Whole Soy Story:The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food - Mothering Mag

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

By Kaayla T. Daniel

Issue 124: May/June 2004

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Over the past decade, soy foods have become America's favorite health food.

Newspapers, magazines, and best-selling health writers have proclaimed the

" joy of soy " and promoted the belief that soy food is the key to disease

prevention and maximum longevity.

The possibility that an inexpensive plant food could prevent heart disease,

fight cancer, fan away hot flashes, and build strong bodies in far more than

12 ways is seductive. The truth, unfortunately, is far more complex. Soy

foods come in a variety of forms, including many heavily processed modern

products. Even good forms of soy foods must be eaten sparingly-the way they

have

been eaten traditionally in Asia. Most important, many respected scientists

have

issued warnings stating that the possible benefits of eating soy should be

weighed against the proven risks. Indeed, thousands of studies link soy to

malnutrition, digestive distress, immune-system breakdown, thyroid dysfunction,

cognitive decline, reproductive disorders and infertility-even cancer and

heart disease.

Americans rarely hear anything negative about soy. Thanks to the shrewd

public relations campaigns waged by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Protein

Technologies International (PTI), the American Soybean Association, and other

soy

interests, as well as the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) 1999 approval of

the health claim that soy protein lowers cholesterol, soy maintains a

" healthy " image.

This article is written for parents who need to know the risks of feeding

soy formula to infants, or soy milk and other soy foods to growing children.

It's designed for prospective mothers and fathers who need to know the links

between soy foods, infertility, and birth defects. Finally, it will serve

anyone considering soy as a preventive for menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis,

cancer, heart disease, or other ills.

How Much Soy Do Asians Really Eat?

 

Those who dare to question the benefits of soy tend to receive one stock

answer: Soy foods couldn't possibly have a downside because Asians eat large

quantities of soy every day and consequently remain free of most western

diseases. In fact, the people of China, Japan, and other countries in Asia eat

very

little soy. The soy industry's own figures show that soy consumption in

China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan ranges from 9.3 to 36 grams per

day.1

That's grams of soy food, not grams of soy protein alone. Compare this with a

cup of tofu (252 grams) or soy milk (240 grams).2 Many Americans today think

nothing of consuming a cup of tofu, a couple glasses of soy milk, handfuls of

soy nuts, soy " energy bars, " and veggie burgers. Infants on soy formula

receive the most of all, both in quantity and in proportion to body weight.

In short, there is no historical precedent for eating the large amounts of

soy food now being consumed by infants fed soy formula and vegetarians who

favor soy as their main source of protein, or for the large amounts of soy

being

recommended by Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Christiane Northrup, and many other

popular health experts.

What's more, the rural poor in China have never seen-let alone feasted

on-soy sausages, chili made with Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), tofu

cheesecake, packaged soy milk, soy " energy bars, " or other newfangled soy

products that

have infiltrated the American marketplace.

The Right Stuff

 

The ancient Chinese honored the soybean with the name " the yellow jewel " but

used it as " green manure " -a cover crop plowed under to enrich the soil. Soy

did not become human food until late in the Chou Dynasty (1134-246 B.C.),

when the Chinese developed a fermentation process to make soybean paste, best

known today by its Japanese name, miso.3 Soy sauce-the natural type sold under

the Japanese name shoyu-began as the liquid poured off during the production

of miso. Two other popular fermented soy foods, natto and tempeh, entered the

food supply around 1000 A.D. or later in Japan and Indonesia, respectively.

Tofu came after miso. Legend has it that, in 164 B.C., Lord Liu An of

Huai-nan, China-a renowned alchemist, meditator, and ruler-discovered that a

purée

of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with nigari (a form of magnesium

chloride found in seawater) into solid cakes, called tofu. In Japan, as in

China, tofu was rarely served as a main course anywhere except in monasteries.

Its

most popular use was-and is-as a few bland little blocks in miso soup or

fish stock.

The Chinese almost never ate boiled or baked soybeans or cooked with soy

flour except in times of famine. Modern soy products such as soy protein

isolate

(SPI), TVP, soy-protein concentrate, and other soy-protein products made

using high-tech industrial processes, were unknown in Asia until after World

War

II.4

Contrary to popular belief, neither soy milk nor soy infant formula is

traditional in Asia. Soy milk originated as a byproduct of the process of

making

tofu; the earliest reference to it as a beverage appeared in 1866.5 By the

1920s and 1930s, it was popular in Asia as an occasional drink served to the

elderly.6-8 The first person to manufacture soy milk in China was actually an

American-Harry Miller, a Seventh Day Adventist physician and missionary.9

The first soy infant formulas in China were developed in the 1930s and have

never been widely used.10-14 Today, babies in Asia are almost always

breastfed for at least the first six months, then switched to a dairy-based

infant

formula. Orphans and others who cannot be breastfed by a wet nurse are fed from

birth on dairy formulas.15

Claims that soybeans have been a major part of the Asian diet for more than

3,000 years, or from " time immemorial, " are simply not true.

Processing Matters

 

Soy in the West has been a product of the industrial revolution-an

opportunity for technologists to develop cheap meat substitutes, to find clever

new

ways to hide soy in familiar food products, to formulate soy-based

pharmaceuticals, and to develop a renewable, plant-based resource that could

replace

petroleum-based plastics and fuels.

For years, the soy protein left over from soy-oil extraction went to animals

and poultry. Now that food scientists have discovered inexpensive ways to

improve or disguise the color, flavor, " bite characteristics, " and " mouth feel "

of soy protein-based products, soy is being aggressively marketed as a

" people feed. " Although the newer refining techniques yield blander, purer soy

proteins than the " beany, " hard-to-cover-up flavors of the past, the main

reason

that soy foods now taste and look better is the lavish use of unhealthy

additives such as sugar and other sweeteners, salt, artificial flavorings,

colors, and monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Soy now lurks in nearly 60 percent of the foods sold in supermarkets and

natural food stores. Much of this is " hidden " in products where it wouldn't

ordinarily be expected, such as fast-food burgers and Bumblebee canned tuna.

Soy

is also a key ingredient in ersatz products with names like Soysage, Not

Dogs, Fakin Bakin, Sham Ham, and TofuRella, which have been named after and

made

to look like the familiar meat and diary products they are intended to

replace.

There's nothing natural about these modern soy protein products. Textured

soy protein, for example, is made by forcing defatted soy flour through a

machine called an extruder under conditions of such extreme heat and pressure

that

the very structure of the soy protein is changed. Production differs little

from the extrusion technology used to produce starch-based packing materials,

fiber-based industrial products, and plastic toy parts, bowls, and plates.16

The process of making soy protein isolate (SPI) begins with defatted soybean

meal, which is mixed with a caustic alkaline solution to remove the fiber,

then washed in an acid solution to precipitate out the protein. The protein

curds are then dipped into another alkaline solution and spray-dried at

extremely high temperatures. SPI is then often spun into protein fibers using

technology borrowed from the textile industry. These refining processes remove

" off

flavors, " " beany " tastes, and some of the worst flatulence-producing

components. They improve digestibility, but vitamin, mineral, and protein

quality

are sacrificed, and levels of carcinogens such as nitrosamines are

increased.17-22 SPIs appear in so many products that consumers would never guess

that the

Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) decreed in

1979 that the only safe use for SPIs was for sealers for cardboard

packages.23

Antinutrients and Toxins in Soy

 

Scientists who have studied the use of soy protein in animal feeds over the

years have discovered a number of components in soy that cause poor growth,

digestive distress, and other health problems.24-27 To list just a few of

these: Protease inhibitors interfere with protein digestion and have caused

malnutrition, poor growth, digestive distress, and pancreatitis.28 Phytates

block

mineral absorption, causing zinc, iron, and calcium deficiencies.29-34

Lectins and saponins have caused leaky gut and other gastrointestinal and

immune

problems.35-36 Oxalates-surprisingly high in soy-may cause problems for people

prone to kidney stones and women suffering from vulvodynia, a painful

condition marked by burning, stinging, and itching of the external

genitalia.37, 38

Finally, oligosaccharides give soy its notorious reputation as a gas

producer. Although these are present in all beans, soy is such a powerful

" musical

fruit " that the soy industry has identified " the flatulence factor " as a major

obstacle that must be overcome for soy to achieve full consumer

acceptance.39, 40

Apologists for soy dismiss such claims, saying that food processing and home

cooking remove most of these antinutrients. In fact, modern processing

removes most of them, but not all. The levels of heat and pressure needed to

remove all protease inhibitors, for example, severely damage soy protein and

make

it harder to digest. The trick is to eliminate the most antinutrients while

doing the least damage to the soy protein. Success varies widely from batch to

batch.41-44

For years, the soy industry tried to improve the quality of animal feeds by

finding better ways to get rid of these undesirable antinutrients. Having

failed, they routinely supplement animal feeds heavily with vitamins, minerals,

and methionine, a sulfur-containing amino acid that is low in soy. Even so,

makers of animal chows are still limited in the amount of soy they can add

without causing growth and fertility problems. Food processors making

soy-protein products for people may or may not add these supplements.

Generally,

calcium and vitamin D are added to soy milk so it can compete with dairy

products.

Today, the soy industry has switched tactics-from trying to remove unwanted

antinutrients to trying to convince people that they are actually a good

thing. Protease inhibitors, saponins, and lectins are being touted as curers of

cancer or lowerers of cholesterol, while phytates are being recommended for

their ability to remove toxic minerals such as cadmium and excess iron from the

body.45-51 Although some of these uses look promising, it is important to

note that researchers are not achieving these successes using regular soy

foods. Most take carefully extracted components and administer them in

carefully

measured and monitored pharmaceutical doses. News headlines to the contrary,

there is no reason to think that just eating a lot of soy foods will do the

trick.

Soy Allergens

 

Soy is one of the top eight allergens that cause immediate hypersensitivity

reactions such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hives, diarrhea, difficulty

swallowing, and anaphylactic shock. Delayed allergic responses are even more

common and occur anywhere from several hours to several days after the food

is eaten. These have been linked to sleep disturbances, bedwetting, sinus and

ear infections, crankiness, joint paint, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal

woes, and other mysterious symptoms.52, 53

Soy allergies are on the rise for three reasons: the growing use of soy infan

t formula (now 20 to 25 percent of the formula market), the increase in

soy-containing foods in grocery stores, the possibility of the greater

allergenicity of genetically modified soybeans.54 Although severe reactions to

soy are

rare compared to reactions to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish, soy

has been underestimated as a cause of food anaphylaxis. Recently, after a young

girl in Sweden suffered an asthma attack and died after eating a hamburger

that contained only 2.2 percent soy protein, Swedish researchers looked into a

possible soybean connection. They concluded that the soy-in-the-hamburger

case was not a fluke, and that minute amounts of soy " hidden " in regular food

had caused four of the total of five deaths caused by allergic reactions in

Sweden between 1993 and 1996. Of the children who suffered fatal attacks, all

had been able to eat soy without any adverse reactions right up until the

dinner that caused their deaths.55 According to the Swedish Ministry of Health

and

Social Affairs, children at highest risk are those who suffer from peanut

allergies and asthma; parents of such children should make every effort to

eliminate all soy from their children's diets.56

Soy and the Thyroid: A Pain in the Neck

 

More than 70 years of human, animal, and laboratory studies show that

soybeans put the thyroid at risk. The chief culprits are the plant hormones in

soy

known as phytoestrogens or isoflavones.57-59 The United Kingdom's Committee

on Toxicology has identified several populations at special risk: infants on

soy formula, vegans who use soy as their principal meat and dairy

replacements, and men and women who self-medicate with soy foods and/or

isoflavone

supplements in an attempt to prevent or reverse menopausal symptoms, cancer, or

heart disease.60

Infants with congenital hypothyroidism need 18 to 25 percent higher doses of

thyroxine drug than usual if they are bottle-fed with soy formula.61

Likewise, adults who boost their thyroid with drugs such as Synthroid while

also

eating thyroid-inhibiting foods such as soy put extreme stress on their

thyroids. Toxicologist Michael Fitzpatrick, PhD, points out that this is the

way that

researchers induce thyroid cancers in laboratory animals.62

Soy and Reproduction: Breeding Discontent

 

Scientists have known since the mid-1940s that phytoestrogens can impair

fertility. Fertility problems in cows, sheep, rabbits, cheetahs, guinea pigs,

birds, and mice have all been reported.63, 64 Although scientists discovered

only recently that soy lowers testosterone levels,65 tofu has traditionally

been used in Buddhist monasteries to decrease the libido, and by Japanese women

to punish straying husbands. Humans and animals appear to be the most

vulnerable to the effects of soy estrogens prenatally, during infancy and

puberty,

during pregnancy and lactation, and during the hormonal shifts of menopause.

Of all these groups, infants on soy formula are at the highest risk because of

their small size and developmental phase, and because formula is their main

source of nutrient.66, 67

A crucial time for the programming of the human reproduction system is right

after birth-the very time when bottles of soy formula are given to many

non-breastfed babies. Normally during this period, the body surges with natural

estrogens, testosterones, and other hormones that are meant to program the

baby's reproductive development from infancy through puberty and into

adulthood.

For infants on soy formula, this programming may be interrupted.68-70

Male infants experience a testosterone surge during the first few months of

life and produce androgens in amounts equal to those of adult men. So much

testosterone at such a tender age is needed to program the body for puberty,

the time when a male's sex organs should develop and he should begin to express

male characteristics such as facial and pubic hair and a deep voice. If

receptor sites intended for the hormone testosterone are occupied by soy

estrogens, however, appropriate development may never take place.71-74 To date,

most

of the evidence damning soy formula can be found only in animal studies,

because investigations in which humans' sex hormone levels are lowered

experimentally cannot ethically be done. However, in the years since soy formula

has

been in the marketplace, parents and pediatricians have reported growing

numbers of boys whose physical maturation is either delayed or does not occur at

all. Breasts, underdeveloped gonads, undescended testicles (cryptorchidism), and

steroid insufficiencies are increasingly common. Sperm counts are also

falling.75-79

Soy formula is bad news for girls as well. Natural estrogen levels

approximately double during the first month of life, then decline and remain at

low

levels until puberty. With increased estrogens in the environment in the diet,

an alarming number of girls are entering puberty much earlier than

normal.80-82 One percent of girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast

development

or pubic hair, before the age of three. By the age of eight, 14.7 percent of

Caucasian girls and 48.3 percent of African American girls had one or both

of these characteristics.83 The fact that blacks experience earlier puberties

than whites is not a racial difference but a recent phenomenon.84, 85

Most experts blame this epidemic of " precocious puberty " on environmental

estrogens from plastics, pesticides, commercial meats, etc., but some pediatric

endocrinologists believe that soy is a contributor.86 Of all the estrogens

found in the environment, soy is the likeliest explanation of why African

American girls reach puberty so quickly. Since its establishment in 1974, the

federal government's Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program has provided

free

infant formula to teenage and other low-income mothers while failing to

encourage breastfeeding. Because of perceived or real lactose intolerance,

black

babies are much more likely to receive soy formula than Caucasian babies.

Early maturation in girls heralds reproductive problems later in life,

including amenorrhea (failure to menstruate), anovulatory cycles (cycles in

which

no egg is released), impaired follicular development (follicles failing to

mature and develop into healthy eggs), erratic hormonal surges, and other

problems associated with infertility. Because the mammary glands depend on

estrogen for their development and functioning, the presence of soy estrogens at

a

susceptible time might predispose girls to breast cancer, another condition

that is on the rise and definitively linked to early puberty.87

Recently, a team of researchers headed by Brian L. Strom, MD, studied the

use of soy formula and its long-term impact on reproductive health. They

announced only one adverse finding: longer, more painful menstrual periods

among

women who'd been fed soy formula in infancy.88 Dr. Strom's conclusion that the

results were " reassuring " made newspaper headlines all over the world, though

the data in the body of the report were anything but. Indeed, data left out

of the headlines and buried in the report revealed higher incidences of

allergies and asthma, and higher rates of cervical cancer, polycystic ovarian

syndrome, blocked fallopian tubes, and pelvic inflammatory disease.89 Although

thyroid damage from soy formula has been the principal concern of critics for

decades, the researchers excluded thyroid function as a subject for study. Not

surprisingly, this study was funded in part by the infant-formula industry.

Most of the fears concerning soy formula have focused on estrogens. There

are other problems as well, notably much higher levels of aluminum, fluoride,

and manganese than are found in either breastmilk or dairy formulas.90-96 All

three metals have the potential to adversely affect brain development.

Although trace amounts of manganese are vital to the development of the brain,

toxic levels accrued from ingestion of soy formula during infancy have been

found

in children suffering from attention-deficit disorders, dyslexia, and other

learning problems.97, 98

Soy apologists sometimes argue that the plant hormones in soy formula could

not possibly be harmful because Japanese women eat a lot of soy products and

so must have high levels of phytoestrogens in their breastmilk. Researchers,

however, have measured the soy isoflavones in breastmilk and found them low

even in vegetarian women who consume copious quantities of tofu, soy milk, soy

protein shakes, and other soy foods.99-101

Limited evidence, however, suggests that vegetarian women who eat a lot of

soy foods during pregnancy may put their infants at risk in terms of their

future reproductive health, fertility, and possibly increased risk of breast

cancer. All of the problems that have befallen infants on soy formula, as well

as estrogen-related birth defects, have occurred (in animal studies, at least)

to the offspring of mothers who were given high doses of soy during

pregnancy.102 One of these birth defects that has been linked to vegetarian

diets in

humans is hypospadias, a developmental disorder in which the opening of the

penis is located on the underside of the shaft.103

Until soy estrogens are definitely linked to reproductive-tract

abnormalities, infertility, and other health problems in humans, most health

authorities

recommend that we " wait and see. " This could be a terrible mistake.

In the 1940s and 1950s, another estrogen, diethylstilbestrol (DES), was

widely given to Western women early in their pregnancies in a misguided attempt

to prevent miscarriage. That fact is relevant not only because DES bears a

striking structural similarity to some plant estrogens-including soy

isoflavones-but because it took more than 20 years before the full spectrum of

harmful

effects was observed.104, 105

DES is 100,000 times more potent than soy phytoestrogens. However, the large

quantities of phytoestrogens in soy products are more than enough to

counteract their lower potency. When the effects of isoflavones in fetal and

neonatal animals have been studied, they have paralleled those observed in

human

infants exposed to DES.106, 107 Recent studies indicate that the soy isoflavone

known as genistein may be even more carcinogenic than DES.108

Yet the belief persists that soy hormones are " safe " because they are " weak "

and " natural. " Although the soy industry has claimed that soy estrogens are

anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 times weaker than the human estrogen

estradiol, the correct figure is only 1,200 times as weak.109 Though this still

sounds quite weak, it is not-because of the quantity of these estrogens

ingested

by infants on soy formula, and by children and adults who eat soy every day.

These individuals consume far more soy estrogens than were ever part of a

traditional diet in Asia. The average isoflavones intake in China is 3

milligrams, or 0.05 mg per kilogram of body weight. In Japan, the figures range

from

10 to 28 mg, or 0.17 to 0.47 isoflavones per kg of body weight. In contrast,

infants receiving soy formula average 38 mg of isoflavones, which comes to a

shocking 6.25 mg/kg of body weight. Compare that dose to the 0.47 mg/kg per

day fed to healthy Japanese adult men and women who experienced thyroid

suppression after just three months-or to the 0.75 mg/kg of isoflavones fed to

American women who experienced hormonal changes sufficient to skew their

menstrual cycles after just one month.110 Although children and teenagers are

less

vulnerable than infants, their young bodies are still developing, and highly

vulnerable to endocrine-system disruption by soy. And soy has been shown to

pass through the placentas of pregnant women to their unborn babies.

Meanwhile, the jury is still out on whether soy might help alleviate

menopausal symptoms or prevent osteoporosis and breast cancer. The soy

industry's

top scientists, convened at the Fifth International Symposium on the Role of

Soy in the Preventing and Reversing Chronic Disease (held in Orlando, Florida,

September 21-24, 2003), conceded that the data are confusing and

contradictory, with some studies suggesting that soy might be helpful, and

others showing

that soy contributes to osteoporosis and promotes breast cancer.

What's certain is that the levels of soy estrogens that might possibly have

a beneficial effect on hormonally related diseases have been proven to

jeopardize the health of the thyroid. Likewise, the 25 grams of soy protein per

day

touted by the FDA to lower cholesterol (see sidebar, " Boon to the Industry:

The FDA's Soy Protein Health Claim " ) is very likely to harm the thyroid, and

thus increase one of the risk factors for heart disease.

The bottom line is that the safety of soy foods has yet to be proven, and

that human beings have become guinea pigs in what Daniel M. Sheehan, formerly

senior toxicologist with the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research,

has called a " large, uncontrolled and basically unmonitored human

experiment. " 111

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