Soy No Wonder Food

Propanganda: Soy protects against breast cancer and osteoporosis - so like most Asians, westerners should eat more tofu and other soy products.

Reality : The Asian citizens diet is not soy based. Unfermented soy products are not digestible. Soy is not a complete protein, and a pesticide-laden, soy-based diet can lead to severe nutritional deficiencies and hormonal imbalances.

Monkey Business at the FDA: Finally, approval of health claims by the States FDA(Food and Drugs Authority) often has a price tag. If you have the money and the influence, you can frequently get what you want. The large soy industry has both. Since 1998 at least 92 percent of FDA approval committee meetings had at least one member with a conflict of interest. In 55 % of the meetings, at least half of the FDA advisors who were consulted had a conflict. Federal law prohibits this kind of financial conflict, but since 1998 the FDA has lifted the restrictions over 800 times. What is more appalling is the fact that the FDA keeps these conflict-of-interest dealings secret, making it impossible to track the money and the influence.Wine's link to health is better documented than soy's claims.

TIPS:Use fermented soy products like tempeh, tamari, miso, and natto. These may have anticancerous effects. They can be found at health food stores. By the way I don't run any healthy food store, so I have no conflict of interest in letting you know this fact about soy products.

Avoid soy milk, soy energy bars, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and regular consumption of tofu.

IS YOUR SOY FERMENTED? The ancient Chinese initially did not use soy as a food crop. Eventually, they discovered that by fermenting the beans the soy protein could be digested more easily, and the phytic acid, toxins, and antinutrients would be largely destroyed. Therefore, tempeh, tamari (soy sauce), and natto became useful foods in small amounts. Natto is a pungent, fermented soy dish that is rich not only in beneficial bacteria, but also contain plenty of vitamin PQQ (Pyrroloquinoline quinone), a very recently discovered vitamin. PQQ is the first new vitamin discovered since 1948; it appears to support fertility. In addition, a landmark study of 143,000 Japanese women, which appeared to show that the incidence of breast cancer was reduced with soy, was based on the comparison of miso - another fermented product. (Source: T.Hirayama, "A large scale cohort study on cancer risks by diet - with special reference to the