Why Soy is Bad for You and the Planet

tofu, soymilk, soybeans, edamame, and soy sauce on a table

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The mainstream media has got news for you these days: Overweight? Try soy! Hot-flashes? Eat soy! Blotchy skin? Rub on some soy! Lactose intolerant? Soy!

With all the ads on TV and all the products popping up everywhere, you’d think soy foods were the answer to everything that ails you. But despite the well-crafted, expensive PR campaign, soy is not a health food, and people need to know the havoc it can bring to both our bodies and the environment.

A Brief History of Soy

It is only very recently in our history that humans have been eating processed soy foods and soybean oil. Grown on a large, commercial scale by U.S. agribusiness during the 50s and 60s, by the 70s and 80s, the soybean industry was troubled by emerging evidence that soybean oil consumption lowered immunity, increased susceptibility to infectious disease, and promoted cancer.

At this same time, the bigwigs in the soybean industry got the bright idea that if they could demonize the competition by making saturated fats like lard and coconut oil appear to be the cause of heart disease—the nation’s number one killer—people wouldn’t pay much attention to the negative findings coming out about soybean oil.

Starting in the mid-1980s, the soybean oil industry began a multi-million dollar anti-saturated fat campaign. Saturated fats increased cholesterol, they said, and high cholesterol causes heart disease. The tropical oils (coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils) were singled out as being the worst offenders because of their high saturated fat content.

Some, but not all, saturated fats can raise total cholesterol, (coconut and palm oils do NOT) but there is no solid evidence that high cholesterol actually causes heart disease. That is why high cholesterol is only considered a “risk factor” rather than a cause. In fact, it looks like high cholesterol can be a protective response in the body against dangerous inflammation—which does cause heart disease.

But that didn’t stop the soy industry. The soybean industry fed misleading information to gullible consumer advocate groups like The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which were persuaded to begin their own campaigns against saturated fats.

These high-profile organizations placed anti-saturated fat ads in the media, published newsletters, magazine articles, and books, and lobbied for political action against the use of tropical oils and other saturated fats.

Since the bulk of the attack came from supposedly impartial third parties, their message had more impact. People were swayed against saturated fats and the tropical oils they had been using safely for hundreds, or even thousands, of years.

Restaurants and food manufacturers, sensitive to customer fear, began removing these fats from their foods and replacing them with vegetable oils. Tropical oil and saturated fat consumption plummeted while soybean oil sales skyrocketed. In the United States, soybean oil soon accounted for about 80 percent of all the vegetable oil consumed.

During this time, one thing the soybean industry conveniently neglected to tell the public was that the saturated fats were not being replaced with ordinary vegetable oil, but rather by hydrogenated soybean oil!

Hydrogenated soybean oil contains toxic trans fatty acids and is far more damaging to the heart than any other fat. Trans fats have also been linked to numerous other health problems including diabetes, cancer, and various autoimmune diseases. In terms of health, trans fat is absolutely the worst fat that you could consume.

The soy industry was aware of many of the detrimental effects associated with hydrogenated vegetable oils and trans fats, but they succeeded in demonizing all saturated fats, including healthy coconut and palm oils, for the sake of profit. The plan was an overwhelming financial success.

Over the next two decades hydrogenated vegetable oils found their way into over 40 percent of all the foods on supermarket shelves, amounting to about 40,000 different products. Hydrogenated soybean oil consumption dramatically increased, and so did numerous diseases now known to be associated with trans fats.

With the growing awareness of the dangers of trans fats in hydrogenated vegetable oils and the landmark announcement in 2002 from the U.S. Institute of Medicine stating that “no level of trans fats is safe in the diet,” tropical oils are returning.

Careful review of previous research and more current medical studies have exonerated the tropical oils from the claim that they promote heart disease. In fact, they appear to help protect against heart disease as well as many of the other diseases now known to be linked to hydrogenated vegetable oils.

They are what we now call “good fats.”

Many restaurants and food manufacturers are now replacing their hydrogenated soybean oil with palm oil. Consequently, soybean oil sales are declining. In an effort to protect their profits, the soy industry has resorted to two strategies: 1) diversifying their market with new soy products like margarine, soymilk, “nutrition” bars, protein powders, pseudo-meats, livestock feed, biofuel, and more, and 2) returning to demonizing the competition in order to make their products more acceptable.

Desperate to find an alternative means of attack, the soybean industry has found a new ally in highly vocal, politically active environmental groups. Fueled by financial support and misleading data from the soy industry, some environmental groups have now waged a war against palm oil on the grounds that palm cultivation is destroying the environment.

They claim that rainforests are being leveled to make room for palm plantations, destroying the ecology and bringing endangered species, such as the orangutan, to the brink of extinction.

Anyone with any sense of responsibility for the environment would be swayed by this argument, and with good reason. The problem, however, is that while palm oil plantations are indeed responsible for deforestation, the soybean industry is causing more destruction to the environment than probably any other crop on the planet.

Soy and the Environment

In the time it takes to read this entire article, an area of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest larger than 200 football fields will have been destroyed, much of it for soybean cultivation, much of which is fed to livestock.

Today, industrial-scale soybean producers are joining loggers and cattle ranchers in speeding up destruction and further fragmentation of the great Brazilian wilderness. Between the years 2000 and 2005, Brazil lost more than 50,000 square miles of rainforest—a large portion of that for soybean farming.

Soybean production in the Brazilian Amazon soared after heat-tolerant varieties were introduced in 1997. In just ten years, exports of soybeans grown in the Amazon Basin reached 42 million tons a year. Total annual soybean production in Brazil today is about 85 million tons, and Brazil will soon surpass the United States as the world’s leader in soybean production.

Brazil holds about 30 percent of the Earth’s remaining tropical rainforest. The Amazon Basin produces roughly 20 percent of the Earth’s oxygen, creates much of its own rainfall, and harbors hundreds of thousands of species, many yet to be discovered. The Brazilian rainforest is the world’s most biologically diverse habitat.

Close to 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest has already been cut down. At the current rate of clearing, scientists predict that 40 percent of the Amazon will be destroyed and a further 20 percent degraded within two decades. If that happens, the forest’s ecology will begin to unravel.

Intact, the Amazon produces half its own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere. Eliminate enough of that rain through clearing, and the remaining trees dry out and die, the fragile rainforest soils blow away, and the forest becomes a desert. Currently trees are being wantonly burned to create open land for soybean cultivation. Consequently, Brazil has become one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

The decimation of the Amazon is, for the most part, done legally. Even the governor of the state of Mato Gross, on the edge of the Amazon Basin, is a part of it. Governor Blairo Maggi is the world’s largest single soybean producer, growing 350,000 acres. That’s about 547 square miles of Amazon rainforest that have been leveled for soybean production!

He is just one of many industrial-sized soybean operations in the area. In 2005, Greenpeace awarded Maggi the Golden Chain Saw award for his role in leveling the rainforest.

But, clearing and tilling the land for soybean production is only part of the problem. Soybean cultivation destroys habitat for wildlife including endangered or unknown species, and increases greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming.

Industrial soybean crops need large amounts of acid-neutralizing lime, as well as synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, all of which are creating an environmental hazard.

Toxic chemicals from soy production contaminate the forest, poison rivers, destroy wildlife and cause birth defects in humans. And, in undeveloped countries, soy production disrupts the life of indigenous tribes who depend on the forest for food and shelter, replaces traditional crops, and transfers the value added from processing from the local population to multinational corporations.

The environmental destruction caused by soybean farming isn’t limited to the Amazon; it occurs throughout the world wherever soybeans are produced.

In the U.S. alone, over 80 million acres of land are covered in soybeans. That’s hundreds of thousands of acres of deforestation, habitat destruction, over-cultivation and destruction of soils, and billions of tons of toxic chemicals spewed into the environment year after year, contaminating our soils, water, and destroying wildlife and human health.

And genetically modified soy was specifically developed to withstand the toxins so farmers could spray even more pesticides on them without diminishing yields.

Over 80% of all soybeans grown in the U.S. (and two-thirds worldwide) are genetically-modified to withstand the herbicide glyphosate, which is usually sold under the trade name Roundup. Because so much Roundup is used on these crops, the residue levels in the harvested crops greatly exceed what until very recently was the allowable legal limit. For the technology to be commercially viable, the FDA had to triple the limit on residues of glyphosate that can remain on the crop.

Many scientists have protested that permitting increased residues shows that corporate interests are given higher priority than public safety at the FDA, but the increased levels have remained in force. Glyphosate, which is highly toxic, and classified as a probable carcinogen, can now be easily detected in our water supply and in the bloodstreams of most Americans.

Industrially grown soybeans are arguably the most environmentally offensive agricultural crop in the world.

Replacing soybean oil with coconut or olive oil is not only a healthier option, but each is a relatively low-impact crop that would save countless acres of land from untold environmental damage.

Soybeans and Health

Many people believe that soy is good for you—a superfood even. After all, Asians eat soy, and they are some of the healthiest people in the world, right? Claims that soybeans have been a major part of the Asian diet for more than 3,000 years are simply not true.

In fact, the people of China, Japan, and other countries in Asia eat relatively little soy, and they typically only eat it after it has been fermented for long periods of time, which destroys the toxins inherent in it. The soy industry’s own figures show that soy consumption in China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan ranges from 9.3 to 36 grams per day. That’s equivalent to a few, small blocks of tofu floating in a bowl of miso soup.

Soy has never been considered a substitute for animal protein in Asia.

In contrast, many Americans today think nothing of consuming a cup of tofu, a couple glasses of soy milk, handfuls of soy nuts, soy “energy bars,” and soy “veggie” burgers, all in one day!

Infants on soy formula receive the most of all, both in quantity and in proportion to body weight. Soy is also the key ingredient in faux-meat and dairy products with names like Silk, Soysage, Not Dogs, Fakin Bakin and Tofurkey.

Then you have to consider the “hidden” soy in the form of vegetable oil, protein isolate, and soy lecithin found in over 70% of all packaged foods and just about everything you’d find in a fast food restaurant.

It’s used as filler in hamburgers, as vegetable oil and as an emulsifier.

It’s in chocolate bars, salad dressing, macaroni and cheese, and chicken nuggets.

It’s even ingested second-hand in the industrially-produced, feedlot meat, dairy and eggs from animals that were fed GMO soy most of their lives.

It’s hard to find a product that doesn’t contain soy these days!

“Even if you read every label and avoid cardboard boxes, you are likely to find soy in your supplements and vitamins (look out for vitamin E derived from soy oil), in foods such as canned tuna, soups, sauces, breads, meats (injected under poultry skin), and chocolate, and in pet food and body-care products… It hides in tofu dogs under aliases such as textured vegetable protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and lecithin—which is troubling, since the processing required to hydrolyze soy protein into vegetable protein produces excitotoxins such as glutamate (think MSG) and aspartate (a component of aspartame), which cause brain-cell death.”

Mary Vance, Terrain Magazine

In short, there is no historical precedent for eating the large amounts of soy now being consumed, and we are all participating in an experiment whose outcome is still unclear.

Since we Americans eat so much of it, it’s important to understand how soy can affect us. What we do know about soy is a bit alarming:

  • Soy contains very high levels of phytic acid, which reduces your body’s assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
  • Two senior U.S. government scientists, Drs. Daniel Doerge and Daniel Sheehan, have revealed that chemicals in soy could increase the risk of brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants.
  • Protease inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and have caused malnutrition, poor growth, digestive distress, and pancreatitis.
  • Lectins and saponins in soy can cause leaky gut and other gastrointestinal and immune problems.
  • Scientists have known since the mid-1940s that soy phytoestrogens are powerful enough to affect fertility and even promote estrogen-positive breast cancer. Although scientists discovered only recently that soy lowers testosterone levels, soy phytoestrogens are known to disrupt endocrine function and are so potent, they are marketed to older women for relief of hot-flashes and other menopausal symptoms. If the hormones in soy are strong enough to relieve hot flashes, why would we feed it to children?
  • Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that can cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
  • Vitamin B-12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B-12.
  • Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for vitamin D.
  • Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
  • Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
  • Processed soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys and strongly implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Archer Daniels Midland recently withdrew its application to the FDA for GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status for soy isoflavones following an outpouring of protest from the scientific community. The FDA never approved GRAS status for soy protein isolate because of concern regarding the presence of toxins and carcinogens in processed soy.
  • Soy is one of the greatest vectors for the consumption of glyphosate or Roundup, a carcinogenic herbicide.

Don’t be fooled: Soy is bad for you, and for the planet.

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Soy Processing

There’s nothing natural about today’s modern soy protein products; they are very much factory-made pseudo-foods. Textured soy protein, for example, is made by forcing defatted soy flour through a machine called an extruder under conditions of such extreme heat and pressure that the very structure of the soy protein is changed.

Production differs little from the extrusion technology used to produce starch-based packing “peanuts,” fiber-based industrial products, and plastic toys.

Before soybeans get to your table, they undergo a rigorous process to strip them of their oil. Hexane or other volatile, petroleum-based solvents are first applied to help separate the oil from the beans, leaving trace amounts of these toxins in the commercial product. After the oil is extracted, the defatted flakes are used to form soy protein products. With the exception of full-fat soy flour, almost all soybean products contain trace amounts of carcinogenic solvents.

The process of making soy protein isolate (SPI) begins with defatted soybean meal, which is mixed with a caustic alkaline solution to remove the fiber, then washed in an acid solution to precipitate out the protein. The protein curds are then dipped into another alkaline chemical solution and spray-dried at extremely high temperatures. SPI is then often spun into protein fibers using technology borrowed from the textile industry.

These refining processes improve taste and digestibility, but destroy the vitamin, mineral, and protein quality, and increase levels of carcinogens such as nitrosamines.

Soy protein isolate appears in so many products that consumers would never guess that the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) decreed in 1979 that the only safe use for SPIs was for sealers for cardboard packages.

Soy and Allergies

Many people don’t know that soy is one of the top eight allergens that cause immediate hypersensitivity reactions such as coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hives, diarrhea, difficulty swallowing, and anaphylactic shock.

Delayed allergic responses are even more common and occur anywhere from several hours to several days after the food is eaten. These have been linked to sleep disturbances, bedwetting, sinus and ear infections, crankiness, joint pain, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal woes, and other mysterious symptoms.

Although severe reactions to soy are rare compared to reactions to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish, soy has been underestimated as a cause of food anaphylaxis.

Soy allergies are on the rise for three reasons: the growing use of soy infant formula, the increase in soy-containing foods in grocery stores, and the possibility of the greater allergenicity of genetically modified soybeans.

According to Monsanto’s own tests, compared to normal soybeans, Roundup Ready genetically-engineered soybeans contain 29 percent less of the brain nutrient choline, and 27 percent more trypsin inhibitor—the potential allergen that interferes with protein digestion.

Soy products are often prescribed and consumed for their phytoestrogen content, but according to the company’s tests, the genetically altered soybeans have lower levels of phenylalanine, an essential amino acid that affects levels of phytoestrogens.

And levels of lectins, which are most likely the culprit in soy allergies, are nearly double in the genetically-engineered variety.

Soy and Hormones

Humans and animals appear to be the most vulnerable to the effects of soy estrogens prenatally, during infancy and puberty, during pregnancy and lactation, and during the hormonal shifts of menopause. Of all these groups, infants on soy formula are at the highest risk because of their small size and developmental phase, and because formula is their main source of nutrition.

book cover for The Whole Soy Story
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In the years since soy formula has been in the marketplace, parents and pediatricians have reported growing numbers of boys whose physical maturation is either delayed or does not occur at all.

Breasts, underdeveloped gonads, undescended testicles (cryptorchidism), and steroid insufficiencies are increasingly common. Sperm counts are also falling. Because of the estrogens in soy, men and boys, in particular, should eat little to no soy.

Soy formula is bad news for girls as well. With increased estrogens in the environment and the diet, an alarming number of girls are entering puberty much earlier than normal. One percent of girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before the age of three.

By the age of eight, 14.7 percent of Caucasian girls and 48.3 percent of African American girls had one or both of these characteristics. The fact that blacks experience earlier puberty than whites is not a racial difference but a recent phenomenon.

Most experts blame this epidemic of “precocious puberty” on environmental estrogens from plastics, pesticides, commercial meats, etc., but some pediatric endocrinologists believe that soy is a significant contributor. Of all the estrogens found in the environment, soy is the likeliest explanation of why African American girls are reaching puberty so early.

Since its establishment in 1974, the federal government’s Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program has provided free infant formula to teenage and other low-income mothers while failing to encourage breastfeeding. Because of perceived or real lactose intolerance, black babies are much more likely to receive soy formula than white babies.

Most of the fears concerning soy formula have focused on estrogens. There are other problems as well, notably much higher levels of aluminum, fluoride, and manganese than are found in either breastmilk or dairy formulas. These metals are byproducts of soy processing and all three have the potential to adversely affect brain development.

Although trace amounts of manganese are vital to the development of the brain, toxic levels accrued from ingestion of soy formula during infancy have been found in children suffering from attention-deficit disorders, dyslexia, and other learning problems.

Yet the belief persists that soy hormones are “safe” because they are “weak” and “natural.”

Although the soy industry has claimed that soy estrogens are anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 times weaker than the human estrogen estradiol, the correct figure is only 1,200 times as weak. Though this still sounds quite weak, it is not—because of the quantity of these estrogens ingested by infants on soy formula, and by children and adults who eat soy in multiple hidden forms every day, including in feedlot meat and industrially-produced eggs.

Americans consume far more soy phytoestrogens (called isoflavones) than were ever part of a traditional diet in Asia. The average isoflavone intake in China for adults is 3 milligrams, or 0.05 mg per kilogram of body weight. In Japan, the figures range from 10 to 28 mg, or 0.17 to 0.47 mg isoflavones per kg of body weight. In contrast, infants receiving soy formula average 38 mg of isoflavones, which comes to a shocking 6.25 mg/kg of body weight!

The Right Soy

It is not true that if a little soy is good, a lot must be better. For soy, the dose makes the poison. Asians learned hundreds of years ago that the only way to safely eat soy is to ferment it, which removes the phytates and reduces the trypsin inhibitors. (Unlike other beans, soaking, and even cooking, will not do this.)

So, if you choose to eat soy foods, you will find the most benefit from eating small quantities of organically-grown, whole-food, fermented soy, like real soy sauce, miso, tempeh, or natto, the way Asian people have safely enjoyed soy for millennia.

The bottom line is when it comes to soy, we are all participating in what Daniel M. Sheehan, former senior toxicologist with the FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research, has called a “large, uncontrolled and basically unmonitored human experiment.”

And if that weren’t scary enough, soy cultivation—particularly genetically engineered soy—is one of the most devastating things we can do to the environment.

One of the best ways to avoid the carcinogenic chemical residues and xeno-estrogens in soy (and avoid participating in the environmental damage soy causes, too) is to eat whole, unprocessed food as often as possible, and choose pasture-raised, grass-fed meat, dairy and eggs from farms that don’t feed their livestock GMO soy.

Resources

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87 thoughts on “Why Soy is Bad for You and the Planet”

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  1. Jeffrey Boadi

    When people cite soy as a health food, they’re not talking about Roundup ready, GMO-infested soy that’s found its way into mock meats, vegetable oils and the like. They’re talking about organic, non-genetically modified, fermented soy products like tempeh, edamame, miso and natto. These foods have been consumed by populations in Asia (for how long is irrelevant) but they have some of the lowest incidences of hormone-dependent cancers in the world. I think anyone with a brain would know to stay away from these genetically-modified foods, but to put all soy foods under the same umbrella does the good ones a disservice, as fermented foods like tempeh offer a wide range of nutritional benefits – good protein digestibility, prebiotics, calcium, as well as being a decent source of magnesium and iron. Big difference compared to a soy and seed oil based Impossible Burger which – being plant-based myself – I couldn’t speak more lowly of from a health perspective.

    1. I almost agree with the article. The only flaw in it is the claim that soy is foremost used for livestock. That is falsh. Research on import numbers showed that the soy imported to the UK is for over 65 percent for non-livestock perpose.
      Research showed that the huge amount imported by the Netherlands is partly used for livestock purposes. Soy that remains in the Netherlands is foremost used for livestock purposes. But the fast majority that the Netherlands imports is going further to other countries, used for non-livestock purposes. From all soy imported through the Netherlands, to the whole WU, is even more than 65 percent used for non-livestock purposes.

      Soy is for human consumption for the fast fast majority.

      The soy maffia started a lie campaign in the 90’s against the meat industry to capture their market.

  2. The notion that Asians only eat “a small amount of fermented soy” is plain wrong. Tofu and dounai (soymilk) are incredibly common foods in China. As for fermented foods, Tempeh is incredibly popular in Indonesia. This also includes the rest of Asia. Far from “a small amount of fermented soy only.” As for deforestation, the soy plantations that cause deforestation are for conventional animal agriculture. Soy for humans is grown most often in the region it is sold in.

  3. One cow elease about 100 kg Methane per year for each cow is equivalent to about 2’300 kg CO2 per year.
    A rule-of-thumb is that it takes 1.5 to 2 acres to feed a cow calf for 12 months on grass.
    One acre of well-managed grass stores about 920 lbs (417.3 kg) of carbon (not CO2) per year. We can convert this to CO2 by multiplying by 44 (the weight of CO2) / 12 (the weight of C), for 3400 lbs (1542.2 kg) of CO2 per acre per year.

    One cow relise the equivalent to about 2300kg co2 per year.
    One cow need betwen 1,5-2 acre of grass.
    1,5-2 acre of grass remove the equivalent to about 2313-3084 kg co2 per year.
    So cow farming on grass grass remove the equivalent to about 13- 784 kg co2 per year.

    Cows feed on wheat need about 1 to 1.5 acre of wheat per cow.
    One acre of wheat will absorb 10,000 lbs (4535 kg) of CO2 as it grows.
    So cow farming on wheat remove the equivalent to about 2235-4503 kg co2 per year. (Not taking planting and Harvest into consideration)

    Resources
    (Note: The first resource only the first four sentences is important)
    https://timeforchange.org/are-cows-cause-of-global-warming-meat-methane-co2/
    https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1167344.pdf
    http://highfrontier.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=20
    https://www.drovers.com/article/using-wheat-pasture-winter-supplement-cows-0
    http://www.co2x.com/
    http://www.lessco2.es/pdfs/noticias/ponencia_cisc_ingles.pdf

  4. And here we have Harvard saying:

    ”The Takeaway: Soy is a unique food that is widely studied for its estrogenic and anti-estrogenic effects on the body. Studies may seem to present conflicting conclusions about soy, but this is largely due to the wide variation in how soy is studied. Results of recent population studies suggest that soy has either a beneficial or neutral effect on various health conditions. Soy is a nutrient-dense source of protein that can safely be consumed several times a week, and is likely to provide health benefits—especially when eaten as an alternative to red and processed meat.”

    https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/soy/

    Not easy to know what to believe… 🙂

    1. This is why it is important to consider all factors: soy is actually contraindicated for people with estrogen-related illnesses, like breast cancer. Soy is also mostly Round-up Ready GMO in the U.S. and coated in glyphosate—a known carcinogen. Industrial soy monocultures are also displacing forests and grasslands to provide feed to livestock in concentrated, industrial feeding operations—THE most unsustainable way to care for both ecosystems and cattle. All around there are many great reasons to avoid soy, even if health isn’t the main one.

    2. That’s not true at all about soy being consumed in the region it’s grown in. You need to look this stuff up. Over 90% of soy produced in America is not consumed here.

  5. I’d love for you to cite your sources please! Because doctors say quite the opposite than you are saying right now regarding health and I’d like to get the answers!

    1. There is a long list of references at the end of the article, as well as many links to sources within the article itself.

    2. Doctors also recommended people smoke cigarettes at one point stating that it had health benefits. You cannot rely on marketing and “health” recommendations by the medical industry/govt to be your guide. Your first consideration is to listen to the health of your body. Soy is high oxalate and also high in copper, most vegetarian/vegan foods are – oxalate binds heavy metals to the body and can contribute to copper toxicity among other things. I personally have experienced this in my health. Rather than looking for all the answers in one tidy package – I recommend you do your own research instead of taking the soy industry’s recommendations. Soy whether organic or gm is not a natural food for animals or humans and should not be used as such.

  6. Keara O'Brien

    This is amazing! I am always trying to educated people where I can. I truly believe a 100mile diet of possible is the best way we can all help this earth and our bodies! Thank you for this article!!

  7. Mark Swearingen

    Thanks for the great, comprehensive article. I recall seeing something showing the volume of soy products produced worldwide year over year from the ’50’s. I believe it also showed the acreage consumed by GMO soy production. Have you seen this and can you provide a pointer? Thanks!

  8. After reading all the negative comments on soy, I am extremely shocked that one of the top cardiologist would recommend Soy milk for your heart.

    1. If you spend any time on this site, you will quickly see that I am a strong advocate of sustainable agriculture, and feeding GMO soy and corn to animals whose natural diet is grass, herbs and forbes is not sustainable. The percentage of soy fed to industrially produced animals simply adds to the burden of xenoestrogens in our diet. It’s not good for them, not good for us.

      1. This is such pure propaganda I simply don’t know if I should laugh or cry. Sustainability wise, why do you ignore the fact that to feed americans grass fed meat, we would need to clear out all USA, half of Canada, the whole Central America and half South America to use the land for lifestock. And that is only to feed Americans. It turns out as well, it takes 23-months for a grass fed animal to grow to the point where it is ready to be killed, whereas a grain fed takes 15 months, so that’s another 8 months. Another 8 months of feed, water usage, land usage, waste and methane gases. Due to land use, grass fed animals are even more unsustainable than factory farming. Health wise, how about you talk about IGF1 in animal products? Cholestrol? How the protein in animal products is rejected by the human body since it is to similar to ours? And since you mentioned acidity, soy milk is a mild alkaline whereas cows milk is a mild acid. Maybe visit www.nutrionfacts.org to learn more. Not saying all of this is wrong, but to not write about it in perspective to what is even more harmful to our health and planet, animal products, is wrong.

        1. This is simply not true. While we as Americans do need to reduce our meat intake and our production expectations to be sustainable, holistically managed cattle can be raised to take up the same amount of space as their current grain field requirements, and it can be done in a way that restores native prairie habitat, sequestering tons of carbon in the process. I encourage you to read the latest data on it here.

          Cholesterol in animal products causing harm has been thoroughly debunked (also here), as has the acid/alkaline food thing, so they are non-issues. And the “protein rejected by the human body” issue… I don’t even know what to say to such claptrap. There is zero credible science to back that up.

          The answer to sustainable protein is not soy, not only because it is a monoculture that is primarily GMO and full of antinutrients, but particularly since so many people are allergic to it. It is one of the top 8 allergens. In contrast, livestock, when raised to mimic natural ecosystem patterns in a Permaculture system, can actually restore habitat, and sequester more carbon than it emits. It can also provide food where crops will not grow, such as on sleep slopes and marginal lands.

          1. Dawn, did you ever consider that eating animals is unethical and just straight up wrong? Wild habitats are being destroyed for soy & grain production for ANIMALS not humans.

            Your homework: Watch Before the Flood, Cowspiracy, An Inconvenient Truth.

          2. There are many places in the world where crops cannot be grown and animal husbandry is the most sustainable form of agriculture. And in biomimicry, permaculture and agroecology (the most sustainable forms of food production), ruminant animals are vital to those systems and to ecosystem restoration. While industrial agriculture is terrible for people and planet, not everyone shares the view that we shouldn’t eat animals at all. Many see livestock, seafood and even insects as a vital part of any sustainable food system.

  9. I’m starting to think soy is the reason for vitamin deficiency in some dietary vegans and not lack of b12 in plants. Or I need to brush up on biology and nutrition.

  10. I think you need to take another look at the data.

    1) Several meta analyses have been done that show that soy consumption does not have a negative hormonal effect on anyone including babies and males.
    2) All of this soy causing deforestation is not going to feed humans – it’s going to feed animals. It takes a ridiculous amount of soy to produce one pound of meat. If you care about the environment, the answer is to stop eating meat.

    1. There are hundreds of studies finding problems with soy. I direct you here for a list of just 170 of them. Asian cultures do not eat tofu dogs, soy lecithin, processed soy milk, soy burgers and soy protein isolate in huge quantities the way Americans do. Soy is in virtually everything, and GMO soy at that. Anecdotally, I know many people who have experienced clear hormonal effects from eating soy. I cannot tolerate it at all as it gives me migraines and terrible menstrual symptoms.

      Secondly, the answer is not to stop eating meat; it is to stop eating meat that has been raised on GMO soy and corn. The permaculture/agroecological way is to consume animal products that are an integral part of a holistic managed grass/grazier ecosystem, eating grass, bugs and other forage as their species were meant to. These new methods of raising animals restore carbon to the soil, refurbish grassland ecosystems, produce food on marginal or steep land that cannot be used for farming, and require no deforestation. Does this mean eating less meat? Yes. But it doesn’t mean having to forgo it altogether.

  11. Oh great! I’m lactose intolerant and drank soy milk for over a decade until recently switching to almond milk. Is the damage already done?!

    1. I could not tell you, as I am not your doctor, but it is very good that you are switching to something else now. 🙂

    2. i just learned something very interesting about lactose intolerance. The reason we have that is because they pasteurize the milk and it kills an enzyme that God put there to prevent such a thing. I bet anything that if you tried raw milk you would have none of that. They do not kill milk overseas. I’d like to see a lot more about the healthiness of raw milk products vs the crap they’ve poisoned.

    3. My wife is lactose intolerant and drink lactose-free milk. My understanding is that Almond milk is incredibly bad for the environment because of the amount of water required to grow the almonds?

  12. Thank you so much for this article. It is so well written and thorough. I always knew soy was bad but I still know some people who think it’s OK. Now I have so much information that I can pass to them as well.

  13. Miss J. Stone

    Oh..p.s…i was under the impression that the majority of soya..mass produced and rain forest clearing..was for feeding cattle..(another reason not to eat meat!?)…
    is this true?..

    1. Dawn Gifford

      Yes, much of it is for feeding livestock. The rest is for all the many soy foods and soy additives found in just about every packaged, processed food (soy lecithin, soy isolate, etc.). You don’t have to give up meat though. Grass-fed, pasture-raised animal foods are not only substantially healthier than soy and grain fed animal products, but they are NOT harmful to the environment. Holistic managed grazing systems used in sustainable grass-fed operations actually restore prairie ecosystems and sequester carbon in the soil.

  14. Miss J. Stone

    Oh dear!…as a vegan family..I have never relied on soya and dont really `do` the meat substitutes alot..but we do have organic soya milk in teas..I have a ten year old boy and now am worried about giving him meat subs…(sometimes its handy to make him feel more `normal` with kids stuffing burgers etc..but he doesnt drink the milk much…we have alot of miso .. but this is OK..my mum though has recently been diagnosed with slight under active thyroid (she has the same diet as us)…should she avoid even the soya milk? .. she would be upset about that as we found a brand thats really nice in tea…she has more that I do as she has porridge with it in..

    When we do eat soya `meat free` products I always try to source organic…is that processed or grown in any better conditions??

    Thank you.

    1. Dawn Gifford

      If you have any issues with thyroid, I would avoid soy like the plague. Soy is very goitrogenic and harmful to the thyroid. Organic soy has most of the same nutritional and processing problems that conventional soy does, even though it is not GMO. If it is fermented AND organic, it’s fine in moderation. Maybe coconut milk or almond milk would be a good substitute?

  15. No way is soy the most destructive crop raised!! Sugar cane is hell on the environment! I am a plant physiologist and work with agricultural plants- I haven’t just read about this topic, I see it first hand. Are you aware that soybeans produce their own nitrogen? I think there is lots of misinformation out there. just because someone publishes something doesn’t mean it is true. my nonenvironmental friend read a book called ‘secrets of the soil’. He gleaned from that that soil can break down plastic. It can’t.

    1. Thanks for commenting. I said “arguably” one the most destructive crops raised. No doubt that sugar cane is a scourge too, and has done incredible damage to the cultures and lands of tropical regions. Stay tuned for a similar post on sugarcane! 🙂

      But soy has a particular distinction that makes it in some ways much worse than sugarcane: Regular applications of Roundup on GMO soy are destroying soil biota, fertility and tilth, creating Superweeds, and causing not only more plant disease, but also widespread birth defects in people who live in big soy countries like Argentina and Brazil. GMO soy monocropping is also destroying local food self-reliance and the long South American heritage of sustainable agricultural rotations that include managed grazing, which sequesters carbon and restores soil fertility.

      The benefit of soy fixing nitrogen (like all legumes) is largely cancelled out by the environmental, health and social costs of the way we grow, process and consume it. And particularly galling is the fact that much of this destruction is solely to feed livestock, who are much healthier on the grazing rotations they used to enjoy before soy monocropping displaced them.

      As far as soil biota breaking down plastic, it’s true (with qualification)! 🙂

  16. Robert Kavanaugh

    Unprocessed soy protein is an inducer of antioxidant enzymes, and is likely a NRF2/Keap1 activator. These are extremely important in decreasing systemic inflammation. Phytoestrogens are not the same as estrogen, nor are they the same as xenoestrogens from petrochemicals. Phytoestrogens have a much higher affinity for binding to Estrogen Receptor Site Beta (ERbeta), over ER-alpha , and it is through this separate mechanism that phytoestrogens help control an evolutionary homeostatic balance between immune function (inflammation) and cell longevity (antioxidant enzyme response). The theory is explained by David Sinclair, et. al. in their paper on xenohormesis. Start there, then add S-Equol, NRF2/Keap1, and Sirtuins.

    1. Thanks for your comment. As stated in the article, organic, fermented soy can be a nutritious food. However, industrially-farmed, oxidized, processed GMO soy (which is most of the soy that Americans eat) offers very little nutritive value at all, contains plenty of anti-nutrients and toxic residues, and is a MAJOR environmental problem.

      Americans typically eat an unprecedented and extremely high amount soy every day either as baby formula, meat and dairy replacers, or hidden as additives and byproducts in thousands of other foods. This has caused researchers, doctors and nutritionists like Dr. Kaayla Daniel, among others, to become concerned with our intake of modern soy foods. Also soy of any type is often contraindicated for people with cancer. Many agree that anything with enough phytoestrogens to stop hot flashes should be consumed with great caution.

      1. Hi Dawn,

        Could you please clarify what you mean when you say that the soy is oxidized and processed? I’m also confused by anti-nutrients as I’ve never heard that term before. Thank you!

        1. Anti-nutrients are natural compounds in beans, grains, nuts and other seeds that prevent them from sprouting. These compounds include phytates, saponins, lectins, among others, and they are hard on the digestive process and bind to essential minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium in the digestive tract and inhibit their absorption by the body.

          Soaking your grains, beans, nuts and seeds can help reduce the anti-nutrients in these foods to varying degrees, however soaking doesn’t remove the phytates from soy very much at all.

          Unless you are eating homemade tofu or edamame, all soy is industrially processed to make powders, faux meats, soy lecithin, etc., and in those industrial processes, (like many processed foods) the soy gets stripped down and oxidized. This is one of the reasons why processed food is not very good for you, and soy protein isolate is one of the worst.

  17. Katie @ Girl Meets Nourishment

    Loved this article! I was a vegetarian for many, many years before discovering the world of real food. I look back and shake my head at the amount of soy products I used to consume, it’s scary. Thank you for getting the world out there about the dangers of soy – more people need to know how soy affects the body chemistry, not to mention whole GMO-issue. It’s not as much of a health food as we are told!

    — Katie

  18. most informative eye-opening article/ a cousin told me about the dangers of soy a few years back but i listened with half an ear/ was going to buy a soy-milk maker think i’ll just continue drinking hemp milk/
    what is the date of the above article?

  19. Lori @ Our Heritage of Health

    Yikes! I knew soy was bad, but I hadn’t realized that it was THAT bad! This is such a thorough and informative description of so many problems related to soy. I shudder to think of how much hydrogenated soybean oil I used to consume!

    Thanks for sharing with Old-Fashioned Friday! 🙂

  20. Cindy (Vegetarian Mamma)

    Thank you for this post about soy. Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂

    The party will be GREAT this week! We are giving away a tote full of goodies from Namaste Foods! The items are gluten free and allergy friendly! Can’t wait to see what you bring to the party!

    Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com

  21. Jennifer Juniper

    This is so interesting to read because I’ve been thinking this but never actually researched it! my mom had a bout of breast cancer and was told to cut soy out of her diet for good.

    You’re right,it’s hard to find things that DON’T have soy! I’ve been thinking, soy must be bad for all of us…

    Occasionally I give my kids edemame but I’m guessing this is a bad idea?

    1. Thanks for commenting! My mom is also a breast cancer survivor who was told to eliminate all soy. That’s what got me researching myself. While edamame is not the best choice (fermented soy, like tempeh or miso is better), the very occasional snack shouldn’t harm them!

  22. Hi Dawn,
    Who knew that people would have trouble believing this?! Thanks for sharing this on Wildcrafting Wednesday! Hope to see you again today!

  23. I tell everyone that soy is bad for them and you’ve just backed me up. This is a great post! Thank you for sharing<3

  24. Wow, I’m certainly surprised at learning this! I was led to believe soy was actually good for you. Gonna share this with my sisters.
    Thanks for linking-up at A Humble Bumble 🙂

  25. April @ The 21st Century Housewife

    I was interested to read this post. A few years ago a friend urged me to up my consumption of soy for its ‘health benefits’. Luckily I couldn’t stand the taste of soy milk and am really not a fan of tofu! Today I avoid it as much as I can, and always read labels carefully.

  26. Hi! I saw this at New Nastolgia’s Link Party and had to click over just to say “thanks” for posting this. Luckily I have a mother that keeps me in tune with stuff like this. Wish more people knew!

  27. Thanks for sharing this on The HomeAcre Hop! See you Thursday on the next hop!
    http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/04/the-homeacre-hop-13.html

  28. This article is very biased and full of the pseudoscientific opinions of the Weston A Price foundation. Please I urge you to check your facts and stop being paranoid of this falsely demonized plant!

    1. Weston A. Price is only one of over a dozen sources in this article. I have checked my facts, very, very thoroughly, thank you. Most of them are listed at the bottom of the article, including a few peer reviewed studies. I am a horticulture and agriculture expert, and there is frankly nothing you can say that could possibly convince me that soy is not the most environmentally destructive plant humans cultivate. If you have evidence contrary to this article I encourage you to present it, and not just buzz in with an unsupported opinion.

  29. thanks for a great article! I stupidly grew soy in my garden this year thinking I would make soy sauce, then I read about the process, it takes months, it looked too hard. Now I have a whole lot of soy beans and I don’t know what to do with them! I won’t be eating them, that’s for sure!

  30. Hi Dawn,
    We have pretty much eliminated soy from our diets. Great post! I hope you’ll share this on The HomeAcre Hop today!
    http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/03/the-homeacre-hop-12-and-giveaway-winner.html

  31. GiGi Eats Celebrities

    AMAZING POST! Absolutely amazing!!! So many people are BRAINWASHED by thoughts that SOY is healthy! This post is so great, thank you for wanting to educate more about soy’s dangers!

  32. Wow! So much great information – thanks for sharing! I’ve never been a big soy eater, but I’ve been avoiding it even more since going Paleo. I knew it wasn’t good for you from the research I’d already done – but this article taught me some new things too!

  33. What a great article. I wish I would have known the dangers of soy 33 years ago when I started my family. My 3 daughters were all breast fed until about 1 year of age but after that I fell into the processed, convenience food trap (can we say Kraft macaroni and cheese?). I will pass this information on to 2 of my daughters who now have babies and toddlers of their own. I worry about our food supply and the effects it’s having on the health of past and future generations.
    I look forward to exploring the rest of your blog. I peeked at your gardening link and liked what I read so far.
    Thanks!

  34. I wish everyonne I know would read this! Please come share tomorrow at Eco-Kids Tuesday! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/search/label/Eco-Kids%20Tuesday

  35. Katie (www.livingcrunchy.com)

    EXCELLENT article. I became intolerant to soy after having my first child, and it was such a blessing in disguise, because I then learned how dangerous it was. I realized that soy is in almost ALL packaged, processed food, and soybean oil almost all salad dressings. I am no longer intolerant of soy, but stay away from it except for organic soy sauce. I just posted an article about how to easily make your own salad dressings to avoid soy. http://www.livingcrunchy.com/2012/03/make-your-own-salad-dressing/

  36. Wow! This will take a while to absorb because of all the information. I did know about the estrogen levels in soy. I warned my daughter about it so she could avoid giving it to my grandsons. I also stopped drinking soy milk. I was using it because I am lactose intolerant. I didn’t realize all of the hidden sources though! Do you have a particular article you could recommend out of those listed that has the names of soy when used in products? I would like to avoid these things in the future. I still have 2 boys at home!
    When my kids were younger I was on WIC and they did recommend breast-feeding. They still do here! Its nice to know one place you think you should be able to trust, is trust worthy to a point. They even give out $ every summer to purchace things at the farmer’s market.
    Thank you for taking the time and effort to research and write this article! It is greatly appreciated!

    1. Thanks so much for commenting! I’m glad you got a lot out of the article. The big ones to look for are “lecithin” and “protein isolate” which are almost always made from soy. Of course, the best way to avoid soy is to avoid packaged foods altogether, but that isn’t always possible for everyone.

      Welcome to Small Footprint Family and best on your Real Food journey!

  37. Really interesting stuff! I’ve long been weary of soy. We try to eat very little of it, my son is allergic anyway, and only eat organic when we do eat it. We’ve found some really great miso and soy products from South River Miso company made from chick peas. How cool!

    Thanks again for this great post! I’ve shared it on my FB page.

  38. Thank you for your reply.

    It would be appreciated if you infrom me what are the tosted soy meal antiquality parameters that harmful for human consumption while the white flake dont have it?

    As mater of fact in toasting time which poisens being produced that make hazard for human in consumption.

    Thank you again for your attention.
    Best Reagrds.

    1. Sir, if you have not figured this out from reading other parts of my blog, I do not advocate the consumption of industrially processed foods of any kind. Based on my research for this article, I think industrially processed soy–especially in the quantity that Americans eat it–is both horrible for the environment and toxic to humans. The article is very clear with numerous references as to why I and many other experts believe this.

      Toasting does not remove the phytates, protease inhibitors, pesticides, estrogens and other toxins present in soy during processing, and it certainly does not have any effect on the devastation that growing soybeans places on the ecosystem.

      If you want to consume soy in moderation, it is safest to consume it as a WHOLE FOOD, ideally naturally fermented or simply processed, like miso or natto.

      Best,

      Dawn @ Small Footprint Family

      1. Hi very interesting article. Do you have any references for your claims? i am not disputing them as i think they may probably be true but would like to do further reading on the subject. Would organic soy beans be ok do you think.? if made with the whole soy bean in a traditional way and not soy isolate? It has definately turned me off processed foods as soy lecithin seems to be in everything these days! Thank you for the information. Fin

        1. There is a complete list of the 10 sources I used for this article at the end. Fermented, organic soy grown in the U.S. is the only soy I would even consider eating. Since it is very difficult to get traditionally fermented, organic soy in the U.S., mostly, I just avoid it like the plague.

          1. Hi Thank for your reply! I am in Australia and there is a wonderful company called Spiral Foods which is ethical and they source a soy milk called Bonsoy made in traditional way in Japan with whole organic soy beans.
            Over here we are more concerned with Palm Oil Production as they are cutting down thousands of acres  Indonesian Rainforest every year for Palm Oil Production and the Indonesian Orangatans have become endangered. Palm Oil should also be avoided like the plague.
            But i was not aware of the toxins in soy which book mentions that in particular?….I have had some hormonal issues since i introduced soy a few years ago when my youngest became intolerant/allergic to dairy and i was breastfeeding. I cut dairy and felt immediate improvement in my health….I guess as adults we do not need to drink any milk products. My Holistic Doctor who also practising TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) told me to give my son rice milk instead as that is more in line with TCM. But i worry about water use as rice uses so much water!!! Its very hard to eat totally ethically these days but you gotta try.
            Thanks Fin

  39. thank for your artichle.

    Kindly please inform me that to production textured soy protein which raw materials is better (is more safe),tosted defatted soy meal(from DTDC) or defatted soy white flake(From Flash Desolventizer)?
    Regards.

  40. Hello Dawn

    While I don’t mean to imply I disagree with your article on soy, I would like to see your references for it. It would be good to take a look at the studies conducted around soy if you could point me to them!

    Kind regards

    Candice

    1. Um, Candice, there are links to 10 references at the end of the article, as well as a few within the article too.

      Also, Dr. Kaayla Daniels (who was recently on Dr. Oz talking about the problems with soy) and her book The Whole Soy Story are invaluable resources, packed with primary source references to the clinical studies most mainstream readers do not have access to.

  41. Thank you for this interesting article!

    I hate soy. I hate it because I am severely allergic to it and thanks to subsidization it is in EVERYTHING in North America.
    Nowadays it is extremely difficult to find anything pre-made that does not contain some form of soy either obvious or hidden.

    Unfortunately the general public are only made aware of the obvious sources of soy and unless you suffer from an allergy are usually oblivious to the long list of hidden sources that are added to almost every product on regular supermarket shelves.

    What’s worse is that there is now pressure from the lobbyists to deem soy oil and soy lecithin as ‘safe’ for soy allergic people to eat so manufacturers won’t be required to list the allergy alert on labels. This is because of results from one very small study out of Europe. A lot of medical sites and doctors will even say soy oil is not a problem because the refining process removes the proteins.

    However, just spend one minute on an allergy sufferers forum and you will soon see just how many of us become seriously ill from soy oil and soy lecithin. I become violently ill if I consume soy oil. It is actually one of the soy products that makes me the sickest.

    I wouldn’t have such a hatred of soy if it was easier to avoid. It is simply greed and laziness in our food production in the 21st century that is causes this problem of overuse. I see so many products on a daily basis that I should be able to eat and yet can’t because soy was added unnecessarily!

    In restaurants instead of making sauces from scratch or using fresh ingredients chefs choose to take the easy way out and contaminate meals with soy-impregnated flavorings. Arghhh!

    On the positive side my allergy does force me to eat healthy, real, whole foods. Foods that contain single ingredients. In my opinion if a child can’t read the label then we really shouldn’t be eating it!

    Cheers,
    Rachelle

  42. Hi, I’m not so sure about the prison video – I think they were making a bit of a meal out of it(pardon the pun).
    I have been a vegetarian for 20 years, most of my life – In that time I have 2 pregnancies, and breastfed 2 babies – My eldest son is high in Testosterone levels, so I’m not quite sure about alot of these claims, who is backing the scientific research (the government?) as they seem to want to belittle any ‘Milk replacement’ (recently they were belittling rice milk) yet they push cows milk all the time.
    Cows milk must also be full of Oestrogen, as they pump dairy cows so full of hormones, that thier lifes are cut short by 4 times the length it should be. It is also not natural for us to drink any other milk, other than our own – yet our modern diet is based around milk products, how are yoy supposed to cook without an alternative?

    1. Thanks for your comment, Elly!

      While phytoestrogens like genestein have been shown to have benefits to human health, they have also been implicated in many studies done by universities, government and industry in causing all sorts of hormonal effects. The soybean industry thinks this is a positive thing, and soy is aggressively marketed as “natural” hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women. Others point to possible negative effects from tampering with hormones, and urge caution, because many people are very sensitive to estrogens, and could develop cancers and other problems if they consume too much.

      I agree with you about conventional cow’s milk, which, pumped full of genetically engineered hormones and pasteurized, is also implicated in a host of health problems. I wouldn’t eat conventional dairy products if you paid me. But conventional milk is not touted as a superfood, nor is it consumed in the quantities that soy is. Dairy is also a much smaller industry than soy. As a result of heavy subsidization with everyone’s tax dollars, soy byproducts can be found in nearly everything on grocery shelves these days, and Americans are consuming these hormone-altering foods at unprecedented rates.

      While not everyone has issues with soy, like yourself, I have known many people who suffered health problems that went away with the elimination of soy from their diet. My mother, a two-time breast cancer survivor, has been instructed by her oncologist to avoid soy like the plague, including as a skin cream additive. I myself am intolerant to soy hormones, and my daughter is very allergic to soy. We are also allergic to almonds and dairy. Therefore, in our house, we use a lot of both coconut and hemp milk, which, with an abundance of fatty acids, calcium and added B12, are significantly more nutritious than soy, almond, rice or conventional, pasteurized cow’s milk.

  43. Really enjoyed your article. I have recovered from three separate estrogen positive breast cancers and my doctor has told me to stay away from all soy products.

  44. Great post!

    Thank you for spreading the truth about soy.

    I agree that the best replacement for soy oil is animal fats from grassfed animals, which are so healthy. Unrefined coconut oil is also an excellant substitute. I use olive oil, one of our oldest foods, where animal fat will not work, such as in salad dressing.

    The only way we can counter the propaganda of the soy industry is to spread the truth, over and over again.

    Thank you so much for doing so.

    Stanley Fishman
    Author of Tender Grassfed Meat

  45. “The problem, however, is that while palm oil plantations are responsible for some deforestation, the soybean industry is causing more destruction to the environment than probably any other agricultural industry on the planet.”

    The reason why is a no-brainer when you think about it. Where does palm oil come from? Trees. By definition you have to grow trees to have a palm plantation. Where does soy come from? Annual plants, requiring full sun. You MUST cut down all the trees in the area of the field to grow soy.

    Now, I do distinguish between “group of trees” and “forest,” unlike some people (Rush Limbaugh famously pooh-poohed the loss of old-growth forest in the U.S. by claiming we have more trees now than when Columbus landed in Haiti), but still, it’s better to have a group of trees in rows on a plantation than no trees at all.

    I do wonder why people skirt around the issue of saturated fats from animal sources even as they admit the tropical oils are healthy. We may not always be able to obtain tropical oils in temperate climates in the future, what with the price of fuel steadily rising (and if you believe the Peak Oil alarmists this becomes even more of an urgent issue), so we need to get over the idea that butter, lard, and tallow will kill us when in fact they greatly improve our health and quality of life. They will be the saturated fat sources we can most easily access if we lose access to palm and coconut.

    1. Thanks for your comment, Dana!

      I agree completely with you on all accounts: palm trees, peak oil and animal fats.

      I am a big fan of animal fats, and use them liberally in my home. I have also posted on making your own butter, and on the myth that saturated fats are bad for you. However, there are times when I need an oil rather than a fat that is solid at room temperature. Butter, for example, is a little tough to make salad dressing with. For that sunflower, olive or even sesame oil make better choices.

  46. Dawn,

    Thank you for this excellent summary! I really appreciate the work you put into assembling such a great array of information and resources for further research. The soy craze has bugged me for years now, and the more I learn about the motives behind the growth of the industry and the cost in health to the general public so easily swayed by advertising, the more confident I am in my distaste and distrust. Thank you for illuminating the need to return to natural foods/oils that we’ve been using for centuries…

    Cheers,
    Bethany

  47. Great article – thanks for helping open eyes and hearts on the dangers of this ‘miracle’ food. It’s really sad to me how many people are eating it in almost every food they consume!

  48. Thanks for warning people about the dangers of modern soy foods. Here are some videos about a hair raising soy feeding “experiment” going on in Illinois prisons. Buyer Beware!

    http://hartkeisonline.com/2009/11/13/prison-soy-press-conference-videos/

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