What’s Wrong With Soy?

I get this question all the time: Isn’t soy a health food?

The answer, in a nutshell is: No! Unfermented soy is about as far from a health food as you can get. I’ll get into fermented soy products in a moment.

Soy dangers

Over the years, solid research has linked soy to:

• breast cancer
• cognitive decline
• thyroid disorders
• digestive problems
• severe food allergies
• impaired immune system
• heart disease
• infertility

In addition, almost all of this bean grown in the U.S. is genetically modified. This means not only has the genetic structure of the molecule been tinkered with, with unknown results. Because they are genetically modified, crops are also heavily sprayed with RoundUp, which causes endocrine disruption, for starters and a host of other health problems, known and unknown.

Still thinking soy milk, TVP burgers and tofurkey are OK? Read on.

Destructive “nutrients”

Soy has a wide variety of anti-nutrients, substances that interfere with the absorption of nutrients.

Among these anti-nutrients are:

• Goitrogens that interfere with thyroid hormone production
• Phytates that block the absorption of key minerals, including calcium iron, copper, zinc and magnesium
• Phytoestrogens that mimic the body’s natural estrogen and can cause endocrine dysfunction, cause early puberty in children and even promote breast cancer.
• Hemagglutinin that causes red blood cells to clump, preventing oxygen distribution to organs and tissues
• Trypsin inhibitors than can cause digestive problems and inhibit growth in children
• Vitamin B12 analogs that actual increase the body’s needs for vitamin B12, a nutrient deficient in many vegetarians who might use soy as a source of protein
• MSG a neurotoxin added to processed soy products to improve taste

Want more?

If you’ve ever tried to cook whole soybeans, you know it takes hours and hours because the dried beans are so dense. The soybean industry has found it is much easier to break down the fiber in soybeans by acid washing them in aluminum tanks, which can leech toxic aluminum.

Soy infant formula also has toxic levels of manganese, at a rate up to 80 times the amount found in human breast milk. In addition, the phytoestrogens in formula cause babies to take in the equivalent amount of estrogen as if they were taking five birth control pills a day. Wow! I surely wouldn’t want any child I love to be exposed to that much estrogen that would almost ensure reproductive malfunctions (especially in boys) and dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer in either sex.

OK? There’s more, but I won’t belabor the point. Soybeans aren’t good for you.

Another food industry foible

So how did we become so enamored with soybean products? Where did we get the idea soy is healthy?

Thank the food industry and a huge investment in soy marketing and advertising. In the first seven years of the 21^st century, more than 2,700 new soy “foods” became available. Between the early 1990s and 2006, the soybean industry sale increased more than tenfold from $300 million to $4 billion.

The vast majority of us still believe that soy is healthy and at least recently 84% of consumers agreed with the FDA’s claim that we’d get heart protection by eating 25 grams of soy every day.

Fermented soy

Organic soy products that are properly fermented may be an exception to the soy danger warning. It’s a good source of vitamin K2 that helps blood clot and has a wide range of health benefits including osteoporosis and heart disease prevention.

Fermented soy foods include tempeh, a soybean cake, miso, a paste often used in soup and natto, a sticky cheese-like substance.

Just in case you were wondering, tofu is not fermented.

I’m still not completely sold. Vitamin K2 is readily available in many other foods, especially dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale.

My advice: Avoid soy completely.

What else should you avoid? Check out the Toxic World series of articles by Kathleen.