Learn to fear She Who Walks Behind the Rows.
There is a lot of confusion when it comes to the health effects of Soy in the human diet. There are some things people need to realize before they conclude whether or not they should include this substance in their daily diet….but for most of you, it already is.
Unless you read labels religiously to purposely avoid eating soy products, chances are you have eaten some form of soy in just about every meal you’ve eaten – especially if you regularly eat at restaurants (fast food or not) or any kind of food that comes boxed, wrapped or pre-prepared for convenience.
First thing to consider is that the Soybean plant is similar to all other legumes: in their natural state, right from the plant, all legumes have a host of anti-nutrients in them. Traditional cultures around the world have intuitively understood this, which is why preparing legumes in traditional cuisines almost always involved pre-processing of the legumes to neutralize these anti-nutrients.
This is a very important point to remember – the traditional uses of Soy by Asian cultures was almost exclusively based on soy foods made through fermentation, which rendered most of the anti-nutrients harmless and even beneficial. Miso, Shoyu (traditionally brewed soy sauce), Natto and Tempeh are all examples of traditionally fermented soy foods that were a part of traditional Asian cultures diets.
So what anti-nutrients are a part of the Soy legume, and how do they affect the body? From Soy Online Service:
- 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 added to many soy foods.
- Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.
SOY INFANT FORMULA — BIRTH CONTROL PILLS FOR BABIES
- Babies fed soy-based formula have 13,000 to 22,000 times more estrogen compounds in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula.
- Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least five birth control pills per day.
- Male infants undergo a “testosterone surge” during the first few months of life, when testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male. During this period, baby boys are programmed to express male characteristics after puberty, not only in the development of their sexual organs and other masculine physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the brain characteristic of male behavior.
- Pediatricians are noticing greater numbers of boys whose physical maturation is delayed, or does not occur at all, including lack of development of the sexual organs. Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have reached epidemic proportions.
- Soy infant feeding—which floods the bloodstream with female hormones that inhibit testosterone—cannot be ignored as a possible cause for these tragic developments. In animals, soy feeding indicates that phytoestrogens in soy are powerful endocrine disrupters.
- Almost 15 percent of white girls and 50 percent of African-American girls show signs of puberty such as breast development and pubic hair, before the age of eight. Some girls are showing sexual development before the age of three. Premature development of girls has been linked to the use of soy formula and exposure to environmental estrogens such as PCBs and DDE.
Yet if you look in mainstream media sources, all you ever hear, see or read is how Soy is a health food, how it can help prevent cancer, is good for heart health, is healthier to eat than meat, etc.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
What is really going on is this: Soy is the second biggest crop being farmed by Big Agriculture. It’s a multi-million dollar crop, and industrial food processing corporations have found innumerable products, by-products and additives can be created and used from this legume. The multiple uses of this crop are precisely why it is so profitable to grow and market it to the food processing industry. And the soybean producers have certainly spent a pretty penny to fund research to promote their marketing efforts.
The important point of using methods like fermentation to neutralize the anti-nutrients in soy IS THE KEY TO THE BAIT AND SWITCH used by the Soy industry that they use to produce biased research results to promote Soy as a “health food.”
Here’s what Soy Nutrition ( a pro-Soy website, most likely funded by the Soy lobby) says regarding Soyfood and Cancer:
Current views on soy and breast cancer stem from several comprehensive statistical analyses of epidemiologic studies. Epidemiology is the science of studying populations in order to determine the frequency and distribution of disease and measured risks. In the epidemiologic soy studies, investigators ascertained the quantity of soyfoods consumed by study participants to determine if high-soy consumers were more or less likely to have (in case-control studies), or to develop (in prospective studies), cancer.
In the most recent analysis, which was conducted by Anna Wu and colleagues from the University of Southern California, high-soy consumers were found to be about 30% less likely to report having breast cancer than Asian women who consumed relatively little soy.67 This second study purposely included a high percentage of vegetarians, who typically consume more soy than non-vegetarians. However, in a separate large study in the United Kingdom, there was no evidence that soy intake was protective.
What might account for the protective effect of soyfood intake in the Asian studies but not in the UK study? One explanation is that soyfoods are protective against breast cancer only when consumed early in life – during childhood and/or adolescence.8 In the UK study, it is likely the vegetarians adopted their dietary behavior as adults, and may well have consumed little soy prior. In contrast, because soyfoods are part of the traditional Asian diet, it is likely that Asians who consume soy as adults also did so as children.
That’s a deliberate misdirection.
The real reason is because Asians who eat soy, generally eat soy foods prepared in their traditional methods – fermentation to render the anti-nutrients harmless. The majority of soy consumed in the US and the UK…not so.
No, here in the west, the majority of Soy that we consume comes from all of the additives created by soy and put into the food supply.
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein
Textured Vegetable Protein
Soy Protein Isolate
Hydrogenated or Partially-Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
Soy Lecithin
Soy Flour
Soy Milk
Soybean Oil (if you ever see a listed ingredient as “Vegetable Oil” it’s almost a certainty that Soy is the “vegetable.”)
These are some of the products created from the soybean that are in nearly EVERYTHING you buy from the grocery store nowadays. If a food product has an ingredient list of more than 5 things, chances are, there is some soy derivative in it somewhere. Also, unless you’re eating fried or sauteed foods from restaurants that specifically state the oil they are using to make it, you can assume the oil they use is “vegetable” oil…the cheapest cooking oil in mass production.
Also, soy protein isolate and hydrolyzed soy are often used as meat filler. Public School lunches, and cheap fast food often have soy-filler in their meat. Ever wonder how a fast food Mexican restaurant could sell you a half- pound burrito for a $1 and still make a profit?
But I digress…
So these “researchers” can than look at a culture, and do an epidemiological study (see my previous post here, In the Name of Science, to see the other means of misleading the consumer through such study methods), than make statements like “Studies Show Higher Soy Consumption Can Help Prevent Cancer!”
Except they make NO distinction between traditional soy foods in Asian countries versus the manufactured, processed and toxic sources of Soy that predominantly are the source of soy consumption in the West.
To summarize – the amounts of Soy products in our food supply were almost non-existent prior to the 1980’s. It’s now in everything.
Some scientists wonder if that has anything to do with the rise in girls who enter puberty at very young ages, the rise in male babies with genital birth defects, and perhaps even in the rise in homosexuality…
If you ever do some research into body-building and sports nutrition, you can also find a lot of different weight trainers and sports nutritionists that explicitly advise limiting your soy consumption and to avoid using soy protein isolate in your protein shakes, as it inhibits your bodies testosterone production…which is what every body builder needs in order to see any kind of results from all of that hard work in the weight room.
While many of us here at the Spearhead focus on the myriad of ways in which the media, pop culture, and the educational establishment have worked to “feminize” society, bet you never thought the most subversive way was to sneak some food on your plate that would boost your estrogen and suppress your testosterone…eh?
Here some excellent reading on the topic for you to peruse should you care to:
