A look into some of the possible dangers and negative effects on your health of eating too much soy -- Can soy even increase belly fat?
I
wanted to include this article because every day I see so many people
that don't realize that soy is NOT A HEALTH FOOD! Most people have been
deceived and mislead by billions of dollars of advertising that soy
protein, soy milk, soybean oil, and processed soy foods are "healthy"...
when the truth is that soy has many anti-nutrients and negative factors
on the body that we should be concerned about.
In fact, there is evidence that soy foods could possibly even INCREASE YOUR STOMACH FAT if you eat too much soy or too often.
Take a read below, and discover some unsettling facts about soy.
-
Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author -- The Truth about Six Pack Abs & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
The Dark Side of Soy
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
co-author - The Fat Burning Kitchen
& The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
Only a few decades ago, unfermented soybean foods were considered unfit
to eat - even in Asia. These days, people all over the world have been
fooled into thinking that unfermented soy foods like soymilk and soy
protein are somehow "health foods". If they only knew the real truth!
The soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of
fermentation techniques, some time during the Chou Dynasty. The first
soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and soy
sauce.
At a later date, possibly in the 2nd century BC, Chinese scientists
discovered that a puree of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with
calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate (plaster of Paris or Epsom salts)
to make a smooth, pale curd - tofu or bean curd. The use of fermented
and precipitated soy products soon spread to other parts of the Orient,
notably Japan and Indonesia.
Growth-depressant compounds are deactivated during the process of
fermentation, so once the Chinese discovered how to ferment the soybean,
they began to incorporate soy foods into their diets.
The Chinese NEVER ate large amounts of unfermented soy foods or soymilk
The Chinese did not eat unfermented soybeans as they did other
legumes such as lentils because the soybean contains large quantities of
natural toxins or "antinutrients". First among them
are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other
enzymes vital for protein digestion.
These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not
completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious
gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in
amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors
cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including
cancer.
Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that
causes red blood cells to clump together. Trypsin inhibitors and
haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors. Weaned rats fed soy containing
these antinutrients fail to grow normally.
Soy also contains goitrogens - substances that depress thyroid function.
Although soy has been known to suppress thyroid function for over 60
years, and although scientists have identified the goitrogenic component
of soy as the so-called "beneficial isoflavones", the industry insists
that soy depresses thyroid function only in the absence of iodine.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham reports a case in which
consumption of a soy protein dietary supplement decreased the absorption
of thyroxine. The patient had undergone thyroid surgery and needed to
take thyroid hormone. Higher oral doses of thyroid hormone were needed
when she consumed soy -- she presumably used iodized salt so iodine
intake did not prevent the goitrogenic effects of soy.
A very large percentage of soy is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages of
contamination by pesticides of any of our foods.
Soybeans are high in phytic acid, present in the bran or hulls of all
seeds. Phytic acid is a substance that can block the uptake of
essential minerals - calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially
zinc - in the intestinal tract.
The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or
legume that has been studied, and the phytates in soy are highly
resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow
cooking. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce
the phytate content of soybeans.
When precipitated soy products like tofu are consumed with meat, the
mineral-blocking effects of the phytates are reduced. The Japanese
traditionally eat a small amount of tofu or miso as part of a
mineral-rich fish broth, followed by a serving of meat or fish.
People who substitute tofu or bean curd for meat can get severe mineral deficiencies
Vegetarians who consume tofu and bean curd as a substitute for meat
and dairy products risk severe mineral deficiencies. The results of
calcium, magnesium and iron deficiency are well known; those of zinc are
less well known, but equally as bad. Far far more healthy is to eat pure grass fed meats, cheese, and butter, all high in nutrients and protein rich.
Zinc is called the intelligence mineral because it is needed for
optimal development and functioning of the brain and nervous system. It
plays a role in protein synthesis and collagen formation; it is involved
in the blood-sugar control mechanism and thus protects against
diabetes; it is needed for a healthy reproductive system. Grass fed beef
is very high in this necessary nutrient, in contrast to soy.
Soy processors have worked hard to get these anti-nutrients out of
the finished soy product, particularly soy protein isolate (SPI) which
is the key ingredient in most soy foods that imitate meat and dairy
products, including baby formulas and some brands of soy milk.
Soy Protein Isolate is an Industrially Produced Food -- Far from Natural or Healthy!
SPI is not something you can make in your own kitchen. Production
takes place in industrial factories where a slurry of soy beans is first
mixed with an alkaline solution to remove fiber, then precipitated and
separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralized in an alkaline
solution.
Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches high levels of aluminum into
the final product. The resultant curds are spray - dried at high
temperatures to produce a high-protein powder. A final indignity to the
original soybean is high-temperature, high-pressure extrusion processing
of soy protein isolate to produce textured vegetable protein (TVP).
Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during spray-drying, and a
toxin called lysinoalanine is formed during alkaline processing.
In feeding experiments, the use of SPI increased requirements for vitamins E, K, D and B12 and
created deficiency symptoms
of calcium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, copper, iron and zinc.
Phytic acid remaining in these soy products greatly inhibits zinc and
iron absorption; test animals fed SPI
develop enlarged organs, particularly the pancreas and thyroid gland, and increased deposition of fatty acids in the liver.
Yet soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein (TVP) are used
extensively in school lunch programs, commercial baked goods, diet beverages and fast food products. They are heavily promoted in third world countries and form the basis of many food give-away programs.
Soy Protein Isolate was once
considered a waste product (before they discovered they could make money
promoting it as health food!)
Advances in technology make it possible to produce isolated soy
protein from what was once considered a waste product - the defatted,
high-protein soy chips - and then transform something that looks and
smells terrible into products that can be consumed by human beings.
Flavorings, preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic
nutrients have turned soy protein isolate, the food processors' ugly
duckling, into a new age swan.
"The quickest way to gain product acceptability in the less affluent
society," said an industry spokesman, "is to have the product consumed
on its own merit in a more affluent society." So soy is now sold to the
upscale consumer, not as a cheap, poverty food but as a miracle
substance that will prevent heart disease and cancer, whisk away hot
flushes, build strong bones and keep us forever young.
Or so they want you to believe!
The competition - meat, milk, cheese, butter and eggs - have been
duly demonized by the appropriate government bodies. Soy serves as meat
and milk for a new generation of virtuous vegetarians.
The soy industry hired Norman Robert Associates, a public relations
firm, to get more soy products onto school menus. The USDA responded
with a proposal to scrap the 30 per cent limit for soy in school
lunches.
The 'NuMenu' program would allow unlimited use of soy in student
meals. With soy added to hamburgers, tacos and lasagna, dieticians can
get the total fat content below 30 per cent of calories, thereby
conforming to government dictates. With the soy-enhanced food items,
students are receiving better servings of nutrients and less cholesterol
and fat, so says the soy industry. We now know this to be a negative,
rather than positive addition to their food supply.
You've been deceived into thinking Soy Milk is healthy
Soy milk has posted the biggest gains, soaring from $2 million in
1980 to $300 million in the US last year. Recent advances in processing
have transformed the gray, thin, bitter, beany-tasting Asian beverage
into a product that Western consumers will accept - one that tastes like
a milkshake, but without the "guilt"... they claim.
The long and demanding road to FDA approval actually took a few
unexpected turns. The original petition, submitted by Protein Technology
International, requested a health claim for isoflavones, the
estrogen-like compounds found plentifully in soybeans, based on
assertions that only soy protein that has been processed in a manner in
which isoflavones are retained will result in cholesterol lowering.
In 1998, the FDA made the unprecedented move of rewriting PTI's
petition, removing any reference to the phytoestrogens and substituting a
claim for soy protein - a move that was in direct contradiction to the
agency's regulations. The FDA is authorized to make rulings only on
substances presented by petition.
Are soy isoflavones actually toxic?
The abrupt change in direction was no doubt due to the fact that a
number of researchers, including scientists employed by the US
Government, submitted documents indicating that isoflavones are toxic.
The FDA had also received, early in 1998, the final British
Government report on phyto-estrogens, which failed to find much evidence
of benefit and warned against potential adverse effects.
Even with the change to soy protein isolate, FDA bureaucrats engaged
in the rigorous approval process were forced to deal nimbly with
concerns about mineral blocking effects, enzyme inhibitors,
goitrogenicity, endocrine disruption, reproductive problems and
increased allergic reactions from consumption of soy products.
One of the strongest letters of protest came from Dr Dan Sheehan and
Dr Daniel Doerge, government researchers at the National Center for
Toxicological Research. Their pleas for warning labels were dismissed as
unwarranted.
Research that ties soy to positive effects on cholesterol levels is
incredibly immature, said Ronald M. Krauss, MD, head of the Molecular
Medical Research Program and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He
might have added that studies in which cholesterol levels were lowered
through either diet or drugs have consistently resulted in a greater
number of deaths in the treatment groups than in controls - deaths from
stroke, cancer, intestinal disorders, accident and suicide.
Cholesterol-lowering measures in the US have fueled a $60 billion per year cholesterol-lowering industry, but have not saved us from the ravages of heart disease.
The health risks of soy are finally becoming known in the media
The media have not only questioned the health benefits of soy but
begun reporting on the risks. In July, the Israeli Health Ministry
warned that babies should not receive soy formula, that children should
eat soy no more than once per day to a maximum of three times per week
and that adults should exercise caution because of increased risk of
breast cancer and adverse effects on fertility.
The Ministry based its advice upon the conclusions reached by a
13-member committee of nutritionists, oncologists, pediatricians and
other specialists who spent more than year examining the evidence. They
concluded that the estrogen-like plant hormones in soy can cause adverse
effects on the human body and strongly urged consumers to minimize
their consumption of soy foods until absolute safety has been proven.
Soy has the potential to disrupt the digestive, immune and neuroendocrine systems of the human body and its role in
rising rates of infertility, hypothyroidism and some types of cancer including thyroid and pancreatic cancers.
Soy is also highly allergenic. Most experts now place soy protein
among the top eight allergens of all foods, and some rate it in the top
six or even top four. Allergic reactions to soy are increasingly common,
ranging from mild to life threatening, and some fatalities have been
reported.
People are finally starting to learn that soy is NOT a miracle health
food, and more and more expert scientists are issuing warnings about
soy.
I hope this article has convinced you to consider reducing or
eliminating your consumption of soy foods, soy milk, or soy protein.
Fermented soy such as tempeh, natto, and miso are ok on occasion and in
moderation.
-Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN
co-author - The Fat-Burning Kitchen Program & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
There
are a lot of things that health gurus disagree about... low-carb,
high-carb, high fat, protein, meat eating, vegan diets, etc... but if
there's one thing that almost every type of diet or every health
professional agrees on, it's that vegetables are great for you.
