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Because of soy’s health claims, I spent years believing that soy was good for me, and have eaten countless cartons of tofu, edamame, soy burgers, soy protein shakes, soy sausages and processed foods with soy derivatives. Afterall, everyone knows that the Asian population has been eating soy for centuries. However, what you might not know is that the Asian population consumes fermented soy.
75% of all processed foods (breads, salad dressings, canned soups, chips, to name a few) contain soy. Soy is the U.S.’s 2nd largest crop in cash sales, accounting for $4.5 billion in sales in 2009 (soy was a $1billion industry in 1996).
Here’s a challenge – go to your cupboard and look for ONE processed food item without an unfermented soy derivative. Soy’s names come in many different forms including, “soy lecithin, isolated soy protein, soybean vegetable oil, etc.” The soy list goes on and on. If it says soy sauce, you’re ok. But chances are, all other types of soy are unfermented, and thus, dangerous.
So now you’re probably wondering what on earth could be so dangerous about soy? Soy has been linked to the following health effects:
- Breast cancer
- Impaired fertility
- Thyroid disorders
- Kidney stones
- Severe food allergies
- Brain damage
- Immune system impairment
Dr. Joseph Mercola has done extensive research on the dangers of soy. He has been interviewed by numerous national and local news shows, including the Today Show, CNN, ABC’s World News Tonight (with Peter Jennings), Dr. Oz, The Doctors TV Show, CBS, NBC and ABC local news. He has also written two NY Times best seller books. In his article “This ‘Miracle Health Food’ Has Been Linked to Brain Damage and Breast Cancer,” he discusses the “The Truth About Soy Foods.” Below is an excerpt from his research:
“What Makes Soy Such a Risky Food to Eat?
Here is a summary of soy’s most glaring problems.
1. 91 percent of soy grown in the US is genetically modified (GM). The genetic modification is done to impart resistance to the toxic herbicide Roundup. While this is meant to increase farming efficiency and provide you with less expensive soy, the downside is that your soy is loaded with this toxic pesticide. The plants also contain genes from bacteria that produce a protein that has never been part of the human food supply.
GM soy has been linked to an increase in allergies. Disturbingly, the only published human feeding study on GM foods ever conducted verified that the gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of our gut bacteria and continues to function. This means that years after you stop eating GM soy, you may still have a potentially allergenic protein continuously being produced in your intestines.
Even more frightening is the potential for GM soy to cause infertility in future generations, which has been evidenced by recent Russian research.
2. Soy contains natural toxins known as “anti-nutrients.”
Soy foods contain anti-nutritional factors such as saponins, soyatoxin, phytates, protease inhibitors, oxalates, goitrogens and estrogens. Some of these factors interfere with the enzymes you need to digest protein. While a small amount of anti-nutrients would not likely cause a problem, the amount of soy that many Americans are now eating is extremely high.
3. Soy contains hemagglutinin.
Hemagglutinin is a clot-promoting substance that causes your red blood cells to clump together. These clumped cells are unable to properly absorb and distribute oxygen to your tissues.
4. Soy contains goitrogens.
Goitrogens are substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones and interfere with iodine metabolism, thereby interfering with your thyroid function.
5. Soy contains phytates.
Phytates (phytic acid) bind to metal ions, preventing the absorption of certain minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc — all of which are co-factors for optimal biochemistry in your body. This is particularly problematic for vegetarians, because eating meat reduces the mineral-blocking effects of these phytates (so it is helpful—if you do eat soy—to also eat meat).
6. Soy is loaded with the isoflavones genistein and daidzein.
Isoflavones are a type of phytoestrogen, which is a plant compound resembling human estrogen. These compounds mimic and sometimes block the hormone estrogen, and have been found to have adverse effects on various human tissues. Soy phytoestrogens are known to disrupt endocrine function, may cause infertility, and may promote breast cancer in women.
Drinking even two glasses of soymilk daily for one month provides enough of these compounds to alter your menstrual cycle. Although the FDA regulates estrogen-containing products, no warnings exist on soy.
7. Soy has toxic levels of aluminum and manganese
Soybeans are processed (by acid washing) in aluminum tanks, which can leach high levels of aluminum into the final soy product. Soy formula has up to 80 times higher manganese than is found in human breast milk.
8. Soy infant formula puts your baby’s health at risk.
Nearly 20 percent of U.S. infants are now fed soy formula, but the estrogens in soy can irreversibly harm your baby’s sexual development and reproductive health. Infants fed soy formula take in an estimated five birth control pills’ worth of estrogen every day.
Infants fed soy formula have up to 20,000 times the amount of estrogen in circulation as those fed other formulas!”
If you’re wondering why we have all been duped by the ‘health claims’ of soy, all you have to do is look at soy’s sales and trends over the last 15 years. That’s why good marketers get paid the big bucks. Their job is to sell products to you, me and even our little ones (if you have a package of pop tarts or a box of cereal in your cupboard, I’d be willing to guess that those have a soy derivative in them, too).
What really makes me gag when I see edamame and tofu these days are knowing what has happened to lab animals. When genetically modified, unfermented soy has been fed to hamsters, the third generation of hamster babies have been STERILE, or unable to produce any future offspring.
How many people do you know who have had issues conceiving? (Please don’t answer that question here, just think about it).
We’d love to hear your thoughts regarding soy.
References:
Huffington Post: GM Soy Linked to Sterility, Infant Mortality in Hamsters
And another study:
GM Soy Diet Leads to Ovary And Uterus Changes in Rats
Full Article
“The Unhealthy Truth” by Robyn O’Brien (available to buy at most book stores or check out at the public library)
Data about various animals that ate GM foods and what happened to them
NIH:
NIH Reviewed Soy Safety in 2006
And they found “no reason to be concerned”
However, the NIH decided to review soy again recently: article 1
article 2
Mayo Clinic
Note: There is no differentiation between either GM/regular soy or unfermented/fermented soy in this article – both of those can really determine the outcome of soy safety/health: article
American Academy of Pediatrics
Note: This is one of their references – a study about soy – which resulted in major changes in the female rat’s reproductive system, yet AAP hasn’t changed their position on soy….yet: article
The full AAP article: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/121/5/1062
Other (more references available upon request)
Soy and the Thyroid
The Hazards of Soy
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Wow! Thanks for this post. Very informative. Thankfully, our diet isn’t overweight in soy.
So glad you found the information helpful and that your diet isn’t soy-heavy. Ours unfortunately was (we used to eat a ton of edamame).
Jasmine,
I love reading this blog because it informs me of so many things to consider when raising Mason (my 9 month old). My husband and I decided from the get-go that we weren’t going to feed Mason any soy products, but then the doctor insisted that we feed him rice cereal. This contains soy(probably unfermented). Do you know any information regaurding rice cereal? Hope all is well.
Thanks!
Kassidy
Kassidy, thank you for your kind feedback. Rice cereal is definitely a great milestone in every young baby’s life. Congratulations on this beautiful milestone! My two children ate rice cereal, too, when we introduced them to solid foods. Although admittedly I haven’t done a ton of research on rice cereal, I can tell you that my biggest concerns when my children were eating rice cereal were pesticides, genetically modified (GM) rice and the potential introduction of allergens from GM rice. Today, there isn’t a huge amount of genetically engineered rice in the human food supply (as there is with soy & corn), however on several occasions GM rice has infiltrated the main human rice supply (Fortune article on this), and in recent years the FDA has approved the consumption of some strains of GM rice (so on a quick search I couldn’t find exactly how much GM rice is in the human food supply). Because of this, I bought organic rice cereal for both of my kids. Organic rice cereal means no genetically modified ingredients, which also means no pesticides and no new potential allergens (to make GM rice, they mix two strands of rice DNA to make that strain more resistant to pesticides). Organic rice cereal is a little bit more expensive than non-organic, but I found the few extra dollars worth the peace-of-mind.
Here’s another article Washington Post article that I found interesting.
Being a parent is such hard work and we have so many difficult choices to make! And they grow up so fast. You’ll blink and he’ll be done with cereal.
-Heather
Jasmine,
I’m so glad you put this article on your blog. Ever since my son was diaganosed with a soy allergy, and I really learned about soy, I have been amazed at how bad something that is supposed to be so good for you can be.
I am SO not a fan of soy, other than in the forms that you have stated. Soy Lethicin is by far the hardest to avoid, but if you can avoid soy in any of it’s processed forms, you will be so much better off.
Thanks Jasmine!
Penny, unfortunately soy allergies have become very common and I’m so sorry to hear that your son suffers from them. I know how hard and frustrating it is to find food without soy derivatives, especially soy lecithin. Over the course of the past few months, we have completely transformed our pantry to soy-free products due to the numerous potential adverse health effects. Thank you for your thoughtful and kind feedback regarding the article.
-Heather
Holy cow! Do you happen to have a full list of the pseudonyms for unfermented soy (e.g. soy lecithin, isolated soy protein)? I’d like to do an ingredient check in our pantry. I’m curious how many I’ll fine.
Andy, I couldn’t find a full list, but here’s some info I got from a soy allergy website:
Other names and products containing soy protein include:
-shoyu sauce
-soy (soy albumin, soy fiber, soy flour, soy grits, soy milk, soy nuts, soy sprouts)
-soya
-soybean (curd, granules)
-soybean butter
-soy protein (concentrate, isolate)
-textured vegetable protein (TVP)
The following food additives may contain soy protein:
-hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP)
-flavoring (including natural and artificial)
-canned chicken broth
-vegetable broth, gum, and starch
-bouillon cubes (beef, chicken, vegetable, etc.)
So, my husband loves to drink organic vanilla soymilk….it says on the side of the carton, “Made from NON-GMO North American Soybeans”…sigh of relief or no?!?!
Erin, although organic soy is not made with GMO soybeans, I would still stay away from it. It is still unfermented soy. Has he tried almond milk? It tastes very similar to soymilk, but is chalk full of essential vitamins and nutrients. They sell it at Costco, too – I tried some last weekend.
Thanks for this post, although I am sure it is bound to ruffle a few feathers. We stopped buying obvious sources of soy (soymilk, tofu, edamame etc) in our house some time ago, although it is virtually impossible to be completely soy-free. It bugs me that even our dairy formula for the baby contains soy. I cringe every time I see people lauding the virtues of soymilk and switching babies to soy formula just because. How can so many be so misinformed!
We are ok to ruffle a few feathers as long as it helps get the word out about the dangers of unfermented soy.
I am hoping that by posting this article, it can help inform moms/dads who might not know about the potential dangers/risks of soy formula. In a prior post, we highlighted Alex Bogusky, the Bill Gates of the Advertising World. His daughter drank soy formula as an infant and ended up with a tumor. He discusses soy, and his harrowing personal experience with it, around minute 20. Definitely worth watching at least the first 25 mins.
I am impressed by the amount of research you all pull together for some of these articles. I can’t image the amount of time you must spend and you also have other jobs as well!! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for your kind sentiments, Melody.
I have been doing research on soy for about 6 months, and found that this list of the potential issues w/fermented soy was the most comprehensive. Most sites have the ‘what’ but not the ‘why’ (actual list of ingredients within soy that can have adverse effects).
Besides Dr. Mercola, are there other sources of research you can point us to? I knew soy was/is highly genetically modified, so when I buy it now I try to make sure it’s organic. I saw your comment above about even trying to avoid organic soy and I still don’t totally understand why. Well, your post makes sense; I guess I’m just looking for the source of some of your research to better understand.
Also, what can moms of babies with dairy allergies do? I have a couple of friends whose babies are highly allergic to dairy, so they give their babies lots of soy products, including formula. I also have a vegetarian friend who eats a lot of soy. What tips do you have for helping vegetarians avoid soy? It’s in many vegetarian foods.
Laura, I’ll send you an email with a list of sources. I have been researching soy for about 6 months, and have URLs bookmarked in 3 different computers. I first read about the dangers of soy in Robyn O’Brien’s book, “The Unhealthy Truth.” And when Alex Bogusky (Bill Gates of the Advertising world) interviewed Robyn in this video, he discusses how his young daughter had to have tumors removed surgically, likely from drinking soy formula milk as an infant (even the Mayo Clinic’s overview of soy discusses tumors in young animals from given too much soy). Overall, I don’t think that eating small amounts of unfermented soy will do long-term harm. The problem is that our food industry uses soy in most processed foods these days. So even if we avoid eating straight unfermented soy, like tofu and edamame, we’re still getting a fair amount in our diet (assuming consumption of processed foods and/or food eaten out in restaurants).
Jasmine and I are planning to write a follow-up article on soy formula. I haven’t done much research to date on formula alternatives, etc., but plan to over the course of the next few weeks. I also want to discuss this with our pediatricians. Regarding the vegetarian diet, I had to laugh because I recently posted a status update on FB about this to my friends. I had been thinking about trying the vegan diet for a week (Oprah had several hundred of her employees eat a vegan diet for a week, which I thought was interesting), but couldn’t figure out how to get enough protein without eating soy. The responses I got were to eat more beans and nuts.