Soy: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food

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Soy: The Dark Side of America's Favorite " Health " Food

_http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html_

(http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html)

 

by _Sally Fallon_ (http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html#fallon) and

_Mary G. Enig_ (http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html#enig) , PhD

Jenny Smith, a secretary and receptionist, could not explain what was

happening to her. She began to make mistakes in her work and suffer from memory

lapses. She would type a word backwards without even realizing it and proofread

right over her mistakes. Her speech was slurring and when she answered the

phone. . . she didn't know what to say. One day she found herself walking

across a busy intersection against the lights and didn't know how she got

there.

Leslie Blumenberg went to pick up her mother at the airport and got lost

coming home. Although she had lived in the area for years, she became

completely

disoriented. It took her two hours to find her way back to her house. She

was also suffering from cognitive problems, her words would jumble when she

tried to speak coherent sentences, and she forgot how to spell.

Leslie had been eating soy foods, lots of them, for three years. When she

went off soy, her problems cleared up, her mind returned to normal. But Jenny

Smith did not eat soy. Her problems cleared up only when she went on a diet

and stopped eating bread. She discovered that she could eat homemade bread

without any problem. But supermarket bread gave her brain fog.

Jenny had a thyroid problem and had been taking thyroxine for years. When

her office connected with the internet, she went online to a thyroid site.

There she learned that soy was a potent thyroid depressant and should not be

consumed by anyone with thyroid troubles. Next trip to the grocery store, she

began to read labels and discovered that every loaf of bread in the supermarket

contained soy flour.

" Thyroid enlargement in rats and humans, especially children and women, fed

with soyabeans has been known for half a century, " according to Theodore Kay

at Kyoto University in Japan. His 1988 study attempted to determine the

amount of iodine required to prevent goitre in populations consuming soy foods.

He

found that small amounts of iodine could indeed prevent noticeable thyroid

enlargement, but even large amounts did not prevent pathological changes to

the thyroid gland. He also determined that the most potent goitrogens in soy

cannot be removed by cooking.

Although scientists have known for many years that soy is goitrogenic, it

was only recently that they were able to pinpoint the actual thyroid-depressing

compounds. Researchers at the US Toxicological Laboratory in Arkansas found

that the thyroid-depressing substances are isoflavones, the estrogen-like

compounds found plentifully in the soybean.

This discovery came as a shock to the soy industry, which has heavily

promoted these phytoestrogens as beneficial. It is the phytoestrogens or

isoflavones in soy that are supposed to protect us from heart disease, cancer,

osteoporosis and the discomforts of menopause. Yet in normal women consuming

sufficient iodine, just 30g of roasted soybeans daily, containing about 38mg

isoflavones, were found to depress thyroid function--less than the amount in two

glasses of soy milk, two servings of tofu, or a handful of roasted soy nuts. In

sensitive individuals, such as Jenny Smith, even small amounts of soy were able

to provoke the mental confusion indicative of disrupted thyroid function.

ISOFLAVONES IN OUR FOOD

Bread with added soy flour, 2 slices 4 mg Meatless chicken nuggets, 1/2

cup 15 mg Soy hot dog 15 mg Soymilk, 8-ounce glass 20 mg Green

soybeans, raw, 1/2 cup 20 mg Miso, 1/4 cup 21 mg Tofu, 1/2 cup 28 mg Soy

cheese,

1/2 cup 31 mg Soymilk skin or film , cooked, 1/2 cup 51 mg Tempeh,

cooked, 1/2 cup 53 mg Soybean chips , 1/2 cup 54 mg Mature soybeans, cooked,

1/2

cup 55 mg Dry roasted soybeans , 1/2 cup 128 mg Revival soy-based meal

replacement, 1 serving 160 mg

 

Further confirmation of soy's adverse effects on the mind comes from a

recent study of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. Professor Lon White found

a

significant statistical relationship between two or more servings of tofu per

week and " accelerated brain aging. " Those participants who consumed tofu in

mid-life had lower cognitive function in late life and a greater incidence of

Alzheimer's and dementia. What's more, " said Dr. White, " those who ate a lot

of tofu, by the time they were 75 or 80, looked five years older. "

According to Jennifer A. Phillips, writing for Cambridge Scientific

Abstracts, estrogens (including the phytoestrogens in soy) can block the

efficiency

of thyroid hormones. This is why women need more thyroid hormones than men and

are more prone to thyroid troubles. Since thyroid hormone acts as a

neurotransmitter, low levels can mimic psychiatric disease. Severe

hypothyroidism can

cause symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease, including memory loss,

confusion, slowness, paranoid depression and even hallucinations. Other

symptoms of

low thyroid function include fatigue, loss of hair, difficulties at

menopause, digestive problems, constipation, infertility and brittle bones.

Individuals with low thyroid function are also prone to heart disease. Soy

proponents claim that soy helps the heart because it lowers cholesterol. Yet

in 1992, researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute looked at

every study that had been published about the risk of having high or low

cholesterol and concluded that mortality was greater in women with low

cholesterol than with high cholesterol. And a new study, published in the

Lancet,

suggests that high cholesterol levels are protective even for men. In any case,

no study has ever offered direct proof that soy can prevent heart disease and

in most of the major studies in which cholesterol levels were lowered through

either diet or drugs, a greater number of deaths occurred in the treatment

groups than in controls, deaths from stroke, cancer, intestinal disorders,

accidents and suicide.

Scientists looking at the correlation of soy foods and " brain aging " have

focussed on isoflavones, but there are a number of components in soy foods that

can contribute to reduced mental function. One is phytic acid which blocks

zinc absorption. Zinc is essential for proper functioning of the brain. Modern

processed soy foods contain high levels of MSG, fluoride and aluminum, all

of which are toxic to the nervous system. Furthermore, during processing, at

least two categories of carcinogens are formed, lysinealanines and

nitrosamines.

Other substances in soy can contribute to the digestive problems so common

in individuals with thyroid troubles, including potent enzyme inhibitors that

block the breakdown of protein, and lectins that are highly irritating to the

digestive tract. These compounds tend to occur in higher amounts in

genetically engineered soybeans.

When soy protein isolate was fed to rats, the animals required higher than

normal levels of vitamins E, K, D and B12 and developed deficiency symptoms of

calcium, magnesium, zinc and many other minerals.

Soy proponents claim that soy is a staple in Asia. A " staple " is defined as

a major commodity, one that provides a large portion of calories in the diet,

such as rice and fish in Japan, or rice and pork in China. The Japanese

consume 150 pounds of fish per person per year, or almost one-half pound per

person per day and a 1977 dietary survey in China determined that 65 percent of

calories came from pork, including the pork fat used in cooking. By contrast,

overall consumption of soy in Asia is surprisingly low. The average soy

consumption in China is about 10 grams or 2 teaspoons per day. Levels are

somewhat

higher in Japan, averaging about 50 grams or 1/4 cup per day. In both

countries, soy is used as a condiment or flavoring, and not as a substitute for

animal foods. Seafood and seaweed in the Japanese diet provide sufficient iodine

to counteract the negative effects of the isoflavones in soy.

In Asia, soy is mostly consumed in fermented form, but it is not considered

an appropriate food for babies. When a mother is unable to nurse and a wet

nurse is unavailable, her infant is given milk from cows or water buffalo. In

the US, however, an estimated 750,000 babies per year receive infant formula

made from processed soybeans. Parents use soy formula in the belief that is it

healthier than formula based on cows' milk. In fact, when soy infant formula

first became commercially available, manufacturers promised that soy formula

was " better than breast milk. "

Naomi Baumslag, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University

Medical College and an expert on breast feeding, cites many reasons for parents

to avoid soy formula. " There is a great deal of scientific evidence that soy

formula can be damaging to newborns, " she says, citing high levels of phytic

acid, enzyme inhibitors, lectins, manganese and phytoestrogens. High levels

of manganese are toxic to babies because they lack the blood-brain barrier

that develops later in childhood. Manganese overdose is associated with brain

damage leading to violent behavior. Furthermore, soy lacks many factors that

are essential to normal brain development including essential fatty acids,

DHA-brain growth factor and cholesterol.

The most serious problem with soy formula is high levels of isoflavones. In

Japan, soy foods contribute about 25-28 mg of isoflavones per day, or just

less that one-half mg per kilogram of body weight. In American women, 45 mg of

isoflavones or three-quarters mg per kilogram of body weight per day caused

endocrine disruption after just one month. Babies fed exclusively on soy-based

formula receive a dose that is four to eleven times higher, based on body

weight. A recent study found that babies fed soy-based formula had 13,000 to

22,000 times more isoflavones in their blood than babies fed milk-based

formula. Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, a New Zealand toxicologist estimates that an

infant

exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent of at least

five birth control pills per day.

PHYTOESTROGENS IN DIETS OF INFANTS AND ADULTS

Average

Isoflavones

Intake Isoflavone

per Kg of

Body Weight* Japan (1996 survey) 10 mg 0.17 mg Japan (1998 survey) 25 mg

0.42 mg Japan (2000 survey) 28 mg 0.47 mg In Japanese women, causing thyroid

suppression 38 mg 0.60 mg In American women, causing hormonal changes after

1 month 45 mg 0.75 mg FDA recommended amount for adults 75 mg 1.25 mg In

children receiving soy formula 38 mg 6.25 mg

 

* Assumed 60 kg for adults, 6 kg for infants

Fitzpatrick believes that soy feeding accounts for the alarming levels of

premature maturation in girls. This was the same conclusion reached in 1986 by

investigators in Puerto Rico, where early maturation is commonplace. The

researchers expected to find a correlation with consumption of milk and meat and

were surprised to discover that the strongest correlation was with soy infant

feeding. Girls who had consumed large amounts of cow's milk as children

actually had lower rates of early development.

In the US, one percent of all girls now show signs of puberty, such as

breast development or pubic hair, before the age of three; by age eight, almost

15

percent of white girls and just under half of African-American girls have

one or both of these characteristics, according to a recent study reported in

the journal Pediatrics. Fitzpatrick believes that soy infant feeding disrupts

hormonal development in the same way as environmental estrogens such as PCBs

and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT), or the synthetic estrogen DES. The use

of soy formula in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, which

supplies free formula to low income mothers, may explain the astronomical rates

of

early development in African American girls.

The consequences are tragic. Young girls with mature bodies must cope with

feelings and urges that most children are not well-equipped to handle. And

early maturation in girls is frequently a harbinger for problems with the

reproductive system later in life, including failure to menstruate, infertility

and

breast cancer.

What are the effects of soy products on the hormonal development of boys?

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, the infant is programmed to express male characteristics after

puberty, not only in the development of his sexual organs and other masculine

physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the brain characteristic of

male behavior. In monkeys, deficiency of male hormones impairs learning and

the ability to perform visual discrimination tasks--such as would be required

for reading--and retards the development of spatial perception, which is

normally more acute in men than in women.

Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have reached epidemic

proportions. Soy infant feeding--which floods the bloodstream with female

hormones that could inhibit the effects of male hormones--cannot be ignored as

a

possible cause for these tragic developments.

Other problems that have been anecdotally associated with children of both

sexes who were fed soy-based formula include extreme emotional behavior,

depression, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid

disorders and irritable bowel syndrome.

Why have parents not been alerted to the potential dangers of soy formula?

The formula industry is large and powerful, able to influence the outcome of

scientific research and wage successful publicity campaigns. A good example is

a recent University of Iowa study, funded by the formula industry and

published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, comparing the

reproductive health of adults who had been fed soy- or milk-based formula as

infants. The survey found that the soy group had higher levels or reproductive

disorders, asthma and allergies. Females of the soy group were more likely to be

sedentary and to have taken weight loss medications. Yet the authors omitted

these findings in their abstract and concluded that " . . . the findings of the

current study are reassuring about the safety of soy infant formula. " The

University of Iowa study was widely reported in the press as a vindication of

soy formula.

The JAMA study follows a June 1, 2001 report published in Cancer Research

which found that genistein, one of the isoflavones in soy, was more

carcinogenic than the synthetic estrogen DES when exposure occurred during

" critical

periods of differentiation, " such as during infancy. Medical professionals

insisted that DES was safe for pregnant women until they discovered that women

whose mothers took DES suffered from very high rates of cervical cancer. The

authors of the Cancer Research study concluded that " . . . the use of soy-based

infant formulas in the absence of medical necessity and the marketing of soy

products designed to appeal to children should be closely examined. "

Concerns about the dangers of soy have prompted consumer groups in New

Zealand and Canada to call for a ban on the sale of soy infant formula. The law

firm of Johnston Lawrence in New Zealand is collating a list of victims in

preparation for a class action lawsuit in New Zealand, with follow-on legal

action in the US. If you believe your child has been damaged by soy infant

formula, or if you have suffered thyroid problems as a result of soy

consumption,

send your confidential information to PO Box 1213, DX SP 20004, Wellington, New

Zealand or _roger_ (roger) .

In the US, the Weston A. Price Foundation is spearheading efforts to have

soy formula removed from the market. If you suspect your child has been damaged

by consumption of soy formula, please write to the following congressmen,

with a copy to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)

United States Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee

328A Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT)

Senate Subcommittee on Health Care of the Finance Committee

Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care

219 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Dan Burton (R-IN)

Chairman, House Committee on Government Reform

Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)

Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care

U.S. House of Representatives

1730 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

The Weston A. Price Foundation

PMB 106-380 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20016

Sources:

_www.csa.com/hottopics/thyroid/oview.html_

(http://www.csa.com/hottopics/thyroid/oview.html)

_soyonlineservice.co.nz_ (http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/)

_www.westonaprice.org_ (http://www.westonaprice.org/)

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that

Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, with Mary G.

Enig, PhD (NewTrends Publishing 877-707-1776). She is the founding president of

the Weston A. Price Foundation (_www.westonaprice.org_

(http://www.westonaprice.org/) ) and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk

(_www.realmilk.com_

(http://www.realmilk.com/) ).

Mary Enig, PhD is the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for

Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol (Bethesda Press

301-680-8600). She is President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association and

Vice

President of the Weston A Price Foundation, Washington, DC.