The Whole Soy Story

The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food
Home » Posts tagged 'Asia'

What about history?

October 4th, 2009 Posted in FAQs Tags: ,

Dear Kaayla,
People in Asia have been eating soy for 10,000 years. So how could there possibly be a problem?
GT

Dear GT,

This is a myth perpetuated by the soy industry. Soy has been a food in China for a little more than 2000 years. Farmers grew soybean plants only as “green manure” — as a cover crop plowed under to enrich the soil. Soy was a fertilizer, not a food. The ancient Chinese originally developed the technique for making soybean paste (best known by the Japanese term miso) to preserve protein-rich animal foods. This process was first applied to soybeans and grains in the second century BC at the earliest and appeared in Japan around 500 AD. Legend holds that tofu was invented in China in 164 BC and came to Japan in the eighth century AD. Natto entered the food supply around 1000AD and tempeh no earlier than the 1600s.