Soy burst onto the health food scene and was touted as the panacea for everything from heart disease to bad breath. Those marketers who were beating the drum for soy pointed to the Japanese and their reliance on soy
in the diet and the fact that they had lower rates of heart disease and cancer than those of us who eat the so-called Western Diet.

However, as usual, the devil’s in the details and marketers are remiss in not pointing out to Americans that the Japanese rely on fermented soy products, soy sauce, tempeh, tofu, et al. Fermented foods are universally recognized as good additions to the diet.

But what exactly are Americans getting in the way of soy? Edamame? What is this but a raw soy bean that may be lightly steamed and eaten out of hand as a snack. Ever notice that you may have ghastly indigestion after eating edamame? No wonder, it’s a seed that is a hard nut for your body to crack, and in the body’s earnest effort to digest these polysaccharides, much gas will be created. And you know what they say about gas. What goes in must come out, either up or down, and with fanfare, pain and suffering. We are not cows. We do not have ruminant multiple stomachs to break down these sorts of carbohydrates. We have one stomach, like a dog, and we are supposed to eat a diet that is for the omnivore, that is protein, fats, and some carbohydrate, and preferably carbohydrate that has already been broken down. Edamame? In the same category as donuts. I’d just as soon drop bombs into my belly.

And where does this soy come from? In the last ten years, the soy producers have turned to their good friends at Monsanto to create a Roundup Ready seed that is used to plant this monoculture plant from fence row to fence row. There are many problems with the Monsanto world view. #1. Genetically modified seed, such as the soy bean seed patented by Monsanto, complete robs the soil of its nutriment. A few years of unabated soy production and that soil won’t grow squat. Secondly, if you travel to countries like Peru, which have fewer stringent farming policies, you would see acres and acres and hectares and hectares of soy beans planted. You would also find a population that has been sickened and starved, since the constant spraying of fields with poisons including Roundup makes the people who live there deathly ill.

And what about soy in the baby’s formula? Popular in Africa, since Monsanto convinced mother’s not to breast feed, and the infant mortality rate has climbed steadily as babies get diarrhea and die. Why is this? The nutrients in soy formulae are not bioavailable to babies.

So what should you do? Read labels. Don’t buy any product with soy in it beyond soy sauce and a little tofu now and again.

And we didn’t even get into the problem with soy and estrogen? Breast cancer? Now that’s an entire blog post on its own.

Just don’t get conned by the industrial food marketers. Their interest is in the bottom line, not your health. Always and forever. And if you want to learn more of the plain truth, go see the movie Food, Inc. Now that’s an eye opener, I’ll tell you.