Is Soy Safe to Eat? :: Healthier Me Blog at Lincolnshire Nutrition

Is Soy Safe to Eat?

Posted on 7th December 2011 | There are 0 comments. Why not be the first?

I watched The Food Hospital last night and as quite a lot of people will have seen, they were recommending soy products. However, when you look at the clinical evidence (on websites such as GreenMedInfo.com, which looks at all research published in scientific journals), it seems that we have too much soy and in the wrong form so I believe the Food Hospital got it slightly wrong.

When you look at Japan and China, and their rates of certain cancers compared with ours, it certainly seems sensible to eat soy and if you look at the supermarket shelves there's many different soy products available. However, aside from such issues such as much of our soy is genetically-modified and we don't know the long-term effects of this, and the massive deforestation that occurs, we need to look at the processing of soy and what it means for our health.

Eastern cultures tend to eat soy in small amounts, more as condiments and when they do have soy they have it in naturally fermented form - that's miso, natto, tempeh and soy sauce. They also tend to eat it with some seaweed e.g. dulse and nori). In the UK and US we have it in a highly processed and unfermented form and in large quantities - such as tofu and soy milk.

The processing removes the good, balancing nutrients that our bodies need - think of the difference between white and wholegrain bread. White bread has all the fibre, vitamins and minerals stripped out, so all you're left with is something that turns to sugar very quickly and prevents us from absorbing other nutrients from our diet. Any processing where something is removed from food is the same.

Unfermented soy contains a large number of anti-nutrients - substances that block our bodies from absorbing proteins, substances that bind minerals together and prevent us from being able to use them (say goodbye to calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc for example), substances that block the synthesis of thyroid hormones (that's why you should look at thyroid boosting foods such as seaweed) and substances that change our hormones. According to Dr Mercola, two glasses of soymilk a day for one month will change the menstrual cycle, so soymilk is potent stuff!

Some of the health claims for Western soy just don't stand up:

It won't prevent osteoporosis - soy can lead to defiencies in minerals that are needed to build healthy bones
It won't protect against breast cancer - soy can make oestrogen-dependent tumours grow, so if you are at risk from, or have had breast cancer, limit your soy consumption, including supplements such as isoflavones
It lowers cholesterol - this may be true, but there is no link between lowering cholesterol and lowering the risk of heart disease (ref)

So would I recommend soy? I normally avoid processed foods anyway - as I mentioned, if you process something, you change the balance of nutrients and nature is very good at providing the right balance for us. If you want to consume soy, then look at miso, natto and tempeh. Also, edamame beans are a good choice (as recommended on the Food Hospital) for protein, as although they're unfermented soy beans, they're also whole so the nutrient balance is there. And do remember that all foods contain "bad" substances to a greater or lesser extent, so as long as the balance is right in your diet, soy can be healthy.