Anti-Soy Hysteria - Roger Mason

There has been a lot of propaganda recently on the "dangers" of soy foods. This has taken place mostly on the Internet, but also in various magazines and publications. Of course the liberal media stays up at night making up endless crises- the solution for which is always bigger government and more laws. You would think these people would spend their time warning you about the dangers of eating too much fat, consuming so much sugar, eating too much period, the dangers of hydrogenated fats, the dangers of prescription drugs, and the many other real threats in the world. Why make up problems that don't exist when so many real ones abound? 
 
Anyway, this anti-soy hysteria is coming from places like the America Dairy Association and the Weston A. Price Foundation more than anywhere else. The ADA obviously wants you to keep drinking lots of milk and ruining your health. The Price Foundation (www. westonaprice.org) has the strange mission of getting you to eat more lard (seriously), beef fat, lamb fat (where does one go to buy lamb fat?), butter! and all the poultry fats (have you ever seen duck fat for sale?). More and more people are tired of stuffing themselves with saturated animal fats and ending up with a long list of diseases like cancer and heart attacks. This switch to healthier foods like soy milk threatens the meat and dairy industry very much financially. 
 
In this column we have repeatedly said it is not practical for Americans to eat more soy foods in order to get the valuable soy isoflavones daidzein and genestein contained in them. One cup of soy milk a day will add 3,600 calories to your monthly diet. Are you really going to eat a half cup of soy flour, or a half cup of tempeh (you never heard of tempeh?) every day? The only practical way to do this is to buy a reliable supplement with 40 mg of combined soy isoflavones per capsule stated on the label.  
 
When you look at the published international clinical research you see just how beneficial they are. The studies are almost endless here. Eating a wide variety of natural foods will still not provide 40 mg of isoflavones. As you research different diseases and conditions like cancers, menopause, prostate health, heart and artery disease the studies on isoflavones keep coming up over and over. Studies from clinics around the world in major medical journals kept finding new or confirmed benefits for soy supplementation. The evidence is nothing less than overwhelming. Let's look at some of the anti-soy propaganda on the other hand. The claim is made that Asians really don't eat much soy after all. That's ridiculous as anyone will tell you who has visited Japan, China, Viet Nam, Korea, Thailand, and other countries. They have been eating soy for centuries, and a wide variety of soy foods have been a basic part of their culture.  
 
Next we hear that the original soybean (Glycine soja) is different from the modern soybean (Glycine max) and the new bean is "genetically engineered". Caught them in another lie. Yes, all plants are continually grown to produce more and better crops. The modern Glycine max bean does produce a higher oil and higher protein content, but it has naturally strain selected and not genetically engineered.  
 
Next you hear that eating soy causes dire illness like thyroid conditions, diabetes, nutritional deficiencies, pancreatic problems, endocrine disorders, brain dysfunction, and even various cancers. This would be funny if everyone in the world was intelligent and laughed at such allegations. Most people, however, are far from intelligent and take such ravings seriously. When you try to find the proof of these allegations they start to evaporate. If you actually hunt down any of these so-called "studies" and look at them in minute detail you'll see they have no validity at all. 
 
Let's take a look at cholesterol for example. There have been so many studies published on the value of soy supplementation for lowering total cholesterol and LDL (the bad kind) cholesterol you can hardly count them. Soy added to the diet also raises HDL (the good kind) cholesterol levels. All this  without any change in diet or exercise. When soy supplements are added to lifestyle changes, the benefits are even more dramatic. How can soy improve your blood lipids so powerfully if it is "dangerous"? Doesn't make sense, does it? 
 
You're also told this is an "insidious" plot by Archer Daniels Midland Corporation to push these dangerous soybeans and profit off your gullibility. Well, certainly ADM wants to sell soybeans, and wants to publicize the proven benefits of soy foods, but I haven't heard one word from ADM that wasn't factual and verified. Let's clear up something here. Even medical journals keep calling these plant flavones (pigments) "phytoestrogens". In fact, everybody calls them phytoestrogens. The problem is they aren't related to estrogens or any other hormones in any way, shape or form. Flavones are flavonoids which are plant pigments. Isoflavones are plant pigments. Estrogens (estradiol, estrone and estriol) are steroids secreted by the endocrine (ductless) glands and found only in mammals. No relation at all between the two, but no one in the world seems to understand such an obvious scientific fact even in medical journals. No one else on earth is telling you that there is no such thing as "phytoestrogens" except yours truly. 
 
If you want to improve your health, buy a soy isoflavone supplement with about 40 mg of combined genestein and daidzein and take one a day. This will cost you all of about $3 a month and will benefit you in ways we haven't even discovered yet. New studies are being done all the time in clinics around the world. Soy is good stuff. Science has proven for decades that soy is good stuff. Billions of Asians for centuries have, too.