It seems everywhere you turn today you are being told how healthy soy is. But is it really healthy or have we simply been mislead by big businesses that are making huge profits from this crop?

It seems that there’s isn’t a newspaper, magazine or news program that hasn’t recently featured a story on the amazing health benefits of soy food products and soy/isoflavone supplements.  Soy is promoted as a healthy alternative to estrogen replacement for some women, as a possibly way to reduce the risk of breast cancer, as a way to minimize menopause symptoms, and as a healthier, low-fat protein alternative for meats and poultry.

But what all the positive stories fail to mention is that there is a very real…… but very overlooked……downside to the heavy or long-term use of soy products. In fact a 20/20 investigation has found that amid all of the praise for soy, scientists are now challenging this popular wisdom.

This is not information that the powerful and profitable U.S. soy industry wants you to know. The sale of soy products is big business, and the increasing demand for soy protein products, soy powders and soy isoflavone supplements is making that an even more profitable business than ever before.

The current news about soy is that the soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or “antinutrients”.  First among them are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer.

Also important to mention is that  a by-product of soy processing  is a form of lecithin. Unlike the naturall occuring found in free-range eggs,  nuts and avocados, this by-product is always rancid, and is extracted from the sludge that is left after the oil has been removed from the beans.

This product contains high levels of solvents and pesticides and instead of throwing it away, it is marketed as a healthy food additive.  It can product joint pain (often mistaken for arthritis and serious gout.)

The soy bean is known to have numerous phytoestrogens. These are plant chemicals which have oestrogenic effects. While occurring in nature to help regulate animal breeding cycles. The birth control pill is the human synthetic version.  At high dosages or over long periods they become anti-oestrogenic.  Even higher doses are used in chemotherapy to kill cancer cells.

Scientists have known for years that isoflavones in soy products can depress thyroid function, causing autoimmune thyroid disease and even cancer of the thyroid.

After I personally was diagnosed with an autoimmune thyroid disease, I started to think about what may have led to my  condition.  One thing that really stood out was for years I took lecithin after reading in a popular vitamin bible on how important this supplement was.
 
While this controversy will most certainly continue to rage on, it seems clear to me that the soy industry has one purpose and one purpose alone - to sell more soy!

For a very indepth  chapter on soy and its dangers  you’ll find the book “Doctor’s Are Dangerous” an overwhelming source of information that will have you searching your food ingredients list to make sure it has no soy.   I also found it to be in my nondairy creamer which I’ve been using for years. 

Pet owners should also beware  it’s been added there because it’s dirt cheap. It’s no wonder so many older dogs have trouble with joint pain.