The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food Revealed: Soy [A fairly long article]

Below Dr. Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story , shares some important soy
insights with us in an exclusive interview.
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1. In terms of their effects on people's health, which of the soy food
products on the market would you say are the worst?

The worst by far is soy formula because it's usually the only food
nourishing the developing baby. Soy formula contains phytoestrogens that can
disrupt the baby's thyroid, reproductive development and toxic levels of
manganese that can cause neurological and brain damage associated with
ADD/ADHD and violent tendencies. Babies on soy formula are also at higher
risk for gastrointestinal damage, allergies, asthma, poor mineral absorption
and lower intelligence. Although most patrons of health food stores know
that it is important to breast feed, those who cannot often pick soy formula
thinking it is the healthy choice. This choice is a formula for disaster.
Contrary to popular belief, soy formula was never used traditionally in
Asia.

For children and adults, the two worst product categories are soy protein
products and soy oil. Unlike in Asia where people eat small amounts of whole
soybean products, western food processors separate the soybean into two
golden commodities--protein and oil. There's nothing safe or natural about
this. Today's high-tech processing methods not only fail to remove the
antinutrients and toxins that are naturally present in soybeans but leave
toxic and carcinogenic residues created by the high temperatures, high
pressure, alkali and acid baths and petroleum solvents.

The worst of today's soy protein products are soy protein isolate, soy
protein concentrate, texturized vegetable protein and hydrolyzed vegetable
protein. We find these ingredients in everything from shake powders, energy
bars and veggie burgers to canned tuna. The worst soy oil products are
margarines and shortenings made from partially hydrogenated soybean oil
containing dangerous trans fatty acids. Most of the liquid vegetable oils
sold in supermarkets also come from the soybean. To make these bland enough
for public acceptance, the oils are subjected to heavy refining, deodorizing
and light hydrogenation.

The fact that soy protein enjoys an excellent reputation but soy oil has
been disgraced has led to an interesting marketing split among class lines.
Upscale "health conscious" consumers pay dearly for the supposedly
beneficial soy protein products in health food and gourmet stores.

The masses, meanwhile, get the soy oil in the form of the deadly
hydrogenated oils lurking in nearly every fast food or packaged
product--from crackers, cookies and other baked goods to canned foods,
frozen French fries and TV dinners. However, upscale soy products are
trickling down as the word "soy" becomes associated in the popular mind with
"healthy." Although average Americans still think of a "Fake Steak" as a
"Misteak," they don't seem to mind the fact that the industry has slipped
"invisible" soys into every supermarket food imaginable.

Provided that the prices are low and flavor and texture remain familiar, soy
is now perceived as a "healthful" additive, a "plus value." Meanwhile, over
in the upper crust neighborhoods, soy oil has begun feeding off soy
protein's healthy reputation and is starting to pop up in goods sold to the
health food crowd, and not all of it is in the unrefined, cold-pressed
"healthy" form.

The product I'm most concerned about, however, is soy milk. Not because it's
the worst product out there, but because some people are drinking so much of
it.

2. How did soy, once a fringe product, end up being thought of as a
"disease-preventive panacea"?

For years, the market for soy foods was limited. Americans not only loathed
the beany taste and gas-producing effects of soy but thought of soy foods as
"hippie foods," "poverty foods" or specialty foods for vegetarians. That
presented a problem to the industry, which had lots of soy protein left over
from soy oil production and nowhere to sell it. After all, they could only
feed so much to animals before they rolled over with serious health
problems. In order to make a good profit selling soy protein as a "people
feed," the industry needed to make people want to eat it and to pay well for
the privilege.

As a top gun marketer hired by the soy industry explained in 1975, "The
quickest way to gain product acceptability in the less affluent society is
to have the product consumed on its own merit by a more affluent society."
Heightening consumer awareness of "health benefits" has done the trick.
Millions of soy industry dollars have gone into funding "checkbook" medical
research, sponsoring symposia, establishing FDA health claims and
influencing of key dietitians and journalists. The campaign has led to a lot
of soy hype, high hopes and higher profits.

3. With soy being added to so many U.S. food products (soy protein isolate,
soybean oil, etc.) what advice do you have for consumers who are looking to
avoid soy, but don't know where to start?

It's a real challenge, especially for those with soy allergies. But it's
also an opportunity for us to make optimum food choices. The best--and maybe
the only--way to completely avoid soy in the food supply is to buy whole
foods and prepare them ourselves. For those who prefer to buy readymade and
packaged products, I offer a free Special Report, "Where the Soys Are," on
my Web site. It lists the many "aliases" that soy might be hiding under in
ingredient lists--words like "boullion," "natural flavor" and "textured
plant protein."

In addition, I'd like to share some good news. Help for the American
consumer comes in January 2006 when the Food Allergen and Labeling and
Consumer Protection Act goes into effect. The law requires food
manufacturers to clearly state whether a product contains any of the top
eight allergens--milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat or
soy, and it requires the FDA to conduct inspections to ensure that
manufacturers comply with practices to reduce or eliminate cross
contamination with any major food allergens that are not intentional
ingredients of a food. We have this new law thanks to the Food Allergy
Initiative, a New York-based non-profit organization.

4. Many Americans are convinced that soy is the "cure-all" for heart
disease, menopause symptoms, high cholesterol and more. What would you say
to this large group of the population who still believe soy is a health
food?

In general, we should be cautious about thinking of any food as a "miracle
food"--especially ones being heavily promoted by the very food manufacturers
who stand to benefit. We hear so many wonderful things about soy, but people
need to remember that the possible benefits are outweighed by proven risks.
Thousands of epidemiological, laboratory and clinical studies link soy to
malnutrition, digestive problems, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline,
reproductive disorders, immune system breakdown, even heart disease and
cancer.

While it is certainly possible that several components of the soybean might
be successfully developed into useful pharmaceutical drugs, it is
inappropriate for the soy industry to recommend that the entire population
of men, women and children self-medicate by eating massive amounts of soy
foods. The public has not been properly warned that soy can have many side
effects, that it is a substance that could be helpful in one stage of the
life cycle but harmful in another and that dietary estrogens can interact
cumulatively or exponentially with environmental estrogens.

5. What was your motivation for writing The Whole Soy Story?

Years ago I was excited about the claims being made for soy. The possibility
that a simple, inexpensive food could prevent heart disease, fight cancer,
fan away hot flashes, and build strong bodies in far more than 12 ways was
seductive. The hype, however, did not match the reality of the many sick,
soy-eaters that I saw in my life. At ashrams, I talked to vegetarians who
waxed enthusiastic about their enlightened diets but who complained about
loss of energy, "brain fog," thinning hair, gray skin, weight gain and gas.

When I taught classes, I met health-conscious professionals who came to me
confused and frustrated because they had been advised to eat soy but felt
worse than they had ever felt in their lives. As a nutritionist, I worked
with many clients whose health improved dramatically after removing soy
foods from their diets. These observations led me to question everything I'd
ever heard or read about soy and to research the subject for myself.

6. Which types of soy are acceptable? Aren't some types of fermented soy
(natto, tempeh, miso) healthy?

I personally eat old-fashioned fermented soy products such as miso, tempeh,
natto, shoyu and tamari and believe they can be healthy in the context of a
varied diet. Tofu is a precipitated product and less healthy, but I still
enjoy it occasionally at vegetarian potlucks. Edamame--the green immature
soybeans--contains fewer of the toxins found in the mature beans and so can
be eaten occasionally. People who are not allergic or sensitized to soy can
consume these whole soy products safely at the levels eaten traditionally in
Asia, which is to say in small amounts as condiments, not staples.

Soy sprouts, by the way, are not healthy. Short-term germination increases
the strength of soy's antinutrient fractions. In contrast, long-term
sprouting plus fermentation will decrease and nearly eliminate them. Soy
sprouts are mentioned in historical accounts as useful, sometime
pharmaceuticals, not as a daily food.

7. You say in The Whole Soy Story that soy has never been proven safe and
can cause irreversible harm to people's health. What are some of the most
serious side effects that can result from this food?

I hesitate to use words like "irreversible" or "incurable." Adults who have
been harmed by soy foods have a good chance of restoring their health if
they remove all soy and other estrogenic foods from their diets, switch to a
varied, organic omnivorous diet and use appropriate supplements as
recommended by a wise doctor, nutritionist or other health professional. I
most often see thyroid damage, infertility, menstrual problems, loss of sex
drive, hair loss and digestive problems.

It's the damage from soy formula that may be irreversible. A crucial time
for the programming of the human reproductive system is right after
birth--the very time when many non-breastfed babies get bottle after bottle
of soy formula. Normally during this period, the baby's body surges with
natural estrogens, testosterone and other hormones needed to program the
newborn's reproductive system to mature from infancy through puberty and
into adulthood.

For infants on soy formula, the programming may be disturbed or interrupted.
The phytoestrogens in soy formula--the isoflavones--bear a strong
resemblance to the natural estrogens produced by the human body as well as
to the synthetic estrogens found in contraceptive pills. Strictly speaking,
soy estrogens are not hormones but "estrogen mimickers," but the bottom line
is that human body mistakes them for hormones. Little boys who are
estrogenized in this way may experience delayed or arrested puberty. Little
girls who are overly estrogenized may go through premature puberty. We have
many tragic stories.

8. What was the most shocking piece of information you learned while writing
or researching The Whole Soy Story?

I began my research thinking there would be pros and cons to soy. Instead, I
found overwhelming evidence of harm. I was startled by the sheer number of
buried studies that needed to come to light, by the flagrant
misrepresentation of data and the soy industry's talent for "spinning"
unfavorable results. Right now, the FDA is seriously considering a soy-
protein-prevents-cancer health claim as proposed by the Solae Company. The
idea that the FDA could even consider soy for a cancer health claim is
ludicrous on the face of it.

Soy isoflavones--the plant estrogens in soy most often credited with cancer
prevention--are listed as "carcinogens "in many toxicology textbooks. They
have also been proven to be mutagenic, clastogenic and teratogenic. Recent
studies have even shown that soy accelerates the growth of breast cancer.
Yet Solae stated that there is a "consensus among experts qualified by
scientific training and experience" that "soy protein products reduce the
risk of certain cancers." This is so shockingly untrue that I joined Sally
Fallon and Bill Sanda of the Weston A. Price Foundation to file two protest
documents with the FDA. The FDA has delayed its decision and we will meet
with them this spring.

9. For those who currently include soy as a major protein in their diet,
what foods would you suggest they use to replace the soy?

I strongly recommend a varied, omnivorous diet such as found in Nourishing
Traditions and Eat Fat/Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, and in Dr.
Mercola's books and Web site. If people wish to remain vegetarians, I would
recommend clean, raw, whole dairy products and eggs from free-range hens.
Those who rely on nuts and beans for protein should be sure to soak them to
deactivate phytates and other antinutrients and to make them more digestible
an assimilable.

10. Do you have plans to write another book?

I am working on Whole Soy Stories, a sequel that will include true soy
stories and the steps taken by men, women and children who have successfully
recovered from the health problems caused by soy. I want to hear from the
public and also from doctors and other health practitioners who are
developing--or have developed--protocols for clients suffering from
soy-induced thyroid disease, infertility, cognitive decline, cancer or other
health problems. Please share your stories or  purchase the book at
http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=24
953031&u=225311.

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Related Articles:

Soy Myth Exposed: Soy is Not a Health Food
(http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=2
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Why Soy Can Damage Your Health
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Soy-Bean Crisis
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Soy Formula May Stunt the Intestinal Growth in Your Baby
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Soy Sales Slow for First Time Since 2001
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Soy: Is it Healthy or is it Harmful?
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