Surprised by Soy: the Toxic Bean You Thought You Knew

update from July 13, 2008

NB- Since writing this blog, I was so amazed by what I learned about Hitler’s favourite food, soy, that I pitched the story and landed a gig at Gremolata. I urge you to follow this link and read a more refined and well researched article with quotes and insight from a thyroid expert, a scientist and nutritionist, a vegan cookbook author, and a woman who almost died from eating soy.

www.gremolata.com/soytrouble.htm

Beware of soy!

What if I told you that all that heart-healthy, cancer-fighting, protein-rich miracle soy food is a lie? You would laugh in my face.

So I won’t tell you that. I’ll say this instead: on top of actually being devoid of all these properties, soya food products are actually toxic and poisonous!

I see my vegan Vancouver friends throwing darts at my picture. While vegetarians have several thousand options for vegetable foods, somehow they think soy is a major food group. Soy milk, scrambled tofu for breakfast, soy bars, soy protein supplements, mock meat made of soy, soy patties, soy bean marmalade, yada yada. At the time, I thought it was a hopelessly meagre variety. Now I think it’s damn dangerous. Soy is one of the reasons that meat eaters think vegetarians look grey. I always thought it was the tobacco and weed. In fact, vegetarians who love soy are turning out to be MALNOURISHED in comparison to both meat eaters and their non-soy fellow vegetarians.

Now I was a vegetarian for about five years, and have been eating meat again for about eight. I also bought into the illogical arguments against meat, and replenished my protein with the so-called superior soy. Now I can say with absolute certainty that nutritionally speaking, there’s nothing like fish, meat, and eggs. But I won’t diss vegetarian people because there IS something to be said for the humane treatment of animals. If you aren’t eating meat because you care about our furry friends, or because today’s flesh factories are morally abhorrent, you are totally right and that’s great. Unfortunately, though, despite it’s ridiculously bad rep, which I myself bought into for years, animal protein is extremely vital to the body. Yes, you can live without it. But it’s better not to.

That said, the veg camp will often show up healthier because they must avoid a huge number of additives as they ban themselves from most fast food and unfoods and eat more plants. They avoid the sick hormones and drugs that factory farm meat is saturated with. Most meat eaters do not stick to organic, free-range, grass-fed options. Most meat eaters also eat massive amounts of sugar and never try things like carrot juice or wheatgrass.

What both camps do wrong is feast on starchy grain products and on sugar. The health nutters look to whole grains, the could-care-lessers indulge in white flour and have never heard of other grains like teff or quinoa. The problem is that humans have been eating these grains, whole or otherwise, for about one percent of their stay on earth. We are slaves to our biology in many ways, and vegetarians who claim health superiority are delusional. I used to tell people myself that hunter-gatherer people ate very little meat. I was constructing our history to suit my nice-girl spirit. I couldn’t imagine us to be killers. That’s just the truth of it: sometimes we tell ourselves nice fairy tales to avoid harsh truth. Our history is one of savage hunting. But the gathering was important, too- the foods that are good for us are meat and fish- hunted foods- and vegetables, fruits, and seeds- gathered foods. Low-carb camps threw the baby out with the bathwater: we need carbs, oh, how we need them. Fruits and vegetables, all you can eat. Along with that big juicy slab.

What you eat is up to you, but I don’t want to hear about the wonders of soy any more. Umm, can you READ? The news is everywhere. I can totally respect a person’s vegan diet because they care about animals. But telling me soy is healthy just means you have refused to read or believe the truth in science. You can tell me for hours the nutritional value of carrots, of green beans, of kale and chard, or tomatoes and apples and kiwis. But you have to accept that the soybean industry pulled one over on you, just like it did me once upon a time. Your health depends on it, and so does your credibility. You wouldn’t try to tell me Kool-Aid is good for you, without looking like a total idiot. You could say you love it, and we’d all agree we like soda pop or any other guilty pleasure. But imagine if the nation’s favourite health food was worse for you than soda? And it is.

I have nothing personally against the soy bean or any other bean or plant, believe me. But I won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, treating it like the poison that it is. I believe in plants, yo. But why is it so hard to swallow that some plants are poisonous? Every scientist knows that. Did you know that just a bit of soy milk every day can irreversibly damage the thyroid in a healthy person? Unfortunately, not only did I deprive my thyroid of much-needed animal protein for five years, but I pumped it full of soy. I didn’t know then that I’ve been hypothyroid since I was a child. Imagine the further damage I did. Though soy has thousands of ill-health effects, thyroid suppression is huge, instant, and automatic.

I know, you’ve all heard about the Okinawa diet. They live longer than anywhere else in the world. Hmm, they also eat a large amount of raw fish, the healthiest food on the planet. You’ve heard about those Asians and their lower rates of cancer. Hmm, but actually they average less than two teaspoons a day of soy: it’s a garnish. They eat massive amounts of fish and vegetables.

I don’t ask you to buy into my anti-soy theory. I do ask you to inform yourself, even if you think you already are sure, because the soy industry is laughing all the way to the bank. So I’ll list the many dangers of soy, and then I’ll tell you to go and do your own research. Why believe me, when I could care less about your man boobs, your poisoned infant formula, your reproductive sickness, your thyroid, or anything else? Actually, I do care, in the general way I care about people, and if you are my friend and know me, then please hear me out as obviously I am not attacking you. I care about you very much. I’m much more stubborn by nature than you are, and I’m admitting my deception publicly! It’s hard to let go of a belief, especially if you feel foolish or love a food. But you deserve the integrity of the truth, and if you are standing up for soy, you don’t know the truth yet. I mean, we all love potato chips and ice cream, but few would argue that they’re health food. We may excuse the occasional indulgence as well-deserved, or as delicious, but never as nutritious.

What’s wrong with soy?

• high levels of phytic acid- this blocks mineral absorption, meaning your body won’t absorb the nutrients being digested along with the soy
• these phytates cause malnutrition, effectively nullifying the other food you eat!
• high levels of enzyme inhibitors, which means you can’t make use of the protein in soy, either- fermented soy products like soy sauce and miso soup do not have this particular problem
• haemagluttin, which is an inhibitor of oxygen uptake to your cells, and also stunts growth
• phytoestrogens, long pumped as ‘healthy plant estrogens’ to women, causing endocrine disruption and disease on a massive scale- plus, it puts major amounts of estrogen into male bodies, causing some boys to grow up infertile, or hormonally confused, or to grow breasts
• eating soy causes ‘inexplicable’ loss of vital minerals like copper, calcium, iron, magnesium , selenium, and especially zinc, even in people who are ‘getting enough’ because of the malabsorption that soy causes
• this leads to bone problems, psychiatric problems, intestinal problems, reproductive problems, and much more
• soy is one of the top allergins, along with wheat, peanuts, dairy, corn, etc
• 2/3 of people allergic to dairy will also be allergic to soy, though they are encouraged to switch to soy if they must exclude dairy-best to exclude both, and fill up on healthy fish and veggies
• soy protein isolate is acid-washed in aluminum. hello, Alzheimer’s!
• even one serving of soy a day in clinically proven over and over to seriously suppress thyroid function. yet millions with thyroid disease are never told to religiously avoid soy products.
• soy hormones eaten in pregnancy cause brain damage in infants
• ‘vegan’ infants fed nothing buy soy formula actually die of malnutrition
• nursing infants of soy-eating mothers receive toxins through the milk!
• soy-eating vegetarians have a five-fold chance of giving birth to a boy with hypospadias, a birth defect of the penis, due to toxic estrogens
• babies on ‘healthy soy formula’ have estrogen levels up to 22 THOUSAND times of other babies
• soy-fed babies are likely to develop serious thyroid problems
• about one percent of soy fed baby girls begin puberty before the ago of THREE
• breast is best, obviously, but soy is not second best
• for those of you who do not know, the thyroid is a tiny gland that regulates hormones and every cellular function of the body, and it also is connected with liver function, totally vital to all aspects of nutrition, detox, etc- every single function of the body’s metabolism is dependant on the thyroid. love yours, and throw out that soy.
• eating just two servings of tofu a week causes accelerated brain aging and puts you at a high risk of earlier dementia
• women are told that soy helps prevent breast cancer. funny, because excess estrogen is a major CAUSE of breast and other cancers. Genistein, a soy ingredient, promotes breast cell proliferation, which often turns cancerous.
• the long process of fermenting renders the toxins in soy neutral, so miso, tempeh, and soy sauce are better options if you insist on soy- that doesn’t mean they are nutritious, but not toxic!
• genistein and daidzein, which are chemicals that occur naturally in soy, are proven to cause chromosomal damage and DNA disruption
• nitrosamines are often referred to as known cancer-causing chemicals. but no one tells you that soy is loaded with them!
• the body can’t use the B12 analogs in soy
• soy causes vitamin D deficiency!- which causes osteoporosis, among other things
• but it’s a complete protein, right? wrong again- another sick lie they told us. soy is not a complete protein- it is very low in methionine and cystine: plus, lysine levels are easily destroyed.
• soy is trumpeted over meat because it is low in fat…the fat in meat is not unhealthy, but that is still to come out in the wash. we are more sedentary than our hunting ancestors, so we need less, but small amounts are vital.
• processed soy products like soybean oil are high in trans fat, the only ‘bad’ fat, because it is artificial and not recognizable by the body
• the worst offenders are soybean oil, texurized vegetable protein, soy protein isolates, and all the soy products and their derivatives that are stuffed into veggie dogs, tofu nuggets, veggie patties, yada yada…still, eating the plain edamame bean is still toxic!
• while many studies claim that high-protein diets may cause health problems of every ilk, if all of these were revised with reduced grains, sugars, and chemicals, and increased vegetables and fruits, the opposite would be shown. animal protein has been used by humans for millions of years, and our brains are made out of DHA, found only in fish.
• soy contains many toxins, and one is naturally occurring MSG
• it is a toxic myth that soy helps prevent cancer- longer-term scientific studies show that it CAUSES cancer
• soy is not a green option, as often assumed- in fact, soy crops are usually genetically modified and use very high levels of pesticides
• soy toxins are often hid under labels like ‘vegetable oil’- not only are they hydrogenated poisons, but those allergic to soy will not avoid that product because of its misleading ingredient names

I’m not done yet. The list GOES ON AND ON. Don’t take my word for it- places to start your own research:

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/index.htm
A New Zealand nutrition expert and scientist tells all.

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/articles/veganism.htm
Read the New York Times article here: yet another vegan infant starves to death. Even babies BREASTFED by a vegan mother are deficient nutritionally.

http://www.amazon.com/Whole-Soy-Story-Americas-Favorite/dp/0967089751
The Whole Soy Story- the dark side of American’s favorite health food

http://www.utne.com/2007-07-01/TheDarkSideofSoy.aspx
The Dark Side of Soy: Is America’s favorite health food making us sick? from Utne Reader

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/07/21/soy-cancer-part-two.aspx
Soy Maker Omits Studies That Soy May Cause Cancer

http://www.vegansareevil.com/soy.html
umm, well, the site name is harsh, but there is lots of real information here

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/vegetarian.html
lots about soy dangers, our history of omnivorous eating, misconceptions, etc.

That should be enough to get you started. Please protect yourself and your family. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, remember that soy is not synonymous with vegetarian. We all eat too much soy, even if we think we’re avoiding it. There is a growing movement of vegetarians who do not eat soy or any other kind of poison. Here are a few resources to start with:

http://www.amazon.com/Mediterranean-Vegan-Kitchen-Donna-Klein/dp/1557883599
soy-free Mediterranean recipes

http://www.foodallergysurvivalguide.com/
a book about avoiding certain food groups

http://www.amazon.ca/Alternative-Vegan-International-Straight-Produce/dp/0977080420
a soy-free vegan cookbook, with many gluten free recipes as well!

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/vegex/msg0917221522922.html

visit writer Lorette C. Luzajic at www.thegirlcanwrite.net