I love things that promise to deliver
the truth. There’s something captivating about anything that can be so singular
and simple and earnest, as if there’s a great big lake of truth out there we
only have to stumble upon to guide us in all matters, dietary and otherwise.
So Felicity Lawrence’s article, “The
truth about soya”, in a recent issue of
The Guardian
really grabbed me the other day as I ate my porridge
swimming in soy milk. (“Soya” is British; “soy” the North American variant, all
from the Dutch “soja”, from the Malay “soi”.)
As I breakfasted away and poured
myself more organic, GMO-free soy milk, it was with a half-cocked eyebrow that
I pored through Ms. Lawrence’s article as it effectively poked more needles
into the ever-inflating soy balloon. Many of these arguments aren’t new, but
they’re ones that vegetarians, lactose-intolerant people, menopausal women and
all-round general health-food eaters, including myself, don’t like to hear.
Soy is big food business. In 1965,
worldwide soy production was around 30 million tonnes; last year nine times
that amount was produced, or about 270 million tonnes.
In Britain, they estimate about 60
per cent of all processed food contains soy in one form or another. It can be
whole soy or one of its many components, including soy flour, hydrolyzed
vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, textured vegetable protein, vegetable
oil (or some form thereof, such as hydrogenated veggie oil), plant sterols or
lecithin, the latter which is worshipped by health junkies for staving off
dreaded oxidants and free radicals, and by chocoholics, for lecithin is the
emulsifier in cocoa butter.
Besides the obvious soy milk and
soy-based weenies, if you read your food labels you might be surprised to find
soy in cakes, noodles, pastries, breakfast cereal and cereal bars, sandwich
spreads, desserts, sausage casings and even dog and cat food.
Of course, in vegetarian and vegan
food, soy is regarded as the panacea for delivering protein without meat. But
many people, vegetarians included, are blissfully unaware that cheap soy feed
has also made the factory farming of livestock possible.
Soy is also used to enhance protein
content in processed meat products. It’s added to commercial baked products to
keep them from shrinking and, evil of evils, once it’s hydrogenated, soy oil is
used by the tonne — 34 million tonnes last year alone — to deep fry
all those super-sized fries and more.
The biggest traditional anti-soy
argument has been that soy contributes to the demise of rainforests, especially
in Brazil, as farmers clear them for this profitable crop. Another is that soy
crops are creating big swaths of monoculture, replacing less valuable crops,
even right here in Canada. Drive through southern Alberta and you’ll see fields
of soy plants, which help put our country among the 10 largest producers.
On top of all this, Ms. Lawrence
eloquently explains one of the latest anti-soy arguments: that contrary to soy
being a “healthy” food it can be just the opposite. The subject is so complex
you could write a book on it, as many have, but in a nutshell the culprits are
the plant estrogens or phyto-estrogens in soy, the very elements that were
attracting menopausal women for relief from hot flashes and protection against
things like osteoporosis or hormone-related cancers such as breast cancer.
More particularly it’s the
isoflavones in the plant estrogens that are the hazard, isoflavones that used
to be removed in traditional Asian fermenting techniques for tofu or soy sauce,
but are retained in modern manufacturing.
In addition, modern soy crops have
higher isoflavone levels bred into the plants to make pests that feed on the
crops infertile. The principle reflects the rationale behind a traditional diet
for Asian monks, who ate unfermented soy to cool their libido. And here we
menopausal women thought it was all our fault.
So now scientists are concerned about
the impact of plant estrogens on the hormones and thyroids of everybody,
especially infants. A 2002 British study concluded that the health benefits of
soy were not supported, and that there could be heath risks at certain levels
of consumption for certain age groups — a conclusion backed by another
British study.
With 30-40 per cent of babies in the
U.S. raised on soy formula, many of them in low-income families, scientists are
concerned that they could be ingesting, for their size, the equivalent of five
birth control pills a day. As for adults, the very things we are trying to ward
off with soy may be exacerbated by it.
Whew. So after wading through this
lake of truth and putting my soy milk away, I thought I’d see what research has
concluded in Canada. I called the David Suzuki Foundation, where a nice young
man named Domenico told me that the foundation has no policy papers or position
on soy, nor could he refer me to any.
So that leaves me pretty much out
fishing for more truth. Maybe I’ll check out the documentary
The Future of
Food
in Squamish next Tuesday and see what
else I hook.
SIDEBAR:
Finding
your own food truth
In the U.S. about 40 per cent of the
soy crop is genetically modified, and there’s no reason to think otherwise in
Canada. Soy is but one of hundreds of crops that have been genetically modified
to enhance productivity.
If you’d like to find out more about
your food, where it’s coming from, and what it might really be doing to you and
this planet, check out the documentary
The Future of Foo
d by Deborah Koons Garcia, wife of Jerry Garcia. It was a
big hit at the Telluride Film Festival and in New York. But you can catch it at
the Brackendale Fall Fair as Adam Hart is presenting it as a fundraiser for the
Coalition for a GE Free B.C.
“We’re at a time in history that’s
never been experienced before with regard to the food that we’re eating and
what’s inside it,” says Adam. “People just need to be a little bit more aware
of what’s in the food that they’re choosing to eat and choosing to feed their
families, and this movie will really step them in the right direction.”
The Future of Food screens 5:30 and 7
p.m., Sept. 12 at the Squamish Adventure Centre. Tickets are $10 in advance;
$12 at the door, available at the adventure centre, Gelato Carena, Howe Sound
Juice Co. or call Adam at 604-815-3751.
Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning
freelance writer who always looks for truth in advertising.