07.29.06

Soy- Good or Evil?

Posted in Evolution, health at 8:06 pm by site admin

During my usual news surfing, I found this article titled Should we worry about soya in our food? Now this is alarming when you realize how much soy people are eating. Soy is used in 50%+ of processed food. It is in breakfast cereals, cereal bars and biscuits, cheeses, cakes, dairy desserts, gravies, noodles, pastries, soups, sausage casings, sauces and sandwich spreads. Elements of soya may be disguised and simply appear as soya flour, hydrolysed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, vegetable oil (simple, fully, or partially hydrogenated), plant sterols, or the emulsifier lecithin. Many fast food joints put soy in the meat paddies. Ever wonder why the quarter pounder is called a 1/4 lb “meat patty”? And of course if your vegetarian, soya is everywhere (especially the imitation meat products, and meat subsitutes). The article talks about how soy’s curealls: phyto-estrogens, isoflavones, soy protein isolates are all harmful to humans. Now soy has been consumed for ages in Asia, but mainly in condiments and sauces- all in fermented varieties. All except the following (taken from here or here):

Traditionally fermented soy products make a delicious, natural seasoning that may supply important nutritional factors in the Asian diet. But except in times of famine, Asians consume soy products only in small amounts, as condiments, and not as a replacement for animal foods – with one exception. Celibate monks living in monasteries and leading a vegetarian lifestyle find soy foods quite helpful because they dampen libido.

Here is another crazy excerpt from the same article:

Just imagine. Farmers have been imagining – and planting more soy. What was once a minor crop, listed in the 1913 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) handbook not as a food but as an industrial product, now covers 72 million acres of American farmland. Much of this harvest will be used to feed chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows and salmon. Another large fraction will be squeezed to produce oil for margarine, shortenings and salad dressings.

For years now I have heard all these great things about soy. But now I’m questioning. Here is a “FACTS” clarification from Soy Foods association of North America regarding the concerns addressed in the earlier articles.

In this related article, under the section titled Phytoestrogens — Soy Self Defense, it says, and I quote:

Plants have evolved many different strategies to protect themselves from predators. Some have thorns or spines, while others smell bad, taste bad, or poison animals that eat them. Some plants took a different route, using birth control as a way to counter the critters who were wont to munch.

Its a novel thought. All and all, this topic requires more research. I intend to also filter my other eating habits for other hidden dangers.

Permalink