Misinformation on soy consumption

Science has moved far ahead of what we once thought was healthy, or what is today advised as healthy.

Self-appointed dieticians should not be permitted to keep you updated, as, unfortunately, for those that trust and follow them, they must stay with 1970s dogma. This is so because they are strictly controlled as to what they may or may not advise by their parent association, the US Dietetic Association. That body is being renamed the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, to try to regain some credibility after being exposed as funded by producers of foodstuffs, confectionary and soft drinks, by fast food companies, by a large biotech company, and indirectly by the pharmaceutical industry. The doctors are not well informed, while celebrity chefs, sports trainers and journalists simply parrot much of the commercial misinformation.

Fermented soybeans are high in vitamin K2, essential for blood clotting, and have lost most of the toxins in unfermented soy. However, unfermented soy and soy oil are dangerous substances. High levels of phytic acid in soy reduces assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children. Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals, soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth. Soy phyto-estrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women. Soy phyto-estrogens are potent anti-thyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to auto-immune thyroid disease. Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12.  

Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D. Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein. Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines. Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods. Soy foods contain high levels of aluminium, which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

The soy industry spends over $30 million a year promoting soy, often quoting scientific studies. Naturalnews.com, a leading US health website, has recently exposed fraud in medical journals that have been using ghost writers (ie. doctors not involved in a study, who put their names to such a study for reward). That makes these short-term, pro-soy studies questionable.

Thomas Turk

Phuket