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  • From: SArjuna@aol.com
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Not soy good for you
  • Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:37:15 EST

Not Soy Good For You
Information from Sally Fallon, Mary Enig and Susan Weed:

-The justification for more soy is based on the spurious notion that
we should reduce fat. Fats contain many nutrients that are vital for normal
growth and development, and that contribute to the proper function of the
brain and nervous system. (The right fats, of course.)
-High levels of phytic acid in soy block the absorption of calcium,
magnesium, copper, iron and and especially zinc and contributes to widespread
mineral deficiencies. (Soy is the legume with the most phytates.)
- Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation
methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets
have
caused growth problems in children.
- Trypsin inhibitors in soy block the action of enzymes needed for
protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals, soy
trypsin inhibitors cause stunted growth.
- Soybeans contain hemagglutinin, which causes red blood cells to lump
together.
-Phytoestrogens in soy can inhibit normal development and can cause
reproductive and fertility problems later in life. Recent research implicates
these phytoestrogens in the development of Alzheimer's and dementia. They
are "brain aging" substances.
- Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential
to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
- Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that inhibit
thyroid function, leading to fatigue and mental problem. They cause
hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy
formula has
been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease. Soy isoflavones are the most
potent thyroid inhibitor, followed by daidzein and genistein.
- Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase
the body's requirement for B12.
- Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D. Vitamin D
and B12-both essential for normal growth and development.
- Modern soy products contain carcinogens and toxins formed during
processing. Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature
processing
to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein. Processing of
soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly
carcinogenic nitrosamines.
- Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during
soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods. MSG
causes neurological problems, including violent behavior.
- Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum, which is toxic to the
nervous system and the kidneys.
- Soy foods do not provide complete protein, as thought by many.
Like all legumes, soy beans are deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids
methionine and cystine. In addition, modern processing denatures fragile
lysine.
- Fermented soy foods cannot provide vitamin B12 in vegetarian diets,
as some believe. The compound that resembles vitamin B12 in soy cannot be
used by the human body; in fact, soy foods cause the body to require more B12
- In some people, consumption of soy foods will lower cholesterol, but
there is no evidence that lowering cholesterol decreases the risk of having
heart disease.
- Children receiving soy formula as their only food take in over 10
time the levels of isoflavones on a body weight basis than the amount shown
to
cause thyroid suppression in adults after three months and about eight
times the levels of isoflavones on a body weight basis as the amount shown to
cause hormonal changes in adults after just one month.
- Babies on soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least
5 birth control pills per day. Pediatricians are noticing greater numbers
of boys whose physical maturation is delayed, or does not occur at all,
including lack of development of the sexual organs. Learning disabilities,
especially in male children, have reached epidemic proportions. Soy infant
feeding, which floods the bloodstream with female hormones that could inhibit
the
effects of male hormones, cannot be ignored as a possible cause for these
tragic developments.
An alarming number of girls are entering puberty much earlier than normal,
according to a recent study reported in the Journal of Pediatrics. One
percent of girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or
pubic
hair, before the age of three; by age eight, 14.7 percent of white girls and
a whopping 48.3 percent of African-American girls had one or both of these
characteristics. Use of soy formula in the WIC program, supplying free
formula to welfare mothers, may explain the astronomical rates of early
menarche
in African-American girls.
- Aluminum content of soy formula is 10 times greater than that of
milk-based formula, and 100 times greater than in unprocessed milk.

- Soy formulas lack cholesterol, another nutrient that is absolutely
essential for the development of the brain and nervous system; they also lack
lactose and galactose, which play an equally important role in the
development
of the nervous system.
No other dietary staple has as many antinutrient drawbacks as soy.
Nor so many public relation firms and lobbyists working for it.

From Susan Weed:
Soybeans were one of the five sacred grains in the Orient. [Ancient]
agricultural reports speak frequently of using soybeans in crop rotation (to
fix nitrogen and thus improve soil fertility) but there is no indication
that soybeans were eaten until fermentation processes were discovered,
sometime
around 440 BCE. The first soy products eaten by people were tempeh, natto,
miso, and shoyu tamari. It was not until some centuries later (2nd century
BCE) that the process of making tofu was discovered.
While it is true that the people of the Orient have [used] tofu as a
source of protein for about a thousand years, this is not necessarily by
choice nor beneficial. The early Chinese did not eat soybeans, although they
did
eat other pulses, because they recognized the large quantities of a number
of harmful substances....
There are more phytates in soybeans than in any other grain, bean, or
plant studied and these phytates are remarkably resistant to reduction
techniques. Only a long period of fermentation will significantly reduce the
phytate content of soybeans....
Vegetarians - especially vegetarian children - who eat tofu and drink
soy milk as substitutes for meat and dairy products are at very high risk of
loss of bone mass and severe mineral deficiencies. Oriental children who
eat soy but no meat, eggs, or dairy often suffer from rickets, stunted
growth,
and lowered intelligence. Unfermented soy virtually destroys all zinc in
the body, and zinc is critical for optimal development and functioning of the
brain, nervous system and immune system.
The soy industry has concentrated for 20 years on creating markets for
the byproducts of soy oil manufacture: lecithin and soy protein, [which]
were generally (and rightly) considered "poverty foods" and rejected by most
consumers.
The soy industry recognized that, according to a spokesman: "The
quickest way to gain product acceptability in a less affluent market is to
have
the product consumed on its own merit by those who are more affluent." Thus
these soy byproducts have been cleverly marketed to resemble traditional
foods: soy milk malteds, soy baby formula, soy yogurt, soy ice cream, coy
cheese, soy hot dogs, and so on. These are fake products, not health foods.
The production of soy milk does remove trypsin inhibitors, but at the
expense of denaturing the proteins, making them indigestible, of creating a
carcinogen, lysinealine, and of reducing the cystine content, an essential
amino acid which is already very low in soybeans. The phytate content
remains, further deranging the diet.
Soy formula and soy milk is often made with soy protein isolate, an
extremely refined product lacking virtually all minerals and vitamins. Many
soy formulas sold for infants are rich in trypsin-inhibitors which can stunt
growth. And all contain staggering amounts of mineral-depleting phytates. The
aluminum content of soy formula is 100 times greater than unprocessed milk.
Aluminum has a toxic effects on infants kidneys and may be a cause of
Alzheimer's in adults. Soy formula lacks three important nutrients found in
all
milk: cholesterol, which is essential for brain development, and lactose and
galactose, which play vital roles in the development and functioning of the
nerves.
Allergies to soy are at least as common as allergies to milk.
Nitrosamines, potent carcinogens often associated with meat, are found in
high
concentrations in all commercial soy protein foods. Isoflavones,
anticarcinogenic
substances present in soybeans may have a pro-cancer effect when consumed
unfermented. Although soybeans contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids,
these acids are particularly susceptible to rancidity when subjected to the
high heat and pressure require to remove the oil from the bean; such
rancidity promotes cancer and heart disease. Additionally, all soy oil is
extracted
with a solvent, traces of which remain in the oil.

Shivani's own experience:
I relied heavily on tofu for years until routine blood work showed
thyroid insufficiency. No wonder I was always chilly when others felt warm
and comfortable. I had to undertake thyroid hormone replacement in order to
be functional, but looked for the reason for my problem in order to be able
to remove it and get my thyroid working well again. Soy consumption soon
loomed as a likely culprit. (Abetted, IMHO, by electrical pollution, which
had considerably increased my stress load.) I stopped eating all
unfermented soy products in June of 2002. My thyroid hormone dosage began
at 25
mcg. a day. By October 2003 I was taking just 1.5 mcg. in the early
evening,
the time when I consistently had the most trouble. A few months later, I
was able to ease off altogether.
As the change in diet was undertaken concurrently with reduction of
electrical pollution in my home environment, it is not possible to say if my
thyroid would have healed with just one change or the other. However, those
stressed by electrical pollution seem to “break” at their weakest link, so
to speak. So what had weakened my thyroid? I believe it was regular
consumption of tofu.
Others have had similar experiences. If your thyroid gland activity
is down due to soy consumption, though, recovery is certainly possible, so
go for it.
You can very effectively self-test for thyroid insufficiency by doing
the Basal Metabolism Test. This will accurately show problems that many
blood tests do not.

Shivani in WI










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