Why is soy as a food , still considered safe to eat!?

Question

My reading of the book "The Whole Soy Story", convinced me that only small amounts, of the old fashioned fermented soy, is safe to eat. Experts are at severe odds on soy safety and health magazines are still tauting it as a healthy product,why!

Answer 1

I don't know.
Why are humans the only mammal that drinks another animal's milk after we are weaned? Cow milk is for baby cows!

Answer 2

I'm not a scientist, but I've been living in Japan for the last year, and Japanese people eat a lot of soy. Generally it is fermented (tofu, soy milk) but fresh soybeans are also eaten as an appetizer or snack. Everyone seems pretty healthy to me, and statistically Japanese people have great longevity.

Still, there are some questions about health risks. You'll find these with most foods. Even the Wikipedia entry for "Water" lists a few health warnings.

So, I think a good philosophy is "moderation in all things." Eat a lot of different healthy foods and even some unhealthy foods in a lot of variety, but even if you think something like soy, or rose hips, or Kraft Dinner is the fountain of youth, don't overdo it -- variety is the spice of life!

But that's just my inexpert opinion.

Japanese people eat a lot of soy, but they also eat a lot of other things, a lot of seafood and veggies, in great variety, and prepared in a variety of ways. Maybe that's the reason for their longevity.

Answer 3

I bet that if you read carefully who is behind the publishing of that book you will find that it was put together by the good folks in the meat industry, who are scared to death of everyone deciding to go vegan on their sorryass and leaving them with a bunch of useless cows to raise.

But seriously: The majority of the risks associated with the larger consumption of soy are fictitious. Yeah, some people are allergic to soy. But then there are people who are allergic to milk too! You don't see a book saying we should give up drinking milk, huh? The hard truth is that you are probably more likely to break your neck while tying your shoes than to die from poisoning with soy products. Moreover, what do cattle ranchers use as feed for their herds? Specially manufactured feed, with a SOY base. If it is fit to feed the cows you will someday eat, what is the big problem? Do cows die of soy poisoning too?

It is only in recent years, after the advent of genetic engineering, that so many food allergies have started gaining prominence. Prior to 1995 there were so few deaths from anaphylactic shock (allergic reaction to foods) that it was actually newsworthy when someone discovered they were gluten-intolerant or allergic to peanuts. If soy were truly that dangerous, don't you think more Chinese and Japanese people would die from it? After all, it is over there that the majority of the worldwide human consumption of soy takes place. What do you think tofu is, and where was it invented???

I think there are greater evils in the food world than soy. Undercooked pork carries some pretty nasty bugs. The kind that will produce brain tumors. But the National Pork Council doesn't tell you that.

The bottom line: Soy is high enough in protein value and nutritional content that in non-meat diets it is considered as THE source of protein.

FACT: If more people ate soy there would be fewer people dropping dead from heart disease, since soy has NO CHOLESTEROL, unlike meat.

FACT: Soy does not carry the antigen responsible for Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (You may know this disease as Mad Cow Disease)

FACT: People who replace meat with soy protein tend to live longer, healthier lives. Just look at the life expectancy of Seventh Day Adventists, who are encouraged to adopt a vegan diet.

Just thought I would raise a few points with you.

Answer 4

I have read that the regular soy causes cancer in rats. I'm not sure about the organic soy.