- Each year, research on the health effects of soy and
soybean components seems to increase exponentially. Furthermore, research
is not just expanding in the primary areas under investigation, such as
cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis; new findings suggest that soy has
potential benefits that may be more extensive than previously thought.
-
- So writes Mark Messina, PhD, General Chairperson of the
Third International Soy Symposium, held in Washington, DC, in November
1999. 1 For four days, well-funded scientists gathered in Washington
made presentations to an admiring press and to their sponsors - United
Soybean Board, American Soybean Association, Monsanto, Protein Technologies
International, Central Soya, Cargill Foods, Personal Products Company,
SoyLife, Whitehall-Robins Healthcare and the soybean councils of Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota.
-
- The symposium marked the apogee of a decade-long marketing
campaign to gain consumer acceptance of tofu, soy milk, soy ice cream,
soy cheese, soy sausage and soy derivatives, particularly soy isoflavones
like genistein and diadzen, the oestrogen-like compounds found in soybeans.
It coincided with a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision, announced
on October 25, 1999, to allow a health claim for products "low in
saturated fat and cholesterol" that contain 6.25 grams of soy protein
per serving. Breakfast cereals, baked goods, convenience food, smoothie
mixes and meat substitutes could now be sold with labels touting benefits
to cardiovascular health, as long as these products contained one heaping
teaspoon of soy protein per 100-gram serving.
-
- MARKETING THE PERFECT FOOD "Just imagine you could
grow the perfect food. This food not only would provide affordable nutrition,
but also would be delicious and easy to prepare in a variety of ways. It
would be a healthful food, with no saturated fat. In fact, you would be
growing a virtual fountain of youth on your back forty." The author
is Dean Houghton, writing for The Furrow, 2 a magazine published in 12
languages by John Deere. "This ideal food would help prevent, and
perhaps reverse, some of the world's most dreaded diseases. You could grow
this miracle crop in a variety of soils and climates. Its cultivation would
build up, not deplete, the land...this miracle food already exists... It's
called soy."
-
- Just imagine. Farmers have been imagining - and planting
more soy. What was once a minor crop, listed in the 1913 US Department
of Agriculture (USDA) handbook not as a food but as an industrial product,
now covers 72 million acres of American farmland. Much of this harvest
will be used to feed chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows and salmon. Another
large fraction will be squeezed to produce oil for margarine, shortenings
and salad dressings.
-
- 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. Flavourings,
preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic nutrients have turned
soy protein isolate, the food processors' ugly duckling, into a New Age
Cinderella.
-
- The new fairy-tale food has been marketed not so much
for her beauty but for her virtues. Early on, products based on soy protein
isolate were sold as extenders and meat substitutes - a strategy that failed
to produce the requisite consumer demand. The industry changed its approach.
"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." 3 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. The competition
- meat, milk, cheese, butter and eggs - has been duly demonised by the
appropriate government bodies. Soy serves as meat and milk for a new generation
of virtuous vegetarians.
-
- Marketing costs money, especially when it needs to be
bolstered with "research", but there's plenty of funds available.
All soybean producers pay a mandatory assessment of one-half to one per
cent of the net market price of soybeans. The total - something like US$80
million annually 4 - supports United Soybean's program to "strengthen
the position of soybeans in the marketplace and maintain and expand domestic
and foreign markets for uses for soybeans and soybean products". State
soybean councils from Maryland, Nebraska, Delaware, Arkansas, Virginia,
North Dakota and Michigan provide another $2.5 million for "research".
5 Private companies like Archer Daniels Midland also contribute their
share. ADM spent $4.7 million for advertising on Meet the Press and $4.3
million on Face the Nation during the course of a year. 6 Public relations
firms help convert research projects into newspaper articles and advertising
copy, and law firms lobby for favourable government regulations. IMF money
funds soy processing plants in foreign countries, and free trade policies
keep soybean abundance flowing to overseas destinations.
-
- The push for more soy has been relentless and global
in its reach. Soy protein is now found in most supermarket breads. It is
being used to transform "the humble tortilla, Mexico's corn-based
staple food, into a protein-fortified 'super-tortilla' that would give
a nutritional boost to the nearly 20 million Mexicans who live in extreme
poverty". 7 Advertising for a new soy-enriched loaf from Allied Bakeries
in Britain targets menopausal women seeking relief from hot flushes. Sales
are running at a quarter of a million loaves per week. 8
-
- The soy industry hired Norman Robert Associates, a public
relations firm, to "get more soy products onto school menus".
9 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."
-
- Soy milk has posted the biggest gains, soaring from $2
million in 1980 to $300 million in the US last year. 10 Recent advances
in processing have transformed the grey, thin, bitter, beany-tasting Asian
beverage into a product that Western consumers will accept - one that tastes
like a milkshake, but without the guilt.
-
- Processing miracles, good packaging, massive advertising
and a marketing strategy that stresses the products' possible health benefits
account for increasing sales to all age groups. For example, reports that
soy helps prevent prostate cancer have made soy milk acceptable to middle-aged
men. "You don't have to twist the arm of a 55- to 60-year-old guy
to get him to try soy milk," says Mark Messina. Michael Milken, former
junk bond financier, has helped the industry shed its hippie image with
well-publicised efforts to consume 40 grams of soy protein daily.
-
- America today, tomorrow the world. Soy milk sales are
rising in Canada, even though soy milk there costs twice as much as cow's
milk. Soybean milk processing plants are sprouting up in places like Kenya.
11 Even China, where soy really is a poverty food and whose people want
more meat, not tofu, has opted to build Western-style soy factories rather
than develop western grasslands for grazing animals. 12
-
- CINDERELLA'S DARK SIDE The propaganda that has created
the soy sales miracle is all the more remarkable because, only a few decades
ago, the soybean was considered unfit to eat - even in Asia. During the
Chou Dynasty (1134&endash;246 BC) the soybean was designated one of
the five sacred grains, along with barley, wheat, millet and rice. However,
the pictograph for the soybean, which dates from earlier times, indicates
that it was not first used as a food; for whereas the pictographs for the
other four grains show the seed and stem structure of the plant, the pictograph
for the soybean emphasises the root structure. Agricultural literature
of the period speaks frequently of the soybean and its use in crop rotation.
Apparently the soy plant was initially used as a method of fixing nitrogen.
13
-
- 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 purée of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with calcium
sulphate or magnesium sulphate (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.
-
- 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 needed
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. 14
-
- Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting
substance that causes red blood cells to clump together.
-
- Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors.
Weanling rats fed soy containing these antinutrients fail to grow normally.
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. In precipitated products, enzyme
inhibitors concentrate in the soaking liquid rather than in the curd. Thus,
in tofu and bean curd, growth depressants are reduced in quantity but not
completely eliminated.
-
- Soy also contains goitrogens - substances that depress
thyroid function.
-
- Soybeans are high in phytic acid, present in the bran
or hulls of all seeds. It's a substance that can block the uptake of essential
minerals - calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc - in the
intestinal tract. Although not a household word, phytic acid has been extensively
studied; there are literally hundreds of articles on the effects of phytic
acid in the current scientific literature. Scientists are in general agreement
that grain- and legume-based diets high in phytates contribute to widespread
mineral deficiencies in third world countries. 15 Analysis shows that
calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc are present in the plant foods eaten
in these areas, but the high phytate content of soy- and grain-based diets
prevents their absorption.
-
- The soybean has one of the highest phytate levels of
any grain or legume that has been studied, 16 and the phytates in soy
are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long,
slow cooking. 17 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. 18 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.
-
- 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 so.
-
- 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. Zinc is a key
component in numerous vital enzymes and plays a role in the immune system.
Phytates found in soy products interfere with zinc absorption more completely
than with other minerals. 19 Zinc deficiency can cause a "spacey"
feeling that some vegetarians may mistake for the "high" of spiritual
enlightenment.
-
- Milk drinking is given as the reason why second-generation
Japanese in America grow taller than their native ancestors. Some investigators
postulate that the reduced phytate content of the American diet - whatever
may be its other deficiencies - is the true explanation, pointing out that
both Asian and Western children who do not get enough meat and fish products
to counteract the effects of a high phytate diet, frequently suffer rickets,
stunting and other growth problems. 20
-
- SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE: NOT SO FRIENDLY Soy processors have
worked hard to get these antinutrients out of the finished 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.
-
- 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 fibre, then precipitated
and separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralised in an alkaline
solution. Acid washing in aluminium tanks leaches high levels of aluminium
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).
-
- Much of the trypsin inhibitor content can be removed
through high-temperature processing, but not all. Trypsin inhibitor content
of soy protein isolate can vary as much as fivefold. 21 (In rats, even
low-level trypsin inhibitor SPI feeding results in reduced weight gain
compared to controls. 22) But high-temperature processing has the unfortunate
side-effect of so denaturing the other proteins in soy that they are rendered
largely ineffective. 23 That's why animals on soy feed need lysine supplements
for normal growth.
-
- Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during
spray-drying, and a toxin called lysinoalanine is formed during alkaline
-
- processing. 24 Numerous artificial flavourings, particularly
MSG, are added to soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein products
to mask their strong "beany" taste and to impart the flavour
of meat. 25
-
- 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. 26 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.
27
-
- Yet soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein
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 giveaway programs.
-
- In spite of poor results in animal feeding trials, the
soy industry has sponsored a number of studies designed to show that soy
protein products can be used in human diets as a replacement for traditional
foods. An example is "Nutritional Quality of Soy Bean Protein Isolates:
Studies in Children of Preschool Age", sponsored by the Ralston Purina
Company. 28 A group of Central American children suffering from malnutrition
was first stabilised and brought into better health by feeding them native
foods, including meat and dairy products. Then, for a two-week period,
these traditional foods were replaced by a drink made of soy protein isolate
and sugar. All nitrogen taken in and all nitrogen excreted was measured
in truly Orwellian fashion: the children were weighed naked every morning,
and all excrement and vomit gathered up for analysis. The researchers found
that the children retained nitrogen and that their growth was "adequate",
so the experiment was declared a success.
-
- Whether the children were actually healthy on such a
diet, or could remain so over a long period, is another matter. The researchers
noted that the children vomited "occasionally", usually after
finishing a meal; that over half suffered from periods of moderate diarrhoea;
that some had upper respiratory infections; and that others suffered from
rash and fever.
-
- It should be noted that the researchers did not dare
to use soy products to help the children recover from malnutrition, and
were obliged to supplement the soy-sugar mixture with nutrients largely
absent in soy products - notably, vitamins A, D and B12, iron, iodine and
zinc.
-
- FDA HEALTH CLAIM CHALLENGED The best marketing strategy
for a product that is inherently unhealthy is, of course, a health claim.
-
- "The road to FDA approval," writes a soy apologist,
"was long and demanding, consisting of a detailed review of human
clinical data collected from more than 40 scientific studies conducted
over the last 20 years. Soy protein was found to be one of the rare foods
that had sufficient scientific evidence not only to qualify for an FDA
health claim proposal but to ultimately pass the rigorous approval process."
29
-
- 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 oestrogen-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 phyto-oestrogens and substituting a claim
for soy protein - a move that was in direct contradiction to the agency's
regulations. The FDA is authorised to make rulings only on substances presented
by petition.
-
- 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 phytoestrogens, which failed to find much evidence
of benefit and warned against potential adverse effects. 30
-
- 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. 31
-
- 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. 32 Their pleas for warning labels were
dismissed as unwarranted.
-
- "Sufficient scientific evidence" of soy's cholesterol-lowering
properties is drawn largely from a 1995 meta-analysis by Dr James Anderson,
sponsored by Protein Technologies International and published in the New
England Journal of Medicine. 33
-
- A meta-analysis is a review and summary of the results
of many clinical studies on the same subject. Use of meta-analyses to draw
general conclusions has come under sharp criticism by members of the scientific
community. "Researchers substituting meta-analysis for more rigorous
trials risk making faulty assumptions and indulging in creative accounting,"
says Sir John Scott, President of the Royal Society of New Zealand. "Like
is not being lumped with like. Little lumps and big lumps of data are being
gathered together by various groups." 34
-
- There is the added temptation for researchers, particularly
researchers funded by a company like Protein Technologies International,
to leave out studies that would prevent the desired conclusions. Dr Anderson
discarded eight studies for various reasons, leaving a remainder of twenty-nine.
The published report suggested that individuals with cholesterol levels
over 250 mg/dl would experience a "significant" reduction of
7 to 20 per cent in levels of serum cholesterol if they substituted soy
protein for animal protein. Cholesterol reduction was insignificant for
individuals whose cholesterol was lower than 250 mg/dl.
-
- In other words, for most of us, giving up steak and eating
vegieburgers instead will not bring down blood cholesterol levels. The
health claim that the FDA approved "after detailed review of human
clinical data" fails to inform the consumer about these important
details.
-
- 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. 35 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.
36 Cholesterol-lowering measures in the US have fuelled a $60 billion per
year cholesterol-lowering industry, but have not saved us from the ravages
of heart disease.
-
- SOY AND CANCER The new FDA ruling does not allow any
claims about cancer prevention on food packages, but that has not restrained
the industry and its marketeers from making them in their promotional literature.
-
- "In addition to protecting the heart," says
a vitamin company brochure, "soy has demonstrated powerful anticancer
benefits...the Japanese, who eat 30 times as much soy as North Americans,
have a lower incidence of cancers of the breast, uterus and prostate."
37
-
- Indeed they do. But the Japanese, and Asians in general,
have much higher rates of other types of cancer, particularly cancer of
the oesophagus, stomach, pancreas and liver. 38 Asians throughout the
world also have high rates of thyroid cancer. 39 The logic that links
low rates of reproductive cancers to soy consumption requires attribution
of high rates of thyroid and digestive cancers to the same foods, particularly
as soy causes these types of cancers in laboratory rats.
-
- Just how much soy do Asians eat? A 1998 survey found
that the average daily amount of soy protein consumed in Japan was about
eight grams for men and seven for women - less than two teaspoons. 40
The famous Cornell China Study, conducted by Colin T. Campbell, found
that legume consumption in China varied from 0 to 58 grams per day, with
a mean of about twelve. 41 Assuming that two-thirds of legume consumption
is soy, then the maximum consumption is about 40 grams, or less than three
tablespoons per day, with an average consumption of about nine grams, or
less than two teaspoons. A survey conducted in the 1930s found that soy
foods accounted for only 1.5 per cent of calories in the Chinese diet,
compared with 65 per cent of calories from pork. 42 (Asians traditionally
cooked with lard, not vegetable oil!)
-
- Traditionally fermented soy products make a delicious,
natural seasoning that may supply important nutritional factors in the
Asian diet. But except in times of famine, Asians consume soy products
only in small amounts, as condiments, and not as a replacement for animal
foods - with one exception. Celibate monks living in monasteries and leading
a vegetarian lifestyle find soy foods quite helpful because they dampen
libido.
-
- It was a 1994 meta-analysis by Mark Messina, published
in Nutrition and Cancer, that fuelled speculation on soy's anticarcinogenic
properties. 43 Messina noted that in 26 animal studies, 65 per cent reported
protective effects from soy. He conveniently neglected to include at least
one study in which soy feeding caused pancreatic cancer - the 1985 study
by Rackis. 44 In the human studies he listed, the results were mixed.
A few showed some protective effect, but most showed no correlation at
all between soy consumption and cancer rates. He concluded that "the
data in this review cannot be used as a basis for claiming that soy intake
decreases cancer risk". Yet in his subsequent book, The Simple Soybean
and Your Health, Messina makes just such a claim, recommending one cup
or 230 grams of soy products per day in his "optimal" diet as
a way to prevent cancer.
-
- Thousands of women are now consuming soy in the belief
that it protects them against breast cancer. Yet, in 1996, researchers
found that women consuming soy protein isolate had an increased incidence
of epithelial hyperplasia, a condition that presages malignancies. 45
A year later, dietary genistein was found to stimulate breast cells to
enter the cell cycle - a discovery that led the study authors to conclude
that women should not consume soy products to prevent breast cancer. 46
-
- PHYTOESTROGENS: PANACEA OR POISON? The male species of
tropical birds carries the drab plumage of the female at birth and 'colours
up' at maturity, somewhere between nine and 24 months.
-
- In 1991, Richard and Valerie James, bird breeders in
Whangerai, New Zealand, purchased a new kind of feed for their birds -
one based largely on soy protein. 47 When soy-based feed was used, their
birds 'coloured up' after just a few months. In fact, one bird-food manufacturer
claimed that this early development was an advantage imparted by the feed.
A 1992 ad for Roudybush feed formula showed a picture of the male crimson
rosella, an Australian parrot that acquires beautiful red plumage at 18
to 24 months, already brightly coloured at 11 weeks old.
-
- Unfortunately, in the ensuing years, there was decreased
fertility in the birds, with precocious maturation, deformed, stunted and
stillborn babies, and premature deaths, especially among females, with
the result that the total population in the aviaries went into steady decline.
The birds suffered beak and bone deformities, goitre, immune system disorders
and pathological, aggressive behaviour. Autopsy revealed digestive organs
in a state of disintegration. The list of problems corresponded with many
of the problems the Jameses had encountered in their two children, who
had been fed soy-based infant formula.
-
- Startled, aghast, angry, the Jameses hired toxicologist
Mike Fitzpatrick. PhD, to investigate further. Dr Fitzpatrick's literature
review uncovered evidence that soy consumption has been linked to numerous
disorders, including infertility, increased cancer and infantile leukaemia;
and, in studies dating back to the 1950s, 48 that genistein in soy causes
endocrine disruption in animals. Dr Fitzpatrick also analysed the bird
feed and found that it contained high levels of phytoestrogens, especially
genistein. When the Jameses discontinued using soy-based feed, the flock
gradually returned to normal breeding habits and behaviour.
-
- The Jameses embarked on a private crusade to warn the
public and government officials about toxins in soy foods, particularly
the endocrine-disrupting isoflavones, genistein and diadzen. Protein Technology
International received their material in 1994.
-
- In 1991, Japanese researchers reported that consumption
of as little as 30 grams or two tablespoons of soybeans per day for only
one month resulted in a significant increase in thyroid-stimulating hormone.
49 Diffuse goitre and hypothyroidism appeared in some of the subjects and
many complained of constipation, fatigue and lethargy, even though their
intake of iodine was adequate. In 1997, researchers from the FDA's National
Center for Toxicological Research made the embarrassing discovery that
the goitrogenic components of soy were the very same isoflavones. 50
-
- Twenty-five grams of soy protein isolate, the minimum
amount PTI claimed to have cholesterol-lowering effects, contains from
50 to 70 mg of isoflavones. It took only 45 mg of isoflavones in premenopausal
women to exert significant biological effects, including a reduction in
hormones needed for adequate thyroid function. These effects lingered for
three months after soy consumption was discontinued. 51
-
- One hundred grams of soy protein - the maximum suggested
cholesterol-lowering dose, and the amount recommended by Protein Technologies
International - can contain almost 600 mg of isoflavones, 52 an amount
that is undeniably toxic. In 1992, the Swiss health service estimated that
100 grams of soy protein provided the oestrogenic equivalent of the Pill.
53
-
- In vitro studies suggest that isoflavones inhibit synthesis
of oestradiol and other steroid hormones. 54 Reproductive problems, infertility,
thyroid disease and liver disease due to dietary intake of isoflavones
have been observed for several species of animals including mice, cheetah,
quail, pigs, rats, sturgeon and sheep. 55
-
- It is the isoflavones in soy that are said to have a
favourable effect on postmenopausal symptoms, including hot flushes, and
protection from osteoporosis. Quantification of discomfort from hot flushes
is extremely subjective, and most studies show that control subjects report
reduction in discomfort in amounts equal to subjects given soy. 56 The
claim that soy prevents osteoporosis is extraordinary, given that soy foods
block calcium and cause vitamin D deficiencies. If Asians indeed have lower
rates of osteoporosis than Westerners, it is because their diet provides
plenty of vitamin D from shrimp, lard and seafood, and plenty of calcium
from bone broths. The reason that Westerners have such high rates of osteoporosis
is because they have substituted soy oil for butter, which is a traditional
source of vitamin D and other fat-soluble activators needed for calcium
absorption.
-
- BIRTH CONTROL PILLS FOR BABIES But it was the isoflavones
in infant formula that gave the Jameses the most cause for concern. In
1998, investigators reported that the daily exposure of infants to isoflavones
in soy infant formula is 6 to11 times higher on a body-weight basis than
the dose that has hormonal effects in adults consuming soy foods. Circulating
concentrations of isoflavones in infants fed soy-based formula were 13,000
to 22,000 times higher than plasma oestradiol concentrations in infants
on cow's milk formula. 57
-
- Approximately 25 per cent of bottle-fed children in the
US receive soy-based formula - a much higher percentage than in other parts
of the Western world. Fitzpatrick estimated that an infant exclusively
fed soy formula receives the oestrogenic equivalent (based on body weight)
of at least five birth control pills per day. 58 By contrast, almost no
phytoestrogens have been detected in dairy-based infant formula or in human
milk, even when the mother consumes soy products.
-
- Scientists have known for years that soy-based formula
can cause thyroid problems in babies. But what are the effects of soy products
on the hormonal development of the infant, both male and female?
-
- Male infants undergo a "testosterone surge"
during the first few months of life, when testosterone levels may be as
high as those of an adult male. During this period, the infant is programmed
to express male characteristics after puberty, not only in the development
of his sexual organs and other masculine physical traits, but also in setting
patterns in the brain characteristic of male behaviour. In monkeys, deficiency
of male hormones impairs the development of spatial perception (which,
in humans, is normally more acute in men than in women), of learning ability
and of visual discrimination tasks (such as would be required for reading).
59 It goes without saying that future patterns of sexual orientation
may also be influenced by the early hormonal environment. Male children
exposed during gestation to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a synthetic oestrogen
that has effects on animals similar to those of phytoestrogens from soy,
had testes smaller than normal on manturation. 60
-
- Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have
reached epidemic proportions. Soy infant feeding - which began in earnest
in the early 1970s - cannot be ignored as a probable cause for these tragic
developments.
-
- As for girls, an alarming number are entering puberty
much earlier than normal, according to a recent study reported in the journal
Pediatrics. 61 Investigators found that one per cent of all girls now
show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before
the age of three; by age eight, 14.7 per cent of white girls and almost
50 per cent of African-American girls have one or both of these characteristics.
-
- New data indicate that environmental oestrogens such
as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT) may cause early sexual development
in girls. 62 In the 1986 Puerto Rico Premature Thelarche study, the most
significant dietary association with premature sexual development was not
chicken - as reported in the press - but soy infant formula. 63
-
- The consequences of this truncated childhood are tragic.
Young girls with mature bodies must cope with feelings and urges that most
children are not well-equipped to handle. And early maturation in girls
is frequently a harbinger for problems with the reproductive system later
in life, including failure to menstruate, infertility and breast cancer.
-
- Parents who have contacted the Jameses recount other
problems associated with children of both sexes who were fed soy-based
formula, including extreme emotional behaviour, asthma, immune system problems,
pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome
- the same endocrine and digestive havoc that afflicted the Jameses' parrots.
-
- DISSENSION IN THE RANKS Organisers of the Third International
Soy Symposium would be hard-pressed to call the conference an unqualified
success. On the second day of the symposium, the London-based Food Commission
and the Weston A. Price Foundation of Washington, DC, held a joint press
conference, in the same hotel as the symposium, to present concerns about
soy infant formula. Industry representatives sat stony-faced through the
recitation of potential dangers and a plea from concerned scientists and
parents to pull soy-based infant formula from the market. Under pressure
from the Jameses, the New Zealand Government had issued a health warning
about soy infant formula in 1998; it was time for the American government
to do the same.
-
- On the last day of the symposium, presentations on new
findings related to toxicity sent a well-oxygenated chill through the giddy
helium hype. Dr Lon White reported on a study of Japanese Americans living
in Hawaii, that showed a significant statistical relationship between two
or more servings of tofu a week and "accelerated brain aging".
64 Those participants who consumed tofu in mid-life had lower cognitive
function in late life and a greater incidence of Alzheimer's disease and
dementia. "What's more," said Dr White, "those who ate a
lot of tofu, by the time they were 75 or 80 looked five years older".
65 White and his colleagues blamed the negative effects on isoflavones
- a finding that supports an earlier study in which postmenopausal women
with higher levels of circulating oestrogen experienced greater cognitive
decline. 66
-
- Scientists Daniel Sheehan and Daniel Doerge, from the
National Center for Toxicological Research, ruined PTI's day by presenting
findings from rat feeding studies, indicating that genistein in soy foods
causes irreversible damage to enzymes that synthesise thyroid hormones.
67 "The association between soybean consumption and goiter in animals
and humans has a long history," wrote Dr Doerge. "Current evidence
for the beneficial effects of soy requires a full understanding of potential
adverse effects as well."
-
- Dr Claude Hughes reported that rats born to mothers that
were fed genistein had decreased birth weights compared to controls, and
onset of puberty occurred earlier in male offspring. 68 His research suggested
that the effects observed in rats "...will be at least somewhat predictive
of what occurs in humans. There is no reason to assume that there will
be gross malformations of fetuses but there may be subtle changes, such
as neurobehavioral attributes, immune function and sex hormone levels."
The results, he said, "could be nothing or could be something of great
concern...if mom is eating something that can act like sex hormones, it
is logical to wonder if that could change the baby's development"
.69
-
- A study of babies born to vegetarian mothers, published
in January 2000, indicated just what those changes in baby's development
might be. Mothers who ate a vegetarian diet during pregnancy had a fivefold
greater risk of delivering a boy with hypospadias, a birth defect of the
penis. 70 The authors of the study suggested that the cause was greater
exposure to phytoestrogens in soy foods popular with vegetarians. Problems
with female offspring of vegetarian mothers are more likely to show up
later in life. While soy's oestrogenic effect is less than that of diethylstilbestrol
(DES), the dose is likely to be higher because it's consumed as a food,
not taken as a drug. Daughters of women who took DES during pregnancy suffered
from infertility and cancer when they reached their twenties.
-
- QUESTION MARKS OVER GRAS STATUS Lurking in the background
of industry hype for soy is the nagging question of whether it's even legal
to add soy protein isolate to food. All food additives not in common use
prior to 1958, including casein protein from milk, must have GRAS (Generally
Recognized As Safe) status. In 1972, the Nixon administration directed
a re-examination of substances believed to be GRAS, in the light of any
scientific information then available. This re-examination included casein
protein which became codified as GRAS in 1978. In 1974, the FDA obtained
a literature review of soy protein because, as soy protein had not been
used in food until 1959 and was not even in common use in the early 1970s,
it was not eligible to have its GRAS status grandfathered under the provisions
of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 71
-
- The scientific literature up to 1974 recognised many
antinutrients in factory-made soy protein, including trypsin inhibitors,
phytic acid and genistein. But the FDA literature review dismissed discussion
of adverse impacts, with the statement that it was important for "adequate
processing" to remove them. Genistein could be removed with an alcohol
wash, but it was an expensive procedure that processors avoided. Later
studies determined that trypsin inhibitor content could be removed only
with long periods of heat and pressure, but the FDA has imposed no requirements
for manufacturers to do so.
-
- The FDA was more concerned with toxins formed during
processing, specifically nitrites and lysinoalanine. 72 Even at low levels
of consumption - averaging one-third of a gram per day at the time - the
presence of these carcinogens was considered too great a threat to public
health to allow GRAS status.
-
- Soy protein did have approval for use as a binder in
cardboard boxes, and this approval was allowed to continue, as researchers
considered that migration of nitrites from the box into the food contents
would be too small to constitute a cancer risk. FDA officials called for
safety specifications and monitoring procedures before granting of GRAS
status for food. These were never performed. To this day, use of soy protein
is codified as GRAS only for this limited industrial use as a cardboard
binder. This means that soy protein must be subject to premarket approval
procedures each time manufacturers intend to use it as a food or add it
to a food.
-
- Soy protein was introduced into infant formula in the
early 1960s. It was a new product with no history of any use at all. As
soy protein did not have GRAS status, premarket approval was required.
This was not and still has not been granted. The key ingredient of soy
infant formula is not recognised as safe.
-
- THE NEXT ASBESTOS? "Against the backdrop of widespread
praise...there is growing suspicion that soy - despite its undisputed benefits
- may pose some health hazards," writes Marian Burros, a leading food
writer for the New York Times. More than any other writer, Ms Burros's
endorsement of a low-fat, largely vegetarian diet has herded Americans
into supermarket aisles featuring soy foods. Yet her January 26, 2000 article,
"Doubts Cloud Rosy News on Soy", contains the following alarming
statement: "Not one of the 18 scientists interviewed for this column
was willing to say that taking isoflavones was risk free." Ms Burros
did not enumerate the risks, nor did she mention that the recommended 25
daily grams of soy protein contain enough isoflavones to cause problems
in sensitive individuals, but it was evident that the industry had recognised
the need to cover itself.
-
- Because the industry is extremely exposed...contingency
lawyers will soon discover that the number of potential plaintiffs can
be counted in the millions and the pockets are very, very deep. Juries
will hear something like the following: "The industry has known for
years that soy contains many toxins. At first they told the public that
the toxins were removed by processing. When it became apparent that processing
could not get rid of them, they claimed that these substances were beneficial.
Your government granted a health claim to a substance that is poisonous,
and the industry lied to the public to sell more soy."
-
- The "industry" includes merchants, manufacturers,
scientists, publicists, bureaucrats, former bond financiers, food writers,
vitamin companies and retail stores. Farmers will probably escape because
they were duped like the rest of us. But they need to find something else
to grow before the soy bubble bursts and the market collapses: grass-fed
livestock, designer vegetables...or hemp to make paper for thousands and
thousands of legal briefs.
-
-
- References
-
- 1. Program for the Third International Symposium on the
Role of Soy in Preventing and Treating Chronic Disease, Sunday, October
31, through Wednesday, November 3, 1999, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington,
DC.
-
- 2. Houghton, Dean, "Healthful Harvest", The
Furrow, January 2000, pp. 10-13.
-
- 3. Coleman, Richard J., "Vegetable Protein - A Delayed
Birth?" Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society 52:238A, April
1975.
-
- 4. See www/unitedsoybean.org.
-
- 5. These are listed in www.soyonlineservice.co.nz.
-
- 6. Wall Street Journal, October 27, 1995.
-
- 7. Smith, James F., "Healthier tortillas could lead
to healthier Mexico", Denver Post, August 22, 1999, p. 26A.
-
- 8. "Bakery says new loaf can help reduce hot flushes",
Reuters, September 15, 1997.
-
- 9. "Beefing Up Burgers with Soy Products at School",
Nutrition Week, Community Nutrition Institute, Washington, DC, June 5,
1998, p. 2.
-
- 10. Urquhart, John, "A Health Food Hits Big Time",
Wall Street Journal, August 3, 1999, p. B1
-
- 11. "Soyabean Milk Plant in Kenya", Africa
News Service, September 1998.
-
- 12. Simoons, Frederick J., Food in China: A Cultural
and Historical Inquiry, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1991, p. 64.
-
- 13. Katz, Solomon H., "Food and Biocultural Evolution:
A Model for the Investigation of Modern Nutritional Problems", Nutritional
Anthropology, Alan R. Liss Inc., 1987, p. 50.
-
- 14. Rackis, Joseph J. et al., "The USDA trypsin
inhibitor study. I. Background, objectives and procedural details",
Qualification of Plant Foods in Human Nutrition, vol. 35, 1985.
-
- 15. Van Rensburg et al., "Nutritional status of
African populations predisposed to esophageal cancer", Nutrition and
Cancer, vol. 4, 1983, pp. 206-216; Moser, P.B. et al., "Copper, iron,
zinc and selenium dietary intake and status of Nepalese lactating women
and their breastfed infants", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
47:729-734, April 1988; Harland, B.F. et al., "Nutritional status
and phytate: zinc and phytate X calcium: zinc dietary molar ratios of lacto-ovovegetarian
Trappist monks: 10 years later", Journal of the American Dietetic
Association 88:1562-1566, December 1988.
-
- 16. El Tiney, A.H., "Proximate Composition and Mineral
and Phytate Contents of Legumes Grown in Sudan", Journal of Food Composition
and Analysis (1989) 2:6778.
-
- 17. Ologhobo, A.D. et al., "Distribution of phosphorus
and phytate in some Nigerian varieties of legumes and some effects of processing",
Journal of Food Science 49(1):199-201, January/February 1984.
-
- 18. Sandstrom, B. et al., "Effect of protein level
and protein source on zinc absorption in humans", Journal of Nutrition
119(1):48-53, January 1989; Tait, Susan et al., "The availability
of minerals in food, with particular reference to iron", Journal of
Research in Society and Health 103(2):74-77, April 1983.
-
- 19. Phytate reduction of zinc absorption has been demonstrated
in numerous studies. These results are summarised in Leviton, Richard,
Tofu, Tempeh, Miso and Other Soyfoods: The 'Food of the Future' - How to
Enjoy Its Spectacular Health Benefits, Keats Publishing, Inc., New Canaan,
CT, USA, 1982, p. 1415.
-
- 20. Mellanby, Edward, "Experimental rickets: The
effect of cereals and their interaction with other factors of diet and
environment in producing rickets", Journal of the Medical Research
Council 93:265, March 1925; Wills, M.R. et al., "Phytic Acid and Nutritional
Rickets in Immigrants",
-
- The Lancet, April 8,1972, pp. 771-773.
-
- 21. Rackis et al., ibid.
-
- 22. Rackis et al., ibid., p. 232.
-
- 23. Wallace, G.M., "Studies on the Processing and
Properties of Soymilk", Journal of Science and Food Agriculture 22:526-535,
October 1971.
-
- 24. Rackis, et al., ibid., p. 22; "Evaluation of
the Health Aspects of Soy Protein Isolates as Food Ingredients", prepared
for FDA by Life Sciences Research Office, Federation of American Societies
for Experimental Biology (9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20014), USA,
Contract No. FDA 223-75-2004, 1979.
-
- 25. See www/truthinlabeling.org.
-
- 26. Rackis, Joseph, J., "Biological and Physiological
Factors in Soybeans", Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
51:161A-170A, January 1974.
-
- 27. Rackis, Joseph J. et al., "The USDA trypsin
inhibitor study", ibid.
-
- 28. Torum, Benjamin, "Nutritional Quality of Soybean
Protein Isolates: Studies in Children of Preschool Age", in Soy Protein
and Human Nutrition, Harold L Wilcke et al. (eds), Academic Press, New
York, 1979.
-
- 29. Zreik, Marwin, CCN, "The Great Soy Protein Awakening",
Total Health 32(1), February 2000.
-
- 30. IEH Assessment on Phytoestrogens in the Human Diet,
Final Report to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, UK, November
1997, p. 11.
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