Soy: Is it Healthy or is it Harmful?

[Guest guest]

http://mercola.com/2004/jan/21/soy.htm

 

 

Soy: Is it Healthy or is it Harmful?

 

 

 

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

with Rachael Droege

 

 

 

In recent years soy has emerged as a ‘near perfect’ food, with supporters

claiming it can provide an ideal source of protein, lower cholesterol, protect

against cancer and heart disease, reduce menopause symptoms, and prevent

osteoporosis, among other things. But how did such a ‘perfect’ food emerge from

a product that in 1913 was listed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

handbook not as a food but as an industrial product?

 

 

 

According to lipid specialist and nutritionist Mary Enig, PhD, “The reason

there’s so much soy in America is because they [the soy industry] started to

plant soy to extract the oil from it and soy oil became a very large industry.

Once they had as much oil as they did in the food supply they had a lot of soy

protein residue left over, and since they can’t feed it to animals, except in

small amounts, they had to find another market.”

 

 

 

And another market was what they found. To put it simply, after multi-million

dollar figures spent on advertising and intense lobbying to the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA), about 74 percent of U.S. consumers now believe soy

products are healthy.

 

 

 

If you’re thinking the health claims surrounding soy sound too good to be true

you just may be right. Soy has become another misunderstood food category, to be

added to the ranks of coconut oil, saturated fats and vegetable oils. The two

former have gained a negative reputation where a good one actually applies, but

vegetable oil, along with soy, have emerged with sparkling reputations that

cover up the truth.

 

 

 

For just a brief look at what’s really going on, consider that numerous studies

have found that soy products may:

 

 

 

Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and

women, and abnormalities in infants

Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women

Promote kidney stones

Weaken the immune system

Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies

 

 

Soy products also contain:

 

 

 

Phytoestrogens (isoflavones) genistein and daidzein, which mimic and

sometimes block the hormone estrogen

Phytates, which block the body's uptake of minerals

Enzyme Inhibitors, which hinder protein digestion

Haemaggluttin, which causes red blood cells to clump together and inhibits

oxygen take-up and growth

 

Further, most soybeans are grown on farms that use toxic pesticides and

herbicides, and many are from genetically engineered plants. When you consider

that two-thirds of all manufactured food products contain some form of soy, it

becomes clear just how many Americans are consuming GM products, whose long-term

effects are completely unknown.

 

 

 

Perhaps the most disturbing of soy’s ill effects on health has to do with its

phytoestrogens that can mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen. These

phytoestrogens have been found to have adverse effects on various human tissues,

and drinking even two glasses of soy milk daily for one month has enough of the

chemical to alter a woman’s menstrual cycle. The FDA regulates

estrogen-containing products, however no warnings exist on soy. Two senior

toxicologists with the FDA. Daniel Sheehan and Daniel Doerge, have even come out

saying “The public will be put at potential risk from soy isoflavones in soy

protein isolate without adequate warning and information.” Soy is particularly

problematic for infants, and soy infant formulas should be avoided. It has been

estimated that infants who are fed soy formula exclusively receive five birth

control pills worth of estrogen every day.

 

 

 

There are some redeeming qualities to soy, however these are found primarily in

fermented soy products like tempeh, miso and natto and soybean sprouts. If you

want to get some health benefits from soy, stick to these four forms and pass up

the processed soy milks, soy ‘burgers’, soy ‘ice cream’, soy ‘cheese’, and the

myriad of other soy junk foods that are so readily disguised as health foods.

 

 

 

 

 

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