Jonathan Campbell, Health Consultant
Natural Therapies for Chronic Illness & Health Maintenance

Helping people take charge of their health

The newest assault on soy, by someone named Kaayla Daniel, was just published in, of all places, the July-August issue of Utne Reader.  Ms. Daniel, along with Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, have been on the anti-soy warpath for years, and their message is becoming more shrill by the month.

Their poorly-researched "facts" are always the same: soy is an "anti-nutrient". It, like many other beans, contains phytates that supposedly block mineral absorption. Except they have no proof that this ever happens in humans who eat a varied vegetarian diet, or even for those (like myself) who eat LOTS of soy (in the form of organic tofu, edamame, and even non-gmo soy protein isolate).

These anti-soy zealots say soy has "dangerous" phytoestrogens, called genistein and diadzen, and say that these can promote cancer. Except that they leave out the enormous body of research that shows that these plant chemicals, called isoflavones, are harmless to the human body and can have enormous benefit: they have been found to block really dangerous chemicals called xenoestrogens, and that soy actually inhibits the growth of cancer.

They say soy is the possible cause of pre-adolescent puberty, but they ignore the enormous body of research that indicates that this horrible trend is actually caused by the worldwide pollution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). They say soy causes thyroid problems because it increases the metabolism of iodine. But then they don't show any actual people for whom this has happened, and fail to mention that dozens of foods, including vitamin C, also increase iodine metabolism, which would only be a problem if you were iodine deficient to begin with.

And they never mention that the longest-living, healthiest people in the world, the centenarians of Okinawa, have eaten soy products in large quantities for their entire lives, and that the more soy they eat, the longer they live!

But don't just take my word for the value of soy. Read what John Robbins has to say. He says it more elegantly than I can.

http://www.foodrevolution.org/what_about_soy.htm

Whenever I hear claims like this about a popular and ancient food like soy, I use a research technique called "Follow the Money" because there has to be some other reason for all this negative information, one that is funded by someone. And the trail of negative information about soy lead to the Weston A. Price Foundation.

This foundation professes to promote a "Traditional Diet" but when you look closer they promote dairy products and beef, hardly "traditional" for most of the world's populations. They ignore the huge body of research concluding that dairy products (whether raw or processed) are not good for humans, because cow's milk was designed for calves! They ignore the huge body of research concluding that beef - and especially grass-fed beef, whether "organic" or not - is contaminated with super-toxic dioxin. (See http://www.cqs.com/edioxin.htm) 

The Weston Price foundation is supported by meat and dairy farmers, whose livelihood is threatened by soy foods. I guess these meat and dairy farmers must be getting desperate as more people turn to vegetarian foods to obtain their protein. Kaayla Daniel, Sally Fallon, and Mary Enig are all officers or board members of Weston Price.

So help yourself to some delicious organic soy milk, tofu, or miso. And know that you are doing good for your body. And avoid beef and dairy products, because there you'll find some real dangers!

Regards
Jonathan Campbell

Recent Research:

Grapeseed extract and soy genistein are potent anti-cancer agents, but their action is blocked by casein (milk protein). The article also contains other references to genistein's anti-cancer potential. http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/134/12/3445S

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