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By
Dr. Joseph Mercola
with Rachael Droege
In recent years soy has emerged as a ‘near perfect’
food, with supporters claiming it can provide an ideal source
of protein, lower cholesterol, protect against cancer and
heart disease, reduce menopause symptoms, and prevent osteoporosis,
among other things. But how did such a ‘perfect’
food emerge from a product that in 1913 was listed in the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) handbook not as a food
but as an industrial product?
According to lipid specialist and nutritionist Mary Enig,
PhD, "The reason there’s so much soy in America
is because they [the soy industry] started to plant soy to
extract the oil from it and soy oil became a very large industry.
Once they had as much oil as they did in the food supply they
had a lot of soy protein residue left over, and since they
can’t feed it to animals, except in small amounts, they
had to find another market."
And another market was what they found. To put it simply,
after multi-million dollar figures spent on advertising and
intense lobbying to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
about 74 percent of U.S. consumers now believe soy products
are healthy.
If you’re thinking the health claims surrounding soy
sound too good to be true you just may be right. Soy has become
another misunderstood food category, to be added to the ranks
of coconut oil,
saturated fats
and vegetable oils. The
two former have gained a negative reputation where a good
one actually applies, but vegetable oil, along with soy, have
emerged with sparkling reputations that cover up the truth.
For just a brief look at what’s really going on, consider
that numerous studies have found that soy products may:
Soy products also contain:
- Phytoestrogens (isoflavones) genistein and daidzein, which
mimic and sometimes block the hormone estrogen
- Phytates, which block the body's uptake of minerals
- Enzyme Inhibitors, which hinder protein digestion
- Haemaggluttin, which causes red blood cells to clump together
and inhibits oxygen take-up and growth
Further, most soybeans are grown on farms that use toxic
pesticides and herbicides, and many are from genetically engineered
plants. When you consider that two-thirds of all manufactured
food products contain some form of soy, it becomes clear just
how many Americans are consuming GM products, whose long-term
effects are completely unknown.
Perhaps the most disturbing of soy’s ill effects on
health has to do with its phytoestrogens that can mimic the
effects of the female hormone estrogen. These phytoestrogens
have been found to have adverse effects on various human tissues,
and drinking even two glasses of soy milk daily for one month
has enough of the chemical to alter a woman’s menstrual
cycle. The FDA regulates estrogen-containing products, however
no warnings exist on soy. Two senior toxicologists with the
FDA. Daniel Sheehan and Daniel Doerge, have even come out
saying "The public will be put at potential risk from
soy isoflavones in soy protein isolate without adequate warning
and information." Soy is particularly problematic for
infants, and soy infant
formulas should be avoided. It has been estimated that
infants who are fed soy formula exclusively receive five birth
control pills worth of estrogen every day.
There are some redeeming qualities to soy, however these
are found primarily in fermented soy products like tempeh,
miso and natto and soybean sprouts. If you want to get some
health benefits from soy, stick to these four forms and pass
up the processed soy milks, soy ‘burgers’, soy ‘ice
cream’, soy ‘cheese’, and the myriad of other
soy junk foods that are so readily disguised as health foods.
Related Articles:
Why Soy Can Damage Your Health
The Shadow of Soy
Scientists Protest Soy
Approval
Newest Research On
Why You Should Avoid Soy
The Trouble With Tofu: Soy
and the Brain
Soy: Too Good to
be True
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