Tag: THE WHOLE SOY STORY: THE DARK SIDE OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE HEALTH FOOD

Mainely Tipping Points 46: The Good Old Soys

Mainely Tipping Points:  March 2, 2013

Part III:  The Good Old Soys

 

As established in Part I, my soy expert is Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, the author of THE WHOLE SOY STORY:  THE DARK SIDE OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE HEALTH FOOD (2005).  Daniel’s credentials, experience, and extensive research on soy make her an expert.      

 

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Throughout Asia, Daniel explains, traditionally fermented whole-bean soybean products–miso, tempeh, natto, and soy sauce, or the “good old soys”–are thought to be “digestive aids, potent medicines, powerful energizers, stamina builders and longevity elixirs” (47). 

Soybeans contain a dangerous set of chemicals that must be neutralized, and the only way to partially defang these chemicals is through traditional fermentation.  Modern industrial methods have never accomplished this task and have, in fact, introduced new dangers.  Note that tofu is not fermented. 

Traditional fermentation can take months or years to complete, and the results, writes Daniel, “bear little or no resemblance to the modern soybean products promoted by the soy industry and sold in the American grocery stores.  Further, Asians simply do not eat any soybean products in great quantity.  They are used in small amounts as condiments or seasonings, not as main courses, and rarely more than once a day.  Even with the finest organic and perfectly prepared soybeans, the lesson is, `Less is more’ “(53).  

Daniel’s quick list illustrates what is at stake when eating untreated soybeans.  Soy is one of the top eight allergens.  Its goitrogens damage the thyroid.  Its lectins cause red blood cells to clump together and may cause immune system reactions.  Its oligosaccharides cause bloating and flatulence.  Its oxalates prevent proper absorption of calcium and have been liked to kidney stones and a painful disease known as vulvodynia.  Its phytates impair absorption of minerals such as zinc, iron, and calcium.  Its isoflavones are phytoestrogens that act like hormones and affect the reproductive and nervous systems.  Its protease inhibitors interfere with digestive enzymes, leading to gastric distress, poor protein digestion and an overworked pancreas.  Its saponins bind with bile, which can lower cholesterol (not a good thing here) and can damage the intestinal lining (38-39).     

People use soy as a protein replacement strategy.  But, writes Daniel, even “fermented soyfoods are not ideal sources of proteins.”  Human bodies have “more than 50,000 types of proteins, all built from the building blocks known as amino acids.  Nine of these amino acids are considered `essential’ for humans because we cannot manufacture them on our own and must obtain them from the diet.  If the `essential’ amino acids are present in sufficient quantities, we can build the `non-essential’ amino acids.  But if one or more are missing or low in quantity, the body will fail to synthesize many of the enzymes, antibodies and other proteins it needs” (153-154). 

Animal proteins (eggs, milk, fish, meat) contain a “ `complete’ set of the essential amino acids in desirable proportions.”  Plant proteins are “incomplete” because they are “low in some of the essential amino acids.”  Soybeans and other legumes are low methionine.  And  grains are low in lysine.  Thus, in most traditional cultures, beans and rice are combined and served with small amounts of animal foods to insure sufficient protein intake.  Soybeans are often fermented with a grain (50-51, 154).   

Daniel cautions that the practice of combining beans and grains to create a complete set of amino acids is vexed since how the food is cooked or industrially processed can affect the protein presence or availability—which gives rise to the statement that not all protein eaten is protein digested and used by the body.  Regardless, it is important to understand that the Net Protein Utilization (NPU) of animal proteins is much higher than any of the plant proteins, and traditionally raised animal protein does not involve ingesting dangerous chemicals (50-51,154).

So, what’s good about traditionally fermented soy products?  The microorganisms and enzymes that form can help prevent disease and can impact food poisoning and dysentery.  The products contain essential fatty acids (EFAs) in undamaged forms.    [Organically grown soybeans are definitely preferable in that many pesticide and fertilizer chemicals accumulate in the fat portion” (173).]  The products are almost never contaminated with aflatoxin—which has “been identified recently as a major problem in modern soy and peanut products” (49-52).

Miso.  Traditionally fermented miso takes from one to three years to make and is the most digestible (90 percent) fermented soy product.  “During aging,” writes Daniel, the bean-rice or bean-barley nuggets turn to paste, while flavors and aromas develop.  The process takes place at the natural temperature of its environment, slowing down in the winter and speeding up in the summer.”  Hundreds of distinct varieties are produced, and none are ever pasteurized (54-55).

American industry started producing pasteurized quick misos around 1960.  These misos are “fermented for three to 21 days in temperature-controlled, heated environments.  To improve flavor, aroma and appearance, sweeteners (usually sugar or caramel syrup), bleaches, sorbic acid preservative, food colorings and MSG are likely to be added (55-56).

Daniel cautions that “the most common quick misos are dehydrated instant powders and dried soup mixes.”  Heat drying deploys 482 degrees F heat, which kills everything, so the freeze drying method is preferred.  Nevertheless, dried miso products contain many additives and are, in essence, fake foods.

Tempeh.  The traditional process for tempeh is much quicker than miso—it’s less than a week.  During the fermentation period, numerous bacteria, yeast, and other microorganisms begin to proliferate on the inoculated, cooked whole beans (57).    

Daniel cautions that “news stories reporting high levels of vitamin B12 in fermented soyfoods—particularly in tempeh—are not usually accurate.  The most common molds used to manufacture tempeh…produce analogues of B12, not the physiologically active forms.  These analogues actually increase the body’s need for B12”(49). 

Natto.   I’ve eaten natto in the home of a Japanese friend more than once.  It’s bitter,  slimy, smelly, and definitely an acquired taste.  Natto is not commercially produced in America. 

Shoyu .  Traditional Japanese soy sauce is fermented for six to eighteen months, using roasted soybeans, roasted cracked wheat, and mold spores.  Tamari is an Americanized term for soy sauce signifying a supposed “natural” product.   

American soy sauce is a chemical brew made in two days or less using  “automation, chemicals, preservatives, pasteurization, artificial colorings, sweeteners and flavor enhancers such as MSG” (58-59). American soy, cautions Daniel, may “also contain dangerous levels of chemicals”:  chloropropanols,  furanones (mutagenic to bacteria, causes DNA damage in lab tests), salsolinol (neurotoxin linked to DNA damage and chromosomal aberrations, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer), and ethyl carbamate (linked to cancer).   

Tofu.  Tofu curd is precipitated from cooked whole beans.  Daniel explains that the “unwanted components….concentrate in the soaking liquid…so they are reduced in quantity, but not completely eliminated” (72).  Silken tofu is made by pouring thick soymilk or soy yogurt directly into a package along with a curdling agent.  This tofu has “more of the unwanted antinutrients” (73). 

In 1999, Lon R. White, MD, a neuro-epidemiologist with the Pacific Health Institute in Honolulu announced results from his longitudinal study of 8,006 Japanese-American men and about 500 of their wives, each of whom ate two or more servings of tofu per week in midlife.  Data showed these folks were “more likely to experience cognitive decline, senile dementia, and brain atrophy later in life than those who ate little or no tofu.”  White thinks that soy isoflavones are impacting the area of the brain involved with learning and memory.  For White, soy phytoestrogens are drugs, not nutrients  (307-308).   

Here in Maine, traditionally fermented soy products can be found at local Co-ops or farmers’ markets. 

Next:  Part IV:  The American Soy Products

Mainely Tipping Points 45: Part II: How Soy Got Into Our Food Chain

Mainely Tipping Points 45:  December 13, 2012

Part II:  How Soy Got Into Our Food Chain

 

Part II of this series on Soy explores how soy got into the human food chain.  As established in Part I, the expert I rely on for soy information is Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, the author of THE WHOLE SOY STORY:  THE DARK SIDE OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE HEALTH FOOD (2005).  Daniel’s credentials show her to be an outstanding nutritionist and her extensive research on soy makes her an expert.  All quotes are from this text. 

 

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Soy is a powerhouse in terms of the potent chemicals its beans contain.  For instance, soy is one of more than 300 plants that contain phytoestrogens, which stop reproduction.  Yet soy is the only one of these plants humans eat.  Besides phytoestrogens, soy contains many more powerful chemical components which are dangerous for humans unless they can be mediated in some way first.  Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists soy on its Poisonous Plant Database (31).    

 It is true, Daniel writes, that the ancient Chinese “valued the soybean as a national treasure” and honored it with the name “ `the yellow jewel.’ “The soybean, though it is not a grain, is one of the Five Sacred Grains, alongside rice, millet, barley, and wheat.  But, the ancient Chinese did not eat the soybean.  They used it as a green manure to fix nitrogen in the soil (9).

 The Chinese began to eat soybeans “no earlier than about 2500 years ago.”  They fermented soybeans as they “remain toxic after ordinary cooking….”  Fermentation tames the trypsin inhibitor that causes bloating and gas.  Miso paste, used to preserve meat and seafood, and soy sauce, the liquid produced in the production of miso, appeared first.  Natto appeared around 1000 AD, and tempeh appeared “no earlier than the 1600s.”  Thus, “claims that soybeans have been a major part of the Asian diet for more than 3000 years…are simply not true” (9-10). 

 Soy moved to Japan with the Chinese missionary priests “sometime between 540 and 552 AD.”  Japanese miso documentation first appears in 806 and 938 AD.  Tofu, which is a precipitated product, not a fermented one, appears about the same time and is called “the meat without the bone.”  Tofu “appeared regularly on monastery menus as an aid to spiritual development and sexual abstinence, a dietary strategy validated by recent studies showing that the plant-form of estrogens (called phytoestrogens) in soy can lower testosterone levels” (10-11).

 Tofu consumption spread “throughout China, Korea and Southeast Asia.”  By 700 AD tofu was “accepted as a meat or fish replacement, at least when pork, seafood and other preferred sources were unaffordable or unavailable.”  But, “except in areas of famine, tofu was served as a condiment, consumed in small amounts usually in fish broth, not as a main course.”  In truth, Asians, including the Japanese who eat the most soy, don’t eat more than 1.5 percent of their diets in soy.  And the Japanese, as has been shown in even recent studies, on average eat only about one tablespoon of soy a day (28).  Plus, the types of soy Asians eat are old-fashioned products like miso and tempeh, not commercial soy in products like “soy sausages, soy burgers, chicken-like soy patties, TVP chili, tofu cheesecake, packaged soymilk, or other of the ingenious new soy products that have infiltrated the American marketplace” (12-13).

 Soybeans probably came to Indonesia from trade with southern China trade around 1000 AD.  The Indonesians appear to have invented soy tempeh (fermented whole soy beans) as the “world’s earliest reference to tempeh manufacture occurs in the Serat Centini, a book published in 1815 on the orders of Sunan Sugih, Crown Prince of Central Java.  Indonesian tempeh became “known as food for the poor, even though people of all classes continued to consume it” (13).

 Asians “rarely—if ever—baked or boiled soybeans, ground them into flour, or roasted them to make nut-like snacks.”  Likely, these practices left diners with “a stomach ache or worse,” unlike the time-honored traditional techniques” for preparing soy.  Nor did Asians “press or crush great quantities of soybeans to extract soy oil,” so “they never faced the challenge of finding creative ways to use massive amounts of the leftover protein.”  What oil they did extract was used to light lamps, and the leftover protein “served as an excellent fertilizer” (14)

 Soy goes west as early as 17th century France, where soy sauce becomes a secret ingredient at court banquets.  Ben Franklin sent soybeans to America in 1770, but soy remained “a little-known commodity…for more than a century.”  It wasn’t until 1935 when soybeans were grown for food oil that its plantings “equaled those used for crop rotation”—to fix nitrogen in depleted soils (17).

 Early western soy proponents were John Harvey Kellogg, the breakfast cereal king; Artemy Alexis Horvath, PhD, who promoted soya flour in academic and popular fronts; Henry Ford, who thought soy plastics would be great in cars and who wore soybean-fiber ties to promote soy as a cloth; Adolf Hitler, who promoted whole-food vegetarianism; and Benito Mussolini, who wanted to make soy flour a “mandatory ingredient in the Italian staple polenta.”  By the 1950s and 1960s, the Communist Party in the Soviet Union” pushed soy protein and soy margarines as the solution to low-cost feeding of the masses…” (18-20).

 The U.S. soy industry has claimed that Asians, especially the Japanese, eat a lot of soy and have better heart health and fewer cancers that do North Americans.  But, as noted above, soy proponents in the west have had to admit that soy consumption in Asia is not as great as they advertised.  Further, the famous claims that Okinawans enjoy longevity due to soy-rich vegan diets have been debunked, and Daniel covers this issue thoroughly.  As with other Asians, Okinawans do eat small amounts of soy, but their diets include primarily meat, fish, and lard.  There seems also to be a genetic factor involved in Okinawan longevity (15-16).  And, as Sally Fallon Morell of The Weston A. Price Foundation notes in the introduction, the Japanese, who eat the most soy in Asia, and Asians in general, have higher rates of cancer of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, and liver than do North Americans (5). 

 What differs between how soy is viewed in the East and the West is that in the West soy “is a product of the industrial revolution—an opportunity for technologists to develop cheap meat substitutes, to find clever new ways to hide soy in familiar food products, to formulate soy-based pharmaceuticals, and to develop a plant-based, renewable resource that could replace petroleum-based plastics and fuels.”  Even today, “very few soybeans are sold for whole food products,” so that “the `good old soys’ of Asia—miso, tempeh and natto—thrive only in niche markets.”  The soy industry knows that “the big profits are not to be found in old-fashioned, funny-tasting foreign foods, but from splitting the `yellow jewel’ into two golden commodities—oil and protein” (21-22).

 Most soybean oil (97 percent in 1997), which is highly processed, goes into food products—salad and cooking oils, shortening, and margarine.  The protein was at first fed to “animals, poultry and, more recently, fish farms.”  But now, the soy industry “aggressively markets soy protein as a people feed as well”—so that “soy is now an ingredient in nearly every food sold at supermarkets and health food stores.”  And, the soy industry profits from soy waste products, like soy lecithin (used as an emulsifier), “protease inhibitors (digestive distressers sold as cancer preventatives), and isoflavones (plant estrogens promoted as `safe’ hormone therapy, cholesterol reducers, and cancer cures”) (21-23). 

 The soy industry has “Americanized soy around the globe”—running into trouble “only when Monsanto—the biotech bully boy”—pushed for acceptance of its genetically modified (GM) `Frankenstein’ soybeans” (27).  China is “now the world’s largest importer of U.S. soybeans” (30).  And, Asia is potentially a “huge market” for American-style imitation soy products (28).

 Next:  the difference between American industrial soy products and the old-fashioned “good old soys.”