Reality Check: The soy “health food” lie that could hurt you
They'll say it's health food. But it's junk.
I'm talking about soy fortified with vitamin D.
It's a perception vs. reality thing.
If you stop 10 strangers on the street and ask them if soy is health food, most will probably say yes, of course, everyone knows soy is healthy.
We know better though.
As I've mentioned before, fermented soy is no problem. Tempeh, miso, and soy sauce (made in the traditional method) are fermented and fine. But as Dr. Spreen has pointed out, phytates in unfermented soy products actually obstruct absorption of protein and four key minerals: calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc.
Even so, the public's perception of soy as health food got a boost from the FDA with a rule that permits soy beverages, soy-based cheese substitutes, and soy-based butter substitutes to be fortified with vitamin D.
So you can be sure you'll soon be seeing starburst notes emblazoned with "Now with Vitamin D!" on soy-based cheese products (etc.) at your local grocery.
They'll say it's health food. But you know better.
Roaring from the 20s
Here's the one-two knockout punch...
Punch one: The soy products aren't fermented. Punch two: The products will likely be fortified with vitamin D2.
Ring the bell--this fight is done.
Fish consumption and exposure to sunlight deliver much- needed vitamin D3 to your body. But according to a brief history of vitamin D research that appeared in a 2006 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists created a synthetic form of the vitamin in the early 1920s when they manufactured vitamin D2 by exposing plant foods to ultraviolet light.
Within a decade, researchers began to notice that D2 was quite a bit less potent than D3.
D2 was useful in eradicating rickets when added to milk in the 1930s, but as research methods were refined, it became clear that D3 was the superior form. In addition, the body retains D3 for longer periods and in higher concentrations than D2.
In their conclusions, the authors wrote: "The public expects to derive the equivalent effect per unit dose of vitamin D, whether it is vitamin D2 or vitamin D3. The scientific community is aware that these molecules are not equivalent. Therefore, vitamin D2 should no longer be regarded as a nutrient appropriate for supplementation or fortification of foods."
The scientific community is aware...but apparently food producers and the FDA are not.
Printer-friendly versionAbout the author
Jenny Thompson is the Director of the Health Sciences Institute and editor of the HSI e-Alert. Through HSI, she and her team uncover important health information and expose ridiculous health misinformation, most notably through the HSI e-Alert.
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Comments
Anonymous
So what is new, these people have a marriage contract and none other than Big-Pharma the less healthy we are the better for them, and about none fermented SOY so many people regards this as the king of food, and believe it or not even some Drs believe that being vitamin C deficient had nothing to do with scurvy. JAM
Detox Foot Pads
I try to avoid soy products as often as I can. But I, too, seem to have to defend myself when people ask me why I choose not to eat soy. "I heard it was healthy for you" they tell me. Well, we never landed on the moon, either. Believe what you want. I can't force you to believe the moon landing ACTUALLY happened, or that soy is bad for you.
alan
Japanese people have the longest life span of any people in the world and they eat tofu everyday. In fact, most Asian people do, Koreans, Chinese,etc.
Therefore, I question the attacks on tofu, which are common from alternative medicine.
vikingstork
The article omits another fact, the soy being about 80% - 90% GMO now, it's also loaded with resistant bacteria, and a whole lot of Roundup, a dangerous pesticide.
Yes, Monsanto was taken to court in France and convicted of lying about the "harmlessness" of Roundup. They were levied a huge fine (forget the actual numbers)
BTW, Monsanto left Europe, forced to do so by public resistance to their dangerous, untested products.
How can FDA therefore justify their staunch defense of Monsanto??? I guess they just pretend this lawsuit (and one in Italy, too, i believe) actually never happened, with all the legal evidence provided, how harmful it really is.
Anonymous
Note to Alan in Comment 3:
Asians don't eat nearly as much tofu as Westerners seem to believe. Do a little reading on the topic and you will be surprised at what various studies have concluded on this very issue. It's one thing to eat a few grams of tofu per day in a side dish. It's another thing entirely to eat soy as a primary source of protein in the form of tofu, soy burgers, soy milk and synthesized "meat-like" substitutes.
alan
You may be right. They may not eat that much, though there are tofu dishes like mabu dofu that they eat regularly which is a lot of tofu. Point is, it's a staple food, a regular part of their diet. Alternative medicine is saying don't eat it at all. We should emulate what Japanese eat (or their eating habits) because they have the highest life expectancy in the world. They eat rice and noodles everyday which are anathema to alt. medicine, but their calorie input is low and they don't eat to satiety so they stay thin.
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