Soy – The Marketing Miracle

Millions of people have been deceived into believing the Soybean Miracle — Which, actually, is the Marketing Miracle. The marketing campaign that transformed the soy into a health food is all the more remarkable because, until only a few decades ago, soybean was considered unfit for human consumption.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had Soy listed not as a food but as an industrial product in its 1913 handbook.

The Soybean Car (1941)
Henry Ford combined his background in agriculture with his love for automotive business when he created the Soybean Car. In response to a metal shortage at the time, Henry developed a new plastic car made of soybeans, flax and other natural materials that improved durability and was 1,000 pounds lighter than traditional steel models.

But, thanks to the marketing powers of Soy Industry (The Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Protein Technologies International (PTI), the American Soybean Association and other soy interests), people rarely ever hear anything about the health risks and dangers of consuming soy anymore.

Soy industry claims that the secret of the good health of Asians is the soy consumption. But, the fact is that the overall consumption of soy in Asia is surprisingly low. The average soy consumption in China is about 10 grams or 2 teaspoons per day. Levels are somewhat higher in Japan, averaging about 50 grams or 1/4 cup per day. In both countries, soy is used as a condiment or flavoring, and not as a substitute for foods.

Further, in Asia, soy is mostly consumed in the form of fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and soy sauce. Also, Soy is not considered an appropriate food for babies.

The fact is that Soy plays in important role in the Customer Acquisition and Retention program of the multi-trillion dollar Healthcare (sic) Industry. A well coordinated marketing strategy to create the soy hype has not only been a boon to the soy industry, it is bringing Billions of Dollars annually to the coffer of healthcare industry.

Soy consumption creates conditions in the human body that the healthcare industry loves.

The Soy ‘Food’ Production Process

Soy has been an industrial/commercial products for years. The soy protein left over from soy-oil extraction used to go to animals and poultry. Not any more. Soy left-over is a multi-billion dollar business. Food science has been employed to come up with inexpensive ways to improve or disguise the color, flavor, bite characteristics, and mouth feel of soy protein-based products. The hard-to-cover-up flavors of the soy products are refined with the lavish use of unhealthy additives such as sugar and other sweeteners, salt, artificial flavorings, colors, and monosodium glutamate (MSG)

The Ugly Soy Protein Isolate (SPI):
Soy Protein Isolate is the key ingredient in most soy foods that imitate meat and dairy products, including baby formulas and some brands of soy milk.

Soy Protein Isolate is not a product that can be made in your typical kitchen – it requires industrial factories. First, a strong alkaline solution is mixed into the slurry of soy beans to remove fiber – Acid washing in aluminum tanks leaches high levels of aluminum into the final product. Second, acid wash is used to precipitate and separate it from the liquid and form Curds. Finally, the resultant curds are dipped into alkaline solution again to get it neutralized.

The resultant curds are then spray-dried at high temperatures to get the ‘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).

Further, Nitrites, which are known carcinogens, are formed during spray-drying. The toxin ‘Lysinoalanine’ is formed due to alkalination process.

Many artificial flavorings, particularly MSG, are then added to this soy ‘protein’ isolate and textured vegetable protein products to mask their ugly taste and to impart the flavor of meat.

Textured Soy Protein:
The process that converts soy into ‘food’ involves very high pressure and heat texhniques that further deteriorate the natural constitution of soybeans. The Textured Soy Protein, for example, is made by forcing defatted soy flour through a machine called an extruder under conditions of such extreme heat and pressure that the very structure of the soy protein is changed. This process differs little from the extrusion technology used to produce starch-based packing materials; fiber-based industrial products, plastic toy parts, and plates & cups.

Soy products are now used in nearly 60 percent of the foods sold in supermarkets and health food stores. Textured Soy Protien and SPI apear in no many products that consumers cannot even guess. The fact that the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) decreed in 1979 that the only safe use for SPIs was for sealers for cardboard packages is never revealed to the public.

The True Dark Side of Soy

Soybeans are high in phytic acid. It act to block the absorpton of essential minerals – calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and especially zinc – in the human intestinal tract.

The effects of calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron deficiency are well undwrstood – defficiency of these minerals cause havoc to our bodies.

Soybeans contain high levels of haemagglutinin. Haemagglutinin is a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together.

Both the Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are recognized as the growth inhibitors. Baby Rats fed soy containing these antinutrients fail to grow normally.

☞ These Growth-depressant compounds gets deactivated (to a large degree) by way of fermentation.

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.

The truth is that our bodies don’t tolerate soy even in its natural state. Some of the symptoms caused by soy include acne, canker sore, inflammation and infection of the mucous membrane lining of the eyelids and conjunctiva, dermatitis, eczema, diarrhea, hives, heart palpitation, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, panic attacks and PMS like symptoms.

Soy is one of the top eight allergens that cause immediate hypersensitivity reactions such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hives, diarrhea, difficulty swallowing, and anaphylactic shock. Delayed allergic responses are even more common and occur anywhere from several hours to several days after the food is eaten. These have been linked to sleep disturbances, bedwetting, sinus and ear infections, crankiness, joint paint, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal woes, and other mysterious symptoms.

Soy- A Danger to Thyroid Health

Soy also contains goitrogens – A substances that depress thyroid function.

More than 70 years of human, animal, and laboratory studies show that soybeans put the thyroid at risk. Although scientists have known for many years that soy is goitrogenic, it was only recently that they were able to pinpoint the actual thyroid-depressing compounds. Researchers at the US Toxicological Laboratory in Arkansas found that the thyroid-depressing substances are phytoestrogens or isoflavones, the estrogen-like compounds found plentifully in the soybean.

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. Diffuse goiter 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.

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.

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, an amount that is undeniably toxic.

It is the phytoestrogens or isoflavones in soy that are supposed to protect us from heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and the discomforts of menopause. Yet in normal women consuming sufficient iodine, just 30g of roasted soybeans daily, containing about 38mg isoflavones, were found to depress thyroid function–less than the amount in two glasses of soy milk, two servings of tofu, or a handful of roasted soy nuts. In sensitive individuals, such as Jenny Smith, even small amounts of soy were able to provoke the mental confusion indicative of disrupted thyroid function.

These discoveries contradicts the soy industry’s claims that these phytoestrogens or isoflavones compounds in soy are the magical cures of all human ills.

Soy And Cancer

The FDA no more allows any claims about cancer prevention on food packages, but that has not restrained the soy industry and its marketers from making them in their promotional literature. Soy industry still touts:

“In addition to protecting the heart, 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.”

They conveniently forget to mention that the Japanese, and Asians in general, have much higher rates of other types of cancer, particularly cancer of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas and liver. Asians throughout the world also have high rates of thyroid cancer. 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.

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. 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.

And, The FDA Seal of Approval

The ultimate marketing strategy for a product that is inherently unhealthy is, of course, the health claim stamped by FDA. Especially, if the FDA is on board then the road to success is already paved. Case in study, of course, soy:

The original petition, submitted by Protein Technology International, requested a health claim for isoflavones, the estrogen-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-estrogens and substituting a claim for soy protein – a move that was in direct contradiction to the agency’s charter – The FDA is authorized to make rulings only on substances presented by petition.

That generous umbrella FDA approval was no doubt due to the fact that a number of researchers, including scientists employed by the US Government, had submitted documents indicating that isoflavones were 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.

The Final Scoop

Soybean’s active compounds may have benefits and uses in specific conditions in therapeutic dosage. But, the current soy hype just seems to be a marketing ploy to generate billions of dollars for the related industries at your expense. And, it certainly doesn’t seem to be fit for human consumption.

It would be prudent to rather stick with the Natural Grass-Fed raw dairy products from happy and healthy cows – The way nature intended.

— Enjoy Life – Enjoy A Glass of Real Milk! —

☘ ☘ ☘ ☘ ☘

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