In Response to the Shoddily Researched Pro-Soy Blog on the Maclean’s Site

My response to this poorly written, poorly researched blog about soy on Macleans.ca:

Will soy make my son gay?

People are panicking about what’s been dubbed a ‘superfood’

by Julia McKinnell

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/12/04/will-soy-make-my-son-gay/

Lorette’s response:

Why do people always think the ‘meat or dairy boards’ are trying to slam soy, without considering the massive industry of soy, one of the biggest and dirtiest businesses in the world. We can’t blame the beef any longer for the disappearing rainforest.

Thought beef was to blame for deforestation? Here's your 'green choice' soy in Brazil's rainforest.

Here’s just a few of the errors/omissions/misconceptions in this article:

Messina is indeed a ’soy expert’. He’s at the top of the soy industry food chain. His interest in soy is massive, it’s called money.

It’s not the Western A. Price Foundation, but the Weston A. Price Foundation. They are not paid by the meat or dairy board. Their main slant is not to knock soy, but to advocate traditional foods, including hormone-free, grass-fed, compassionately farmed meats, fats that are not rancid and artificially processed, and chemical free whole foods. The foundation follows the work of Weston Price, a dentist, who went around the world to study tooth decay and health, expecting to find vegetarian cultures that fit his paradigm of health. His studies of nutritional anthropology and modern health advocate whole and traditional foods, as does the foundation. Dr. Kaayla Daniel, who is a member of the foundation, wrote a book called The Whole Soy Story.

This whole idea that soy is a health food comes from- the soy industry! But the roots of soy are deep and dirty. Soy’s big thrust here was as oil. Processed, poisonous ‘vegetable oil.’ You know, the stuff of margarine. Hydrogenated oil. Trans fat. Heart-healthy! the margarine companies chirped. For years we used the plastic on our food as a healthy alternate to butter. The cheap oil was used in all processed foods. Junk foods. As science came around, soy saw the bottom falling out of their market and began pumping another batch of health food stories. Think about it. Hydrogenated oil is one of the most toxic heart dangers, with ZERO as a safe limit. Why are the new ‘health’ products any different?

The quote from the Asian girl about the flat earth was very cute and so on, and strategically used to make us think that anyone who thinks soy is dangerous is a lunatic. Recall that at first, EVERYONE thought the earth was flat because that’s what they were told. The insinuation is, if we are thinking soy is harmful, we are idiots. But considering the massive amounts of evidence against it, we are actually the first to stop believing in that flat earth and consider a wider science. I don’t know the measurement of soy products in Asia, and I am not Asian, and I do believe many Asians eat soy products. However, Asian cultures eat a lot of fish, raw fish, and vegetables, and less processed foods or wheat-based products. There are many many reasons why they don’t have our diseases. Also, Chinese cultures eat a lot of eggs and pork. I mean, A LOT. Maybe this is why they have less cancer? Soy foods are not a substitute for pork and meat, but a complement. Of course, there are vegetarian families like the example given. There are always variations of a cultural norm, everywhere you go. Raw foodie vegan types may be surprised to learn that their beloved Asian prototypes, in addition to loving pork, insist all foods be cooked, not raw.

Finally, there was no mention of something very important: soy foods in Asia are fermented. The entire miso-making culture was about learning fermentation secrets. Why is this important? Because unfermented soyfoods are poison. Soy beans were used as fertilizer, and fermenting the bean made it edible to the people, all those years ago. Asians do not eat isolated soy protein or vegetarian soy and gluten patties. They eat pork, fish, vegetables, and traditionally fermented tofu. Tofu here, and most soyfoods, are not fermented. The fermenting process removes many of the toxins in the soy. Go ahead, ask a real Asian miso maker why they ferment the soy. They’ll tell you why.

Finally, if the aim is to make soy dissidents feel like neanderthal redneck homophobes, whatever. I’m pretty in pink, believe me. But that doesn’t change the fact that hormone disruption is a dangerous thing. Artificial or natural, screwing with your hormone function is risky business. Plants are drugs, don’t forget. Chemical drugs are based on plant science. So it makes sense, just possibly, that estrogen might not be a good idea to feed either boys or girls. You have the estrogen you need already. It’s not about making anyone gay. It’s about girls menstruating before age ten and little boys growing moobs. It is happening out there. It makes sense to question the hormones in meat, the estrogen in plastics, and the estrogen in soy foods.

Those are just a few of my thoughts. Those interested can read more, in my article on the great soy deception, Spilling the Beans, at Gremolata dot com.

Cheers,
Lorette