Hazzards of Unfermented Soy Part 2

[Guest guest]

Male infants undergo

a "testosterone surge" during the first few months of life, when

testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male. During

this period, the infant is programmed to express male characteristics

after puberty, not only in the development of his sexual organs and

other masculine physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the

brain characteristic of male behavior.In monkeys, deficiency of male

hormones impairs the development of spatial perception (which, in

humans, is normally more acute in men than in women), of learning

ability and of visual discrimination tasks (such as would be required

for reading).59 It goes without saying that future patterns of sexual

orientation may also be influenced by the early hormonal environment.

Male children exposed during gestation to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a

synthetic estrogen that has effects on animals similar to those of

phytoestrogens from soy, had testes smaller than normal on

manturation.60Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have

reached epidemic proportions. Soy infant feeding - which began in

earnest in the early 1970s - cannot be ignored as a probable cause for

these tragic developments.As for girls, an alarming number are entering

puberty much earlier than normal, according to a recent study reported

in the journal Pediatrics.61 Investigators found that one per cent of

all girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or

pubic hair, before the age of three; by age eight, 14.7 per cent of

white girls and almost 50 per cent of African-American girls have one

or both of these characteristics.New data indicate that environmental

estrogens such as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT) may cause

early sexual development in girls.62 In the 1986 Puerto Rico Premature

Thelarche study, the most significant dietary association with

premature sexual development was not chicken - as reported in the press

- but soy infant formula.63The consequences of this truncated childhood

are tragic. Young girls with mature bodies must cope with feelings and

urges that most children are not well-equipped to handle. And early

maturation in girls is frequently a harbinger for problems with the

reproductive system later in life, including failure to menstruate,

infertility and breast cancer.Parents who have contacted the Jameses

recount other problems associated with children of both sexes who were

fed soy-based formula, including extreme emotional behavior, asthma,

immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and

irritable bowel syndrome - the same endocrine and digestive havoc that

afflicted the Jameses' parrots.

 

Dissension In The Ranks

 

Organizers

of the Third International Soy Symposium would be hard-pressed to call

the conference an unqualified success. On the second day of the

symposium, the London-based Food Commission and the Weston A. Price

Foundation of Washington, DC, held a joint press conference, in the

same hotel as the symposium, to present concerns about soy infant

formula.Industry representatives sat stony-faced through the recitation

of potential dangers and a plea from concerned scientists and parents

to pull soy-based infant formula from the market. Under pressure from

the Jameses, the New Zealand Government had issued a health warning

about soy infant formula in 1998; it was time for the American

government to do the same.On the last day of the symposium,

presentations on new findings related to toxicity sent a

well-oxygenated chill through the giddy helium hype. Dr Lon White

reported on a study of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii, that showed

a significant statistical relationship between two or more servings of

tofu a week and "accelerated brain aging".64 Those participants who

consumed tofu in mid-life had lower cognitive function in late life and

a greater incidence of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. "What's more,"

said Dr White, "those who ate a lot of tofu, by the time they were 75

or 80 looked five years older".65 White and his colleagues blamed the

negative effects on isoflavones - a finding that supports an earlier

study in which postmenopausal women with higher levels of circulating

estrogen experienced greater cognitive decline.66Scientists Daniel

Sheehan and Daniel Doerge, from the National Center for Toxicological

Research, ruined PTI's day by presenting findings from rat feeding

studies, indicating that genistein in soy foods causes irreversible

damage to enzymes that synthesise thyroid hormones.67"The association

between soybean consumption and goiter in animals and humans has a long

history," wrote Dr Doerge. "Current evidence for the beneficial effects

of soy requires a full understanding of potential adverse effects as

well."Dr Claude Hughes reported that rats born to mothers that were fed

genistein had decreased birth weights compared to controls, and onset

of puberty occurred earlier in male offspring.68 His research suggested

that the effects observed in rats "...will be at least somewhat

predictive of what occurs in humans.There is no reason to assume that

there will be gross malformations of fetuses but there may be subtle

changes, such as neurobehavioral attributes, immune function and sex

hormone levels." The results, he said, "could be nothing or could be

something of great concern...if mom is eating something that can act

like sex hormones, it is logical to wonder if that could change the

baby's development".69A study of babies born to vegetarian mothers,

published in January 2000, indicated just what those changes in baby's

development might be. Mothers who ate a vegetarian diet during

pregnancy had a fivefold greater risk of delivering a boy with

hypospadias, a birth defect of the penis.70 The authors of the study

suggested that the cause was greater exposure to phytoestrogens in soy

foods popular with vegetarians.Problems with female offspring of

vegetarian mothers are more likely to show up later in life. While

soy's estrogenic effect is less than that of diethylstilbestrol (DES),

the dose is likely to be higher because it's consumed as a food, not

taken as a drug. Daughters of women who took DES during pregnancy

suffered from infertility and cancer when they reached their twenties.____________________________

 

Question Marks Over GRAS Status

 

Lurking

in the background of industry hype for soy is the nagging question of

whether it's even legal to add soy protein isolate to food. All food

additives not in common use prior to 1958, including casein protein

from milk, must have GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status. In

1972, the Nixon administration directed a re-examination of substances

believed to be GRAS, in the light of any scientific information then

available.This re-examination included casein protein that became

codified as GRAS in 1978. In 1974, the FDA obtained a literature review

of soy protein because, as soy protein had not been used in food until

1959 and was not even in common use in the early 1970s, it was not

eligible to have its GRAS status grandfathered under the provisions of

the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.71The scientific literature up to 1974

recognized many antinutrients in factory-made soy protein, including

trypsin inhibitors, phytic acid and genistein. But the FDA literature

review dismissed discussion of adverse impacts, with the statement that

it was important for "adequate processing" to remove them.Genistein

could be removed with an alcohol wash, but it was an expensive

procedure that processors avoided. Later studies determined that

trypsin inhibitor content could be removed only with long periods of

heat and pressure, but the FDA has imposed no requirements for

manufacturers to do so.The FDA was more concerned with toxins formed

during processing, specifically nitrites and lysinoalanine.72 Even at

low levels of consumption - averaging one-third of a gram per day at

the time - the presence of these carcinogens was considered too great a

threat to public health to allow GRAS status.Soy protein did have

approval for use as a binder in cardboard boxes, and this approval was

allowed to continue, as researchers considered that migration of

nitrites from the box into the food contents would be too small to

constitute a cancer risk. FDA officials called for safety

specifications and monitoring procedures before granting of GRAS status

for food.These were never performed. To this day, use of soy protein is

codified as GRAS only for this limited industrial use as a cardboard

binder. This means that soy protein must be subject to premarket

approval procedures each time manufacturers intend to use it as a food

or add it to a food.Soy protein was introduced into infant formula in

the early 1960s. It was a new product with no history of any use at

all. As soy protein did not have GRAS status, premarket approval was

required. This was not and still has not been granted. The key

ingredient of soy infant formula is not recognized as safe.

 

The

Next Asbestos?

 

"Against the backdrop

of widespread praise...there is growing suspicion that soy - despite

its undisputed benefits - may pose some health hazards," writes Marian

Burros, a leading food writer for the New York Times. More than any

other writer, Ms Burros's endorsement of a low-fat, largely vegetarian

diet has herded Americans into supermarket aisles featuring soy

foods.Yet her January 26, 2000 article, "Doubts Cloud Rosy News on

Soy", contains the following alarming statement: "Not one of the 18

scientists interviewed for this column was willing to say that taking

isoflavones was risk free." Ms Burros did not enumerate the risks, nor

did she mention that the recommended 25 daily grams of soy protein

contain enough isoflavones to cause problems in sensitive individuals,

but it was evident that the industry had recognized the need to cover

itself.Because the industry is extremely exposed...contingency lawyers

will soon discover that the number of potential plaintiffs can be

counted in the millions and the pockets are very, very deep. Juries

will hear something like the following: "The industry has known for

years that soy contains many toxins.At first they told the public that

the toxins were removed by processing. When it became apparent that

processing could not get rid of them, they claimed that these

substances were beneficial. Your government granted a health claim to a

substance that is poisonous, and the industry lied to the public to

sell more soy."The "industry" includes merchants, manufacturers,

scientists, publicists, bureaucrats, former bond financiers, food

writers, vitamin companies and retail stores. Farmers will probably

escape because they were duped like the rest of us. But they need to

find something else to grow before the soy bubble bursts and the market

collapses: grass-fed livestock, designer vegetables...or hemp to make

paper for thousands and thousands of legal briefs.

 

Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 7, Number 3 (April-May 2000)

About the Authors:

Sally

Fallon is

the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges

Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (1999, 2nd

edition, New Trends Publishing, tel +1 877 707 1776 or +1 219 268 2601)

and President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Washington, DC

(www.WestonAPrice.org)

 

Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., a nutritionist

widely known for her research on the nutritional aspects of fats and

oils, is a consultant, clinician, and the Director of the Nutritional

Sciences Division of Enig Associates, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland.

She received her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of

Maryland, College Park in 1984, taught a graduate course in

nutrient-drug interactions for the University's Graduate Program in

Nutritional Sciences, and held a Faculty Research Associateship from

1984 through 1991 with the Lipids Research Group in the Department of

Chemistry and Biochemistry. Dr. Enig is a Fellow of the American

College of Nutrition, and a member of the American Institute of

Nutrition. Her many years of experience as a "bench chemist" in the

analysis of food fats and oils, provides a foundation for her active

roles in food labeling and composition issues at the federal and state

levels.Dr. Enig is a Consulting Editor to the "Journal of the American

College of Nutrition" and formerly served as a Contributing Editor to

"Clinical Nutrition." She has published 14 scientific papers on the

subject of food fats and oils, several chapters on nutrition for books,

and presented over 35 scientific papers on food and nutrition topics.

She is the President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association, past

President of the Coalition of Nutritionists of Maryland and was

appointed by the Governor in 1986 to the Maryland State Advisory

Council on Nutrition and served as the Chairman of the Health

Subcommittee until the Council was disbanded in 1988.

 

 

 

COMMENT: Sally

Fallon and Dr. Enig are to be highly commended for this much needed soy

update. Together they have compiled the most definitive document to

date on why one should avoid soy. This is a MAJOR work and I am hoping

to promote it for the national media attention that it deserves.

 

Another

article on How Much Soy Asians Actually Eat

 

http://www.mercola.com/2000/jan/9/truth_about_soy.htm

 

ENDNOTES:1. Program for the Third International Symposium on the Role

of Soy in Preventing and Treating Chronic Disease, Sunday, October 31,

through Wednesday, November 3, 1999, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington,

DC.

2. Houghton, Dean, "Healthful Harvest", The Furrow, January 2000, pp.

10-13.

3. Coleman, Richard J., "Vegetable Protein - A Delayed Birth?" Journal

of the American Oil Chemists' Society 52:238A, April 1975.

4. See www/unitedsoybean.org.

5. These are listed in www.soyonlineservice.co.nz.

6. Wall Street Journal, October 27, 1995.

7. Smith, James F., "Healthier tortillas could lead to healthier

Mexico", Denver Post, August 22, 1999, p. 26A.

8. "Bakery says new loaf can help reduce hot flushes", Reuters,

September 15, 1997.

9. "Beefing Up Burgers with Soy Products at School", Nutrition Week,

Community Nutrition Institute, Washington, DC, June 5, 1998, p. 2.

10. Urquhart, John, "A Health Food Hits Big Time", Wall Street Journal,

August 3, 1999, p. B1

11. "Soyabean Milk Plant in Kenya", Africa News Service, September 1998.

12. Simoons, Frederick J., Food in China: A Cultural and Historical

Inquiry, CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1991, p. 64.

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14. Rackis, Joseph J. et al., "The USDA trypsin inhibitor study. I.

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15. Van Rensburg et al., "Nutritional status of African populations

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April 1988; Harland, B.F. et al., "Nutritional status and phytate: zinc

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19. Phytate reduction of zinc absorption has been demonstrated in

numerous studies. These results are summarised in Leviton, Richard,

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Contract No. FDA 223-75-2004, 1979.

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27. Rackis, Joseph J. et al., "The USDA trypsin inhibitor study", ibid.

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11.

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soy, but litte fallout expected for dairy", Cheese Market News, October

22, 1999, p. 24.

36. Enig, Mary G. and Sally Fallon, "The Oiling of America", NEXUS

Magazine, December 1998-January 1999 and February-March 1999; also

available at www.WestonAPrice.org.

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44. Rackis et al, "The USDA trypsin inhibitor study", ibid.

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48. Matrone, G. et al., "Effect of Genistin on Growth and Development

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49. Ishizuki, Y. et al., "The effects on the thyroid gland of soybeans

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Rich in Isoflavones on the Menstrual Cycle of Premenopausal Women",

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1994) 60:333-340.

52. Murphy, P.A., "Phytoestrogen Content of Processed Soybean Foods",

Food Technology, January 1982, pp. 60-64.

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54. Keung, W.M., "Dietary oestrogenic isoflavones are potent inhibitors

of B-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase of P. testosteronii", Biochemical and

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al., "Estrogen-specific 12 B-hydroxysteroid oxidoreductase type 1 (E.C.

1.1.1.62) as a possible target for the action of phytoestrogens", PSEBM

(1995) 208:51-59.

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83:447-457; Braden et al., "The oestrogenic activity and metabolism of

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56. Ginsburg, Jean and Giordana M. Prelevic, "Is there a proven place

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58. Irvine, C. et al., "The Potential Adverse Effects of Soybean

Phytoestrogens in Infant Feeding", New Zealand Medical Journal May 24,

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59. Hagger, C. and J. Bachevalier, "Visual habit formation in

3-month-old monkeys (Macaca mulatta): reversal of sex difference

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60. Ross, R.K. et al., "Effect of in-utero exposure to

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68. Hughes, Claude, Center for Women's Health and Department of

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Ingredients", prepared for FDA by Life Sciences Research Office,

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