Foods using soy as a major component have become quite popular
over the past 10 years. The media has had much to do with the craze,
thanks in part to the attention generated by creative ad campaigns
launched by a number of entities like Archer Daniels Midland and
the American Soybean Association. Even the FDA got into the act
in 1999 when they approved the health claim that soy lowers one's
cholesterol.
Although it's hard to find too many negatives in major media outlets,
the real story behind soy is far more complex and not nearly as
safe as one might think. Why?
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The soy foods that are good for you must be eaten sparingly
just as they have been for a very long time in Asia. The average
consumption of soy in China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and Taiwan
doesn't exceed 36 grams daily
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Like most other products you find in U.S. grocery stores, soy
foods are heavily processed. A cup of soy milk or tofu contains
seven times the amount of soy Asians eat daily
In fact, scientists have warned consumers that eating soy comes
with some risk. Countless studies have linked the consumption of
soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown,
infertility, cognitive decline and even cancer and heart disease.
Soybeans were first used by the Chinese as a crop to fertilize
soil and eventually became human food near the third century B.C.
when the Chinese created a fermentation process to make miso, or
soybean paste. (Natto and tempeh were other fermented products that
came along about 1000 A.D.) Tofu came after miso, but it was rarely
eaten as a main course, except in monasteries. Also, the Chinese
never cooked, baked or boiled soybeans or related products except
in times of famine.
Although soy milk has been touted as a traditional product, the
earliest mention of it appeared only 140 years ago. The first infant
soy formulas in China were developed in the 1930s but never used
widely.
Modern uses
Experts believe the use of soy is merely an offshoot of the industrial
revolution to develop cheaper meat substitutes, create soy-based
drugs and to generate eventual replacement materials for plastics
and fuels based on petroleum.
The proof is in foods we eat: Some 60 percent of the foods sold
in grocery and natural food stores has some soy in it. Soy is hidden
in a good many foods, including fast-food hamburgers and canned
tuna. Others, like Soysage and Not Dogs, make no bones about their
origins.
But there is nothing that sounds terribly
safe or nutritious about most of these soy-based products. For example:
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Textured soy protein is created by forcing defatted soy flour
through a machine called an extruder under conditions of such
extreme heat and pressure that the very structure of the soy
protein is changed
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The first step in the process to make soy protein isolate is
when defatted soybean meal is mixed with a caustic alkaline
solution to remove the fiber, then washed in an acid solution
to leech out the protein
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The use of soy protein in animal feed over time has caused
such health concerns as poor growth and digestive distress
Big promises
Those who defend the use of soy claim food processing and home
cooking remove many antinutrients. While that's true, some still
remain. Besides, the level of heat needed to remove some antiutrients,
for example, would severely damage the soy protein, making it harder
to digest. Lately, however, the soy industry has changed its tune
in an attempt to convince consumers antinutrients are valuable.
Consequently, soy allergies are on the rise thanks to the increasing
numbers of foods with soy in them, the growing use of soy-based
formulas for infants and use of genetically modified foods.
The use of soy-based formulas is particularly alarming. Depending
on a male infant's biology, if receptor sites intended to connect
with testosterone are occupied instead by soy receptors, for example,
male characteristics may never develop, according to recent studies
of animals. But anecdotal evidence and reports from parents and
pediatricians have confirmed this outcome.
Some advocates believe the plant hormones found in soy formula
can't be harmful, again because Japanese women eat many soy products
and, theoretically, have high levels of phytoestrogens in their
breast milk. But, after measuring the soy isoflavones in the breast
milk of these women, even some who are vegetarians and ate a lot
of soy-based foods, researchers found low levels.
Other side effects of soy: The level of soy estrogens could allow
the spread of hormone-related disease that hurt the health of the
thyroid gland. In fact, the 25 grams of soy-based protein advocated
by the FDA to lower cholesterol could harm the thyroid too, increasing
one's risk for heart disease.
Mothering
May-June 2004
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