SOY - The Facts.

IS SOY A HEALTH FOOD OR NOT?

For millennia, soy has been utilized both as food and medicine, primarily outside the Western world. As one of the most adaptable plant foods, it has supported life as effectively as the olive. Unlike the olive, however, soy can substitute for a wide range of items, from milk and flour to meat, including sauces, dressings, cheese, green beans, medicines, and tonics, which has caused some controversy. Importantly, it was organic and not genetically modified.

However, the situation escalated; action was necessary to prevent this simple, easily cultivable plant, which can thrive in almost any climate or soil, from threatening the most profitable industries. The anti-soy campaign was so cleverly orchestrated, with pseudo health & nutrition experts rapidly emerging, that even genuine experts started believing the falsehoods. Suddenly, meat & dairy were touted as the only true, dependable sources of protein & health. Protein deficiency was declared the top global health issue, leading health-conscious individuals to consume animal-based protein at levels far exceeding the recommended dietary allowance, while overlooking a crucial fact: to become protein deficient, one would first need to lack nearly every other essential nutrient.

Living organisms produce their own protein. That's right. Protein is the result of consuming various amino acids, which, when linked together in different chains, form protein. As a health advisor in the 90s, when awareness of soy-based meat and dairy alternatives was growing, I was approached by well-paid meat and dairy scientists and advertising specialists who tried hard to convince me that I had been misled, claiming that soy was toxic.

At the same time, genetically modified soy sprayed with glyphosate was introduced and flooded the market. Even the most intelligent people failed to understand; soy had been contaminated. This did not mean that soy itself was toxic, any more than the people increasingly harmed by the same pharmaceutical/agriculture giants were toxic.

SO, WHAT ARE THE FACTS REGARDING SOY?

• Plant hormones (phytoestrogens) are NOT animal hormones.

The same people up in arms about the hysteria of some perceived hormonal damage a la The Fly or some plague-like epidemic-type movie conveniently forget the little real fact that dairy, eggs, chicken and all meat is not only a good source of real hormones capable of changing your own hormones but animals are regularly injected with hormones to force growth.

• Soy will NOT make you infertile.

Has no one considered that China, where soy has been consumed abundantly for over 3000 years, also has the highest birthrate?

• Soy will NOT cause cancer.

In fact, soy is used in natural cancer treatments with excellent results. This myth was also started around the belief that phytoestrogens were somehow human hormones, and as many types of cancer are fed by hormones, even doctors who are not schooled in herbal medicine were soon advising their patients against soy foods.

• Soy allergy is real - but rare.

Let's get real. GMO soy is now an ingredient in vaccines - along with peanuts, animal DNA, dairy, shellfish and eggs - all of which now present as severe allergies at levels not seen prior to modern vaccine development. To break it down: Soy allergy affects a little more than 0.1% of the population. Meanwhile -

• Peanut allergy affects around 3% of the population.

• Shellfish allergy affects around 1% of the population.

• 8% of infants develop egg allergy.

• 65% of the public are unable to digest dairy (intolerance), while up to 3% are severely allergic.

• Gluten intolerance (mostly glyphosate toxicity) is linked to myriad auto immune & inflammatory diseases - affecting around 10% of the population while coeliac disease affects 1 in 100 in various levels (1 in around 5000 ever receive a diagnosis - this is how little experts consider the issue).

• 'But soy farming is destroying the planet.'

Really? How selective we are! Along with broadacre, mass scale farming in general, in which 70% of the world's food crops are fed to livestock for human consumption, in the case of soybeans, only 6% of the world's soybean cops are fed to humans. That means 94% is mass produced, GMO and done so in order to continue with the appalling livestock farming habits. For meat eaters.

• 'But I can't bring myself to drink soymilk. It's gross.'

Let's break that down; some of my other articles go into the true grossness of dairy farming & production (1). I married into a long line of dairy farmers. the memories will never leave my nightmares. I have to live with the guilt of never being able to change things. Dairy contains everything from pus to faeces to pharmaceutical drugs to blood - & hormones. Boiling it wont change that. A child raised on soy will prefer it to dairy any day. If we are going to choose something based on an addiction, I could argue that most of us would prefer opium to aspirin, right? Mental apathy at work.

• 'But we need cow's milk for calcium and protein.'

No, we don't. In fact humans cannot assimilate dairy; we just do not have the enzymes needed to do this. Calves do, but they are killed so humans can continue consuming what their mums make for them. Meanwhile, soy is rich in not just protein and calcium but a swathe of other vital nutrients. And guess what? We CAN digest it.

• 'My health guru tells me that grass fed and organic raw milk is better than soy.'

Good for them. Chances are, they make their money depending on it. Chinese whispers. Groups like Weston A Price are heavy investors spreading the rumours. If I had a dollar for every patient who came to me after believing the whole grass fed beef/organic raw milk/bone broth hype, slowly dying in front of me, full of inflammation and disease, whose life was turned around simply by turning their backs on these lies, and swapping out the poison for soy, I would never have to work again. Besides, consuming meat, fish and dairy creates excessive strain on filtration action of the kidneys. Consumption of soy avoids this undue strain. Yes, if an advocate of grass fed beef, organic fish and organic raw milk lived on a diet of organic fresh food also, then common sense would dictate THAT was responsible - but no, any chance to continue the old habits and excuse them as ethical and healthy.

• Soy does NOT grow 'moobs' or man boobs.

The men who are reported to have developed man boobs, in studies, have proven to be great consumers of the real hormone foods - dairy and chicken. Sumo wrestlers were often cited as prime examples. Yet the daily food consumption of a sumo wrestler reads like this -

• If you are into calories, think 10 - 20k. Between 1 and 3 kilos of food a day.

• Lunch is meatbroth, giant bowls of rice, sushi, meatballs, tofu, eggs and vegetables.

• Dinner is fish, huge serves of noodles and vegetables.

• A LOT of Japanese beer.

Think about that. A small amount of soy. Lots of wheat noodles, eggs, meat & fish. I have heard doctors tell patients the reason they are struggling with weight is because like sumos, they consume a little soymilk...

The simple truth is, soy is a wonder food. One tiny bean can replace meat, cheese, milk and can be included as a vegetable in its own right. A single $5 bag of organic soybeans can make 10 litres of milk or a few kilos of tofu or natto or tempeh (meat replacements).

Throw them in the ground or a pot and you could feed your family indefinitely with all of the above and abundant fresh beans (edamame) as often as you like. And apparently, we can't have that.

If you like to do your own homework as I do, feel free to compare what you think is a healthy food using a real (unbiased) resource. Funny, when you say you are eating a plant based, vegetarian or vegan diet, everyone is an expert. Your doctor will rave about the nutritional value of meat and dairy without a single fact to back it up. Get the facts - in reality, they are nutritionally devoid of anything really beneficial considering nutrients are second hand and locked away because we do not have the necessary enzymes to digest. Other than protein, iron and little calcium you wont find much.

Reference:

Soy Myths

Research

Health & soy

Soy for chronic ill health