Starting the Soy Story

Soy has become the health food rage of the past decade. The push began with the "Dow Chemical" company. (if that doesn't make you suspicious about the "healthiness of soy" I don't know what would.) It has been pushed as the "Ecological choice protein" by the vegetarians and animal right activists. They have made claims that it is the only vegetable protein that is "complete," that will help fight off cancer, that will help you loss weight, and so on and so on.

The longer the claims have been made, the more those of us weary of the claims have had time to research and refute them. Let's get one this straight, I DO NOT PROMOTE EATING SOY PRODUCTS UNLESS THEY ARE NATURALLY FERMENTED. Ahh, I feel so much better now.

Soy is not a health food! Even though most of the food manufacturing industry would like you to think that it is. Why? Because if you are buying pre-packaged foods, you are eating tons and tons of this stuff...then if you buy soy-milk you are getting even more...

There is no evidence that consuming soy products can improve health, reduce environmental degradation or slow global warming. In fact, the evidence suggests quite the opposite.

I know lots you won't believe me, so I am going to just give you tons of links in this post that link to credible sources for you to do some of your own reading. All the below links are to Pub-med research.

Overall risks and benefits of soy assessed

Latest review by American Heart Association

Soy inhibits iron absorption

Poor iron bioavailability

Poor calcium bioavailability

Calcium and zinc absorbed better from milk than from soy -- even without phytates

Soy provides no benefits with respect to heart disease risk

Soy causes bladder cancer

Soy isoflavones during pregnancy increase breast cancer risk in female offspring

High levels of cadmium in soy formula

Soy linked to peanut allergy and increased risk for asthma

Whole milk vs. soy beverage -- asthma risk

Persistent sexual arousal syndrome associated with increased soy intake

Genistein: Does it prevent or promote breast cancer?

Don't worry, I will post much more on soy. This is just to get you all started.