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Newest Research On Why You Should Avoid Soy

 

Page 1 of 3 (Page 2, Page 3)

 

by Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.

 

Cinderella's Dark Side

The propaganda that has created the soy sales miracle is all the

more remarkable because, only a few decades ago, the soybean was

considered unfit to eat - even in Asia. During the Chou Dynasty

(1134-246 BC) the soybean was designated one of the five sacred

grains, along with barley, wheat, millet and rice.

 

However, the pictograph for the soybean, which dates from earlier

times, indicates that it was not first used as a food; for whereas the

pictographs for the other four grains show the seed and stem structure

of the plant, the pictograph for the soybean emphasizes the root

structure.

Agricultural literature of the period speaks frequently of the

soybean and its use in crop rotation. Apparently the soy plant was

initially used as a method of fixing nitrogen.13

 

The soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of

fermentation techniques, some time during the Chou Dynasty. The first

soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and soy

sauce.

At a later date, possibly in the 2nd century BC, Chinese

scientists discovered that a purée of cooked soybeans could be

precipitated with calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate (plaster of

Paris or Epsom salts) to make a smooth, pale curd - tofu or bean curd.

 

The use of fermented and precipitated soy products soon

spread to other parts of the Orient, notably Japan and Indonesia.

 

The Chinese did not eat unfermented soybeans as they did other

legumes such as lentils because the soybean contains large quantities

of natural toxins or " antinutrients " . First among them are potent

enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes

needed for protein digestion.

 

These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not

completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce

serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic

deficiencies in amino acid uptake.

 

In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause auement

and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer.14

 

Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance

that causes red blood cells to clump together.

 

Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors.

Weanling rats fed soy containing these antinutrients fail to grow

normally.

 

Growth-depressant compounds are deactivated during the process of

fermentation, so once the Chinese discovered how to ferment the

soybean, they began to incorporate soy foods into their diets.

 

In precipitated products, enzyme inhibitors concentrate in the

soaking liquid rather than in the curd. Thus, in tofu and bean curd,

growth depressants are reduced in quantity but not completely

eliminated.

 

Soy also contains goitrogens - substances that depress thyroid

function.

Continued At mercola.com.

 

http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm