critical because allergy sufferers produce insufficient amounts of pancreatic enzymes needed for adequate digestion of protein, fats and carbohydrates. Enzymes are not only needed to break down the proteins that would otherwise incite allergic reactions, but also to block the allergic reactions themselves. Furthermore, enzymes boost immune system function by promoting the growth of healthy intestinal flora. While healing can sometimes be accomplished with diet alone, most people need time to implement a full-tilt Nourishing Traditions diet. The right combination of diet and supplements can greatly speed the way.

Super Soy Me!

Remember Super Size Me, the 2004 darkly hilarious, award-winning documentary? The film features 30 days in the life of Morgan Spurlock who risked life and love by eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonalds. Human interest is provided by his vegan girlfriend who worries (appropriately) but implies (inappropriately) that Morgan’s fast weight gain, fatigue, liver toxicity and loss of libido are due not only to sugar but to the evil meat patty with its saturated fat. Truth is the amount of saturated fat in the burgers is far exceeded by soy oil on the griddle and in the French fries. And the buns, shakes and condiments all contain soy protein. Indeed, the movie might have been called Super Soy Me!

The Whole Calcium Problem..

I saw two commercials last night for prescription medications.  Two were for osteoporosis, the other was for cholesterol.  All three pissed me off.  (excuse my language..)

The Boniva ad had Sally Fields talking about her osteoporosis and how she had stopped the bone loss. The other commercial had two women talking about how they had known each other all thier lives and even now “shared osteoporosis”.

Dr. Jarvis says on his commercial for Lipitor, “when diet and exercise are not enough, he turned to Lipitor.”

HELLO???   Diet and Exercise  ARE always enough if you eat right!  My chiropractor says my bone density is that of a 25 year old. My joints show very little wear and tear on an x-ray.

Our bodies do not recognize supplements as food, most are excreted. Medications bring side effects, kidney and liver are stressed. 

A few days ago I posted Eating Organically and Economically-How I Cook and Eat-Weekly

Let’s take a look at one days menu then I will show you the nutrition breakdown for that day.

Ideal Day

Breakfast:

2 whole organic eggs soft scrambled with 1 T. raw butter

1 slices organic bacon

2 slices tomato

½ cup fresh vegetable juice, mostly greens.

Lunch

3 chicken legs

2 cups sautéed red cabbage and onions using coconut oil

2 slices tomato

Mid-afternoon

½ cup blueberries

Dinner

1 cup sweet potato (136 calories) or (winter squashes) with 1 T. butter

7 ounces grass fed beef, bison or free range chicken, cooked with 1 T. coconut oil

2 cups kale or broccoli or other green LEAFY vegetable

½ cup mushrooms, peppers and onions cooked with butter

Notice the nutrient level for Vitamin C is 662 mg? Vitamin A is 57,275 I.U. a DAY!  Calcium intake is 165% of what you need daily, Iron 254%!

Perfect nutrition, not expensive, not hard to prepare…and meets your every need for protein, fats, carbs and all Vitamins and Minerals. 

Trying to use prescription medications to reach optimum health is like using a band-aid to deal with symptoms. Perfect nutrition gets rid of the symptoms, gets at the cause, detoxes you and returns you to perfect health. And reverses the ages process by drastically cutting back on free radical production.

Tell Greenpeace: Toilet Paper Consumption from Canada’s Ancient Boreal Forests Must End

When it comes to any sort of environmental initiative, it’s usually Greenpeace that’s complaining that the effort is just not enough. They’re often purists, demanding more than people are willing to give, out of a noble sense of urgency and responsibility. But after they suspended a recent campaign to stop Canada’s ancient boreal forests from being cut down for toilet paper, one ecologist says Greenpeace gave in too easily.

Dr. Glen Barry, environmental sustainability policy expert and founder of Ecological Internet, sent out a press release entitled ‘Greenpeace Wipes It’s Soft, Virgin Butt with Canada’s Ancient Boreal Forests’:

Greenpeace’s long-standing campaign against “ancient forest crimes” by Kimberly-Clark was suspended on the basis of promises that 40% of its North American tissue fiber will be either recycled or FSC certified by 2011. The company traditionally has used 3 million tones of virgin fiber a year, which will fall to 2.4 million tons if they are successful. This atrociously weak target will legitimize continued destruction of Canada’s ancient forest ecosystems for throw away paper products for decades.

“In a world well past its carrying capacity, facing abrupt climate change and species and ecosystem collapse, we call upon Greenpeace to immediately disclose the ecological science that suggests primary and old growth forests can and should continue to be clearcut to wipe our asses,” questions Dr. Glen Barry. “It is just like Greenpeace to half carry out a campaign, achieve partial success, claim victory and move onto a more telegenic protest opportunity to fill their coffers.”

Ecological Internet calls upon Greenpeace to embrace substance over style (for a change) and immediately disassociate itself from the Forest Stewardship Council’s ongoing certification of first time industrial logging of primary forests as being “well-managed” while implying sustainability.

“No one including Greenpeace can tell us how many tens of millions of hectares of primeval forest ecosystems are being destroyed under FSC’s certification label for, amongst other things, toilet paper and lawn furniture. Until Greenpeace and friends stop greenwashing FSC ancient forest logging, we call upon committed forest protectors to resign their membership from Greenpeace and other ancient forest logging apologists, and to stop using virgin toilet paper, no matter how sensitive their behinds,” explains Dr. Barry.

Wow. It’s not often that Greenpeace is accused of not being tough enough on environmentally irresponsible companies. They’re known for being among the biggest hardasses in the world of environmental activism, yelling “bigger, faster, more” like a drill sergeant when companies take baby steps toward better practices.

But Dr. Barry has one-upped them, saying “There is no such thing as ecologically sustainable or even mildly beneficial first time industrial primary forest logging, and Greenpeace should be ashamed of itself for legitimizing the trade. If you support Greenpeace, you support ancient forest logging that endangers our shared being.”

Judge for yourself at Greenpeace’s Kleercut campaign website.

Click here to Tell Greenpeace: Toilet Paper Consumption from Canada’s Ancient Boreal Forests Must End

Response to Emma on the Dole Banana Story…

Emma commented;

i am an advocate of buying organic whenever possible, but i thought you may be interested in this link that claims that many of the claims were actually fabricated.
please have a read and let me know what you think!
cheers,
Emma
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/

Thank you for commenting Emma, something sure doesn’t seem right there. I will be following this…in the meantime, ya’ll follow the link and see what Business Week had to say…

Bananas!* Exposes Dole’s Poisonous Practices

From Eco Worldly

Written by Rhonda Winter

Published on August 15th, 2009

Posted in About Environment, About Politics, In The Americas

An explosive new documentary, Bananas!*, examines global food politics by following the crusade of lawyer Juan J. Dominguez, as he fights for the rights of thousands of banana plantation workers in Nicaragua who have been made sterile from exposure to the banned pesticide DBCP (Dibromo Chloropropane). This toxic chemical has been shown to cause cancer in animals, sterility in humans, and has been banned in most of the Americas since 1977. The film follows Dominguez as he fights the behemoth Dole Company for restitution for the abused Nicaraguan workers in the US courts.

The Dole Food Company is now attempting to sue the filmmakers and producers, and has unsuccessfully attempted to block screenings of the movie at the Los Angeles Film Festival earlier this year. WG Film, Fredrik Gertten and Margarete Jangård, the creators of Bananas!*, have retained a First Amendment rights lawyer to fight back against the multinational giant Dole. The corporation’s lawsuit claims that the film is defamatory and false toward Dole Food. Bananas!* is definitely a movie that the Dole Corporation does not want you to see. It is presently scheduled for wide release this October.