Soy What?

  by Michelle Russell

So you've decided you want to get healthy, loose some weight and create a healthy glow. Maybe your Grandmother and Aunty have breast cancer and you're afraid of following in their footsteps.  Or you've just watched a documentary on intensive animal farming and decided to go vegan. No matter what you're motivation may be, you've decided to make some changes.   So it's off to the supermarket to seek out some healthy alternatives. Of course you've done some research and you've decided to make some dairy, sugar and wheat free choices.  Perhaps those hippies in the 70's were right after all and tofu is the go! ‘I just wish it tasted better- a bit like bland rubber band!'  Never mind, you set out armed with good intentions and determined to make change at a personal and environmental level.

First on your list is soy milk- ‘no more nasty, mucous- forming dairy for me', you think. ‘Curious', you think when being directed to the dairy cabinet to make your selection, ‘soy milk isn't dairy food'.

And the choices are no easier than the dairy milk range either.  There's lite styles, flavoured varieties, one's in aluminium lined cardboard cartons, one's in plastic bottles, and you haven't even started to read the labels yet!

You read the labels- malt, canola oil, sunflower oil, maltodextrin, sugar, barley malt, whole soy beans, soy lecithin all vie for positions on the ingredients list.  Eventually you settle for one that seems the healthiest and hesitantly place it in your shopping trolley.  Whilst in the cold cabinet your eye is caught by a dazzling variety of soy yoghurts, cheeses and dessert packs.  Feeling sure you're on the right track you make a selection of these goodies with just a cursory glance at the ingredients.  As long as they don't contain sugar, they must be ok!  And while you're there, grab a pack of tofu too! And then you can't help but notice an extensive range of vegie burgers and sausages all conveniently vacuum sealed for a long healthy life! (Somewhere you remember someone saying that supermarkets are in the shelf life business, not the nutritious health business, but you can see that's all changing now).

Bread is next on the list and how convenient, the supermarket now carries wheat free sour dough breads.... And even better, you think they even have soy flour in them- you're going to be powering on all this protein... who needs meat?!

Now to the frozen food section- a quick TV dinner for the night you'll be working late this week- of course you pick the brand advertised as a lean, healthy choice- and once again you're assured by the presence of soy- soy oil, soy flour and more soy protein.

See, becoming a conscious eater was never made soy easy!

You continue to fill your trolley- some soy mayonnaise, some gluten free cookies, oh and your sister asked you to get some baby food for her little one- you can hardly believe your eyes when you see the label- more quality soy ingredients!

Striding proudly past the meat aisle you make your way to the checkout and join the long queue, distracted by the doughnut display as you wait, you feel pleased you don't eat that junk anymore and squint as you read the tiny print that constitutes the ingredients lists for the 3 separate components of the doughnuts- icing, dough and filling- and incredulously you find soy products in each of these descriptions.  Maybe doughnuts aren't that bad after all - but then you remember that the sugar and fat components might be a problem and opt to stay with your ‘healthier purchases.'

Unfortunately many of us are unwittingly swayed by advertising and marketing campaigns that present products containing soy as a ‘health food'.  However on closer investigation we can soon discover that in fact these soy ingredients are manufactured, processed, refined and contain many harmful properties.  Let's take a closer look at the hidden, unlabelled ingredients in soy foods.

Soybeans, like many legumes, were originally farmed to fix nitrogen in the soil, in preparation for sowing other crops. It was a minor crop listed in the 1913 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) handbook, as an industrial product, not a food.  It was grown to produce soy oil which is often simply described as vegetable oil in many food products.  The resultant soy protein isolates of the soy oil industry (which involves heat, blasting and bleaching processes) are then conveniently ‘dumped' as fillers into commercial food products such as cakes, bread, confectionary, baby formula and baby food, milk and meat substitutes, breakfast cereals, body-building protein formulas, frozen TV dinners, snack foods, cooking sprays, ice-cream, pet foods and much more.  Soy products can be found in over 70% of foods found in the supermarket. Soy products contain -

Phytoestrogens or isoflavones- called genistein and daidzein and are known to mimic and block the hormone estrogen. In a nutshell, feeding an infant soy formula is the equivalent of giving it 5 birth control pills a day.  Similarly drinking 2 glasses of soy milk daily for one month has enough chemical to alter a woman's menstrual cycle.   The FDA actually regulates estrogen- containing products, however no warnings exist on soy.

Phytates- these are naturally occurring enzymes inhibiting properties which prevent the legume from sprouting outside of ideal growing conditions.  Great for the legume, but they can wreak havoc on our digestion, commonly causing wind, bloating and abdominal pain.  No amount of soaking or cooking and eliminate the phytates in soybeans.  They block the body's uptake of minerals and leach calcium from the bones.

Aluminium- soy contains high levels of aluminium absorbed from the soil in which it is grown. In 1997 the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Nutrition reported that breast milk contains 4 to 65ng/ml., whereas soy-based baby formulas contain 600 to 1300ng/ml.  Soy products are linked with brain damage in embryos and infants. Aluminium is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

Haemaglutin- causes red blood cells to clump together and inhibits oxygen uptake and growth in the body.

GMO Ingredients- Most of the planets soy crops are grown using Genetically Modified seeds (see related section on the damage to traditional communities through GMO farming)  and large volumes of toxic pesticides, herbicides and chemicals. The long term effects of GMO crops are unknown and the chemicals used are carried through our food chain, the environment and into our bodies.

Health effects of consuming soy products

Developmental changes in children

Feeding babies and children soy based formulas and foods can lead to developmental changes such as accelerated sexual development in girls and breast formation and underdeveloped genitals in boys.  Soy creates hormonal imbalances due to the excess of the female hormone estrogen in both sexes.

Thyroid Problems

Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer.  Soy formula for infants has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.  Around 60% of foods consumed by Americans contain soy derivatives and approximately 13 million Americans suffer from thyroid problems.

Brain deterioration

A study of hundreds of middle aged Japanese men have shown that regular consumption of tofu and soymilk have lead to brain shrinkage and abnormalities in children.

Breast Cancer

Two senior US government scientists have revealed that chemicals in soy increase the risk of breast cancer.  It is not recommended for pregnant women to consume soy products as they are linked to the formation of breast tumours.

Allergic Reactions

Being the botanical cousin of peanuts, soy is possibly responsible for the many cases of severe food allergies, particularly in children with asthma.

More reasons not to consume soy

• Soy increases the body's requirement for Vitamin D
• The high levels of phytic acid in soy inhibit the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc.  Phytic acid in soy is not neuralised by soaking, sprouting or long, slow cooking.
• Soy contains trypsin inhibitors which interfere with protein digestion and may contribute to pancreatic disorders. Soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth in test animals
• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt hormonal function and are linked with the formation of breast cancer and infertility.
• Vitamin B12 in soy is not absorbed and increases the body's need for B12
• Soy proteins are damaged and denatured during the high temperature processing used to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
• MSG, a potent neurotoxin if formed during soy food processing.

Summary

Soy products used in our food are just that- products that have been derived and extracted through modern food refining techniques using heat, pressure and chemicals.  They are devoid of their original nutrients and pull minerals from our bodies, and wreak havoc with our hormonal system.  This, coupled with the huge market hype about the wonders of soy, has seen soy products insidiously planted throughout the supermarket aisles and people unwittingly consuming large quantities of a derivative of a food that was never really intended for human consumption in the first place.  There is little long term understanding of the health ramifications of soy and much needs to be understood by the trusting public (that's You), before changes can be made.

We'll help keep you informed with our related articles on The History of Soy, How Did This Happen? and How Asians use Soy, Past and Present.