Soy Shmoy

HOLY COW... if you have ever tried to look into whether Soy is good or bad for you, it is dizzying!  For every study that says it is detrimental for your health, there is another study that swears it is the ultimate health food.  After tons and tons and tons of reading and research here is what I have come up with.   I'm  focusing on the facts here... and leaving everything that is up for discussion out. 

1.  Genetically Modified Soy is very bad for your health (remember this post?) .... and 94% of all Soy produced is GM.  GM soy is called "Round Up Ready."  It has been inserted with a bacterial gene that allows it to withstand deadly amounts of Roundup.  The active ingredient in Round Up, Glyphosate, accumulates in the soy bean.  Go ahead and Google the term "Glyphosate."  You don't want to be ingesting this stuff!  This statistic alone should almost convince you to stay away from Soy.  Of course, even though it is rare, there is organic and non-GMO soy out there.  So maybe you're still thinking you'll just stick with that.

"Can I order the tofu wrap with extra RoundUp on the side?  And throw in a few mutated DNA strands please?  Oh yea, don't forget my soy milk so I can wash it all down."

2.  GM Soy, like GM corn, is in virtually every processed food at the supermarket.  Soy is usually processed by acid washing in aluminum tanks which leaves high levels of aluminum in the soy beans.  Aluminum is toxic to our nervous systems and kidneys.  It is then pieced apart into either protein or oil.  By the time the processing is done, the fiber, carbs, and omega 3 fatty acids have all been destroyed.  So.... everything healthy about the soy bean is no longer present in the product.  If you open up your pantry and refrigerator and start checking labels you will see lots and lots of this processed soy:  Soy Oil, Soy Protein, Soy Isolate, Soy Lecithin, Hydrolized Vegetable Protein, Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), etc.

3.  Soy consists of lots of Genistein.  Genistein slows the growth of blood vessels to tumors.  BUT  it also slows the growth of blood vessels to normal cells throughout our entire body.  A small example of this...  a study showed that a high intake of Genistein slowed hair growth by 60-80%.  

Girls, I know you're with me on droppin soy for this reason alone right?!  

Genistein also creates Phytoestrogen (plant estrogen) in Soy.  Some say that this phytoestreogen can interfere with our estrogen levels in a detrimental way.  Phytoestrogen is approximately 1/1000th the strength of human estrogen though.  So... I dunno about this one.

4.  Soy consists of phytic acid which disrupts the absorptian of iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium.  We call this an anti-nutrient.  Boooo

5.  Fermented Soy is healthy for you.  There is no controversy on this one... everyone agrees.  Some fermented soy foods are Miso, Tempeh, and Natto.  The process of fermenting destroys the toxins and makes the nutrients in Soy readily available for our body to use.  There are a lot of claims made by the Soy industry that Asians have been eating Soy for generations and it has been proven incredibly healthy.... so here buy this Soybean Oil.  Well what they fail to mention is that the Soy eaten in Asia that produces these healthy results is always fermented.  So don't be fooled by this claim while you are reaching for that "healthy" processed meat alternative.

Alright, so here are some good guidelines to go by:

*  Watch out for the GM Soy crap that is packed into countless foods.  This is pretty dang easy if you avoid processed foods... otherwise good luck.

*  If you are in love with tofu or edamame or some kind of soy product, find an organic product.  I was able to find non-GMO whole edamame beans by foodology.  They are freakin delicious!  As far as I know they are organic.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't find out otherwise.

*  And lastly, don't freak out too much if you have organic soy every now and then.  The risks that are listed here are almost all in regards to high consumption of soy.  There are so many people that flood their diets with soy because they are unaware it is in all of their processed foods, or they are under the impression it is a healthy alternative to animal proteins.  I'm sure all of you know at least one person that drinks soy milk, uses soybean oil, and eats tofu in everything because they are all so "healthy."  Those are the people that are at risk.  

Now,  go take a gander at some food labels in your kitchen and be ready for some depressing fun!

Sources

These are just a few of my sources.  I'm pretty sure I read every soy webpage in the world wide web!  There are so many other studies and facts on Soy.  The studies break Soy down into all these Isoflavones, enzymes, proteins, and lots of other science talk... and then describe how it is all bad for us.  I just included a few... but if you want to read more on Soy, start googling.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025513_soy_food_soybeans.html#ixzz2MRE6RwMP

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/18/soy-can-damage-your-health.aspx

http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/24/healthy-foods-that-really-arent-nutritionists-weigh-in/slide/processed-soy/