The Whole Soy Story

“Soyfoods: The US Market Report” has come out and and it reports a “protracted slide” in soy milk sales as well as “lackluster performance in sales of tofu and soy infant formula” in the year 2010.

The industry blames three factors:

• Competition from almond, rice, coconut, hemp and other non dairy milks
• “Premium pricing” for many soy products
• “Widely distributed information about the impact of soy on health.”

That last makes me proud.   Seems the decade-long campaign by the Weston A. Price Foundation is finally paying off.   We’ve also been greatly helped in the past year by Dr. Joseph Mercola, who has reached millions through his website  www.mercola.com, the world’s leading health and dietary website.   Numerous other websites too have helped the message go viral.    The soy controversy even aired on The Dr Oz Show on October 5 in a segment that featured Dr Oz, Dr Mark Hyman and me.

Despite growing concerns about modern. industrial soy processing techniques,  meat analogue sales saw a four percent growth in 2010 compared to 2009.   The largest growth was in the soy-protein energy bar category with a whopping 18 percent increase in just the one year of 2010.   According to Joe Jordan, Content Director of Soyatech, “Marketers of soy-based foods have been finding success in developing delicious meat alternative products with sophisticated flavor profiles.  In addition, 14 energy bar brands appeared among the top 50 soyfoods brands in 2010, indicating that this broad market affords many opportunities for creative food manufacturers to reach their key target markets.”

What are the “current market drivers”?   Soyatech thinks it’s fueled by three things:  the consumer focus on convenience; widespread interest in meat-free foods; and new USDA food guidelines that “affect consumer understanding of — and interest in — the added value of foods made from the nutritious soybean.”

In short, the good news is that soy sales are slumping, and the bad news is they are not plummeting.   And it’s very good news of course that soy infant formula sales may have finally peaked.  Meanwhile, we at the WAPF will continue to do our best to alert people to the risks of  “convenience” foods that sooner or later create inconvenient health problems, and the malnutrition and health risks associated with vegan diets and soy-based and other meat substitutes.

c copyright 2011 Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Her own radio show, “Naughty Nutrition with Dr. Kaayla Daniel” debuted this spring on World of Women (WOW) Radio. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences, a Board Member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Every week I get agonized letters from parents who fed their sons soy infant formula and who report estrogenized boys who are flabby, lethargic, high strung and/or embarrassed by breasts and underdeveloped genitals. These parents want to know, “What can we do now?”
First, read my two articles “Soy Recovery Part I” and “Soy Recovery: The Toxic Metal Component,” which are posted on the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website (www.westonaprice.org). The first article discusses the importance of eliminating soy and other estrogenic foods from the diet and the necessity of gut healing. The second article covers the importance of eliminating toxic metals, such as mercury, aluminum, cadmium and lead, as well as reducing toxic levels of needed minerals such as copper and manganese.
Why do toxic metals play a part in soy recovery? By interfering with every metabolic function in the body. Malnourished children — most children these days but certainly those who were put on soy formula — have impaired detoxification pathways. That means widespread heavy metal toxicity. In addition, boys estrogenized by soy formula nearly always have toxic levels of copper. Those given soy formula in the first six months of life are also prone to toxic levels of manganese, contributing to ADD/ADHD and assorted learning and behavior disorders. All of these interfere with hormone production and cause havoc within the reproductive system.
The good news, as I report in the Soy Recovery articles, is that heavy metals and excess copper and manganese can be eliminated. I cannot emphasize the importance of doing this strongly enough. The risk of long-term, late-developing health problems from soy formula problem is far too serious for a “wait and see” attitude. It is vital to act NOW rather than wait until puberty or later when hormonal problems are diagnosed and full blown. Cleaning up the gut and clearing out the metals gives the soy-fed boy his best chance to recover his health and go through puberty as normally as possible.
Sadly, there’s no guarantee that diet and detox will correct the hormonal damage caused by soy formula. Addressing them will at least improve overall health, but it may also be advisable to consider hormone repletion and balancing.
Thyroid First
The first hormone to consider is thyroid. More than 70 years of studies show that soy causes thyroid damage, most often manifesting as hypothyroidism or auto-immune Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. While coconut oil and other nourishing foods can support thyroid health and healing, soy-fed babies may need the additional help of replenishing thyroid hormones to optimum levels, preferably with natural thyroid hormones. Proper levels of thyroid hormone will help improve energy levels, mental acuity, overweight and other issues. If thyroid hormone is needed, it will make a huge difference in your son’s overall health.
Testosterone Next
As for reproductive hormones, the first year of life is a critical period for a boy’s sexual maturation. The body during this time should surge with testosterones and other hormones designed to program the newborn’s reproductive system to mature from infancy through puberty into adulthood. The risk for boys estrogenized by soy formula is that their programming may be interrupted and later reproductive development arrested. Conventional wisdom holds that once this developmental window has passed, it is too late. That said, Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) could help some soy-fed boys normalize.
The first step is to test the levels and ratios of the boy’s testosterone and other hormones. Those who come up deficient or imbalanced may opt for Bioidentical Hormone Replacement, a therapy that is highly experimental for children and adolescents who were fed soy as babies. Whether replacement hormones can help these boys “catch up” remains to be seen. However, even when BHRT fails to jump start growth of the gonads, it could still prove worthwhile in terms of overall health and well being. Testosterone, after all, is not just a macho “sex hormone,” but needed for growth, repair, red blood cell formation, and immune function. Estrogenized boys might also need help with progesterone or other hormones so a full panel should be tested.
Parents who would like to consider BioIdentical Hormone Replacement need to know that it is by prescription only, and must be carefully dosed and monitored. This is true for everyone considering BHRT, but especially for children and adolescents who have not yet reached adulthood.
Hope from hcG?
Yet another hormone that might help our soy-fed boys is human chorionic gonadotropin (hcG). Given that hcG is naturally found in high levels only in pregnant women, this idea might seem bizarre. Less naturally, hcG has been in the news because of its popularization for weight loss by bestselling author Kevin Trudeau and others. In these programs, hcg injections plus extremely low calorie, no fat diets help patients to lose significant amounts of weight quickly while retaining muscle mass and high levels of energy.
My interest in hcG for soy formula fed-boys does not stem from the fact that many of these estrogenized boys are pudgy. Rather I am intrigued by a couple of paragraphs in a 1954 report on the use of hcG for weight loss written by the late British physician, Dr. A. T. W. Simeons, in which the doctor suggested hcG for boys with underdeveloped sex organs. Back then, none of the boys would have been damaged by soy, but I can’t help but wonder if hcG could play an important role in soy recovery. Here is the relevant section of Dr. Simeons’ report:
A Curious Observation
Mulling over this depressing situation, I remembered a rather curious observation made many years ago in India. At that time we knew very little about the function of the diencephalon, and my interest centered round the pituitary gland. Proehlich had described cases of extreme obesity and sexual underdevelopment in youths suffering from a new growth of the anterior pituitary lobe, producing what then became known as Froehlich’s disease. However, it was very soon discovered that the identical syndrome, though running a less fulminating course, was quite common in patients whose pituitary gland was perfectly normal. These are the so called “fat boys” with long, slender hands, breasts any flat-chested maiden would be proud to possess, large hips, buttocks and thighs with striation, knock-knees and underdeveloped genitals, often with undescended testicles.
It also became known that in these cases the sex organs could he developed by giving the patients injections of a substance extracted from the urine of pregnant women, it having been shown that when this substance was injected into sexually immature rats it made them precociously mature. The amount of substance which produced this effect in one rat was called one International Unit, and the purified extract was accordingly called “Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin” whereby chorionic signifies that it is produced in the placenta and gonadotropin that its action is sex gland directed.
The usual way of treating “fat boys” with underdeveloped genitals is to inject several hundred international Units twice a week. Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin which we shall henceforth simply call hCG is expensive and as “fat boys” are fairly common among Indians I tried to establish the smallest effective dose. In the course of this study three interesting things emerged. The first was that when fresh pregnancy-urine from the female ward was given in quantities of about 300 cc. by retention enema, as good results could be obtained as by injecting the pure substance. The second was that small daily doses appeared to be just as effective as much larger ones given twice a week. Thirdly, and that is the observation that concerns us here, when such patients were given small daily doses they seemed to lose their ravenous appetite though they neither gained nor lost weight. Strangely enough however, their shape did change. Though they were not restricted in diet, there was a distinct decrease in the circumference of their hips.

This is all Dr. Simeons says, and all I know about hcG for sex organ development. I have no experience whatsoever working with this therapy. I would very much like to hear from physicians, other health care practitioners and parents currently involved in using Bioidentical Hormone, hcG or other natural, herbal or pharmaceutical therapies to help estrogenized boys with breasts and underdeveloped gonads become healthy and normal men. Ideas and thoughts about this are also welcome, either as comments here below or to me by my direct email kaayla@drkaayladaniel.com. Thank you.

Fears about salmonella poisoning, listeria, swine and avian flus from animal foods are boosting the market for soy and other vegan foodstuffs and supplements.   The demand is being fed by vegans, of course, but also from  increasing numbers of omnivores who’ve been convinced that plant foods are the best way to avoid food poisoning.   The safest and most sanitary foods of all, according to this line of thinking are processed and packaged goods,

Market analyst Kathie Brownlie reveals in the online newsletterNutraIngredients “the market is driven by crises – and it did not exist a decade ago.”  Another factor in this new and booming market is  the  widely perceived “healthy” image of vegan ingredients.    According to Chris Olivant of the UK’s Vegetarian Society,  the numbers of vegetarians have steadily increased over the past decade, but “tend to peak in the immediate aftermath of a animal health scare, then drop back down to prior levels afterwards.”

“If you have a complete portfolio of vegetarian ingredients, you will be prepared for any animal health-scare that breaks,” says Lukas Christian, global product manager for beta-carotene at DSM Nutritional Products.   NutraIngredients reports that DSM is launching a new synthetic beta carotene to compete against animal-derived beta carotenes.   Other companies too, including BASF and Biodar have come out with vegetarian beta-carotenes.   If you naively thought beta carotene supplements would come from carrots and other vegetables, welcome to the brave new world of supplements .   Why grow carrots, after all, when you can produce beta carotene with microorganisms? And why bother with the care and feeding of wee beasties when you can manufacture a synthetic beta carotene that can be billed as vegetarian?

Given all the vegan scare stories and the filthy reality of factory-farming operations,   it’s

hardly news that people in record numbers are avoiding meat, milk and eggs, but is it wise to go vegan for safety reasons?    Not if we patronize local farmers who raise healthy, happy, free-range and pastured animals and make it a priority to run clean operations.  And also not if  it’s diseases from listeria, e coli and salmonella that we are trying to avoid.   Most cases come from contaminated commercial vegetables, strawberries, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, peppers etc, and not animal foods at all.   As for soy, there are surprising  risks of contamination.  Packaged soy products seem aseptic, safe and sanitary, but recalls have been legion over the years, suggesting that the squeaky clean packaging might only seal in the disease.

LARGEST RECALL IN FDA HISTORY

Consider what may prove to be the largest recall in FDA history.   It occurred in March 2010 and involved salmonella-contaminated hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) produced by Basic Food Flavors Inc of Las Vegas, Nevada.   Salmonella was found on the company’s processing equipment.   HVP is used to enhance flavors of thousands of food products, extend shelf life, and otherwise increase  the food industry’s bottom line.   HVP is an ingredient in just about every processed food available in stores.   As a paste or powder, it is added to soups, sauces, chilis, stews, hot dogs, gravies, snack foods, dips and dressings.  The name hydrolyzed vegetable protein most often refers to “hydrolyzed corn protein” or “hydrolyzed soy protein” and may sometimes be labeled as such.   If  mixed with spices, it is routinely identified only as “natural smoke flavor” or “natural flavors.” This labeling practice  protects proprietary recipes of manufacturers, but  has long been a nightmare for people who are allergic to soy or corn, or who react to MSG, which is an inevitable and unavoidable byproduct of the hydrolyzing process.  Products containing this additive may even state “No MSG” on the label, though this is clearly an untruth.

This particular recall has proved embarrassing to the FDA.  Congressional investigators chided the agency for failing to oversee the production of  HVP and other additives and food ingredients that are widely perceived as safe.   In addition to HVP, these  include partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, salt, spices, artificial flavors, emulsifiers, binders, vitamins, minerals,  preservatives and other ingredients, most of which are  intended to enhance  taste, texture, nutritional content or shelf life.   In a prepared statement, FDA spokeswoman Rita Chappelle conceded that the FDA “agrees broadly” that its oversight of such ingredients “could be strengthened.”   Given the misplaced time and effort FDA has put into harassing small farmers, it’s not surprising that it  has been asleep on its real job.

Health-conscious consumers might think that this is not their issue because the companies in the news are the big names like McCormick, Pringles, National Pretzel, Herbox (boullion), Quaker, Safeway and CVS snack products.  Best Food Flavors alone has recalled nearly 800 products.  This would suggest the problem lies with the processed, packaged, fast and junk foods on the Standard American Diet (SAD).  Sadly, the truth is that many of the brands billed as “healthy” and sold in health food stores and upscale markets use the very same additives.   Follow Your Heart brand vegetarian products, for example, recalled its barbecue, kung pao, savory, peanut and curry-flavored tofus as well as  its “heart smart” veggie burgers, burritos and “chicken” pasta because of possible salmonella contamination “from one of our suppliers.”

The possibility of salmonella poisoning also drove recalls of those old hippie staples soy grits and flour.  The recalled items came  from Thumb Oilseed Producers’ Cooperative of Ubly, Michigan, sold under the brand names Soy Beginnings and Nexsoy.

NOT HVP ALONE

Other contamination problems have also beset soy-food  manufacturers.  Lifesoy Inc., a San Diego-based manufacturer of ready-to-eat soy products, was forced to stop manufacturing and distributing its sweetened and unsweetened soy milk, fried tofu, fresh tofu, soybean pudding, and other products because it did not hold and store foods under refrigerated conditions cold enough to prevent the growth of microorganisms.  Interesting enough when the FDA first discovered Lifesoy’s unsanitary practices in 2007 it did not harass the company (as it does small farmers and cottage industries) but actively tried to help it comply with Good Manufacturing Practices and stay in business.   The company’s failure to do so led to its shut down.

The LifeSoy case indicates why most tofu products coming out of large manufacturing facilities are pasteurized today.  In the good old days, there were also cases of contamination, of course, with most occurring at Asian groceries or old-fashioned small health food stores where fresh blocks of tofu were displayed in water in produce sections.   The tofu was  non refrigerated and open to airborne contamination as well as bugs from customers reaching into the water with tongs.

Think  soy milk is safe?   Bonsoy soy drink was whisked out of markets in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong this last spring because of dangerously high iodine levels derived from kombu, a seaweed ingredient.  That manufacturing error sank at least 38 people’s thyroids.   Ironically, the kombu was put in there to begin with because of soy’s adverse effects on the thyroid, a risk highest among  consumers who are iodine deficient. Recently a reformulated version was approved for sale by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).  Meanwhile other products containing seaweed are being investigated.

FORMULA FOR DISASTER

One of the most frequently recalled products is infant formula.   Between 1982 and 1994 there were 22 significant recalls of infant formula in the United States due to health and safety problems.  Seven of these recalls were classified by the FDA as “Class I” or potentially life threatening.   And things haven’t improved much since then.   Recent recalls were made by Nestle (Carnation), Abbott, Mead Johnson, Wyeth, and Nutricia, among other companies, and for for widely sold products under the brand names of Alsoy, GoodStart, Isomil, Nutramigen, Nursoy,  and Soylac.    Both dairy and soy formulas have been recalled for everything from contamination by Salmonella or  Klebsiella Pneumoniae to bits of glass.  Yes, glass, as in the shards found in more than 102,000 Mead-Johnson jars.

Manufacturing errors are an especially big problem with soy formula. Failure to add supplemental  B1, B12 Vitamin K,  chloride and other needed supplements has led to deaths and hospitalizations of babies.    When such omissions happen with dairy formula, the deficiency is less likely to be a life-threatening matter.  Cow’s milk, after all, contains what a mammal needs to grow.  Although obviously not at the ideal levels for a human baby as opposed to a calf, vital components don’t go missing.     In 2003 three babies in Israeli on soy formula died from an extreme deficiency of vitamin  B1,  and another eight babies were hospitalized, of which four suffered permanent brain damage.    The formula manufacturers had left out B1 on the false assumption that soybeans contain plenty of B1.

Hard to believe?  Want to check out future recalls?  Get industry news from a free online subscription to NutraIngredients and by visiting the FDA’s  own website.   Then put your energy into buying both animal and plant foods directly from small, local farmers you know, visit  and trust.

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Her own radio show, “Naughty Nutrition with Dr. Kaayla Daniel” debuted this spring on World of Women (WOW) Radio. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences, a Board Member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Dear Kaayla,
I’ve read your warnings about soy formula and wonder how the formulas on the market differ from soy formulas used for centuries in Japan and China.
SP

Dear SP,

Soy formula was never used traditionally in Asia. Babies that couldn’t be breast fed by their birth moms were either given to a wet nurse or fed a homemade dairy formula. Soy formula was first developed in China in the late 1920s and 1930s. I found that late date hard to believe until I got a hold of some 1936 and 1938 articles from the Chinese Medical Journal. Historian William Shurtleff of the Soy Center in Lafayette, CA, tells us that first person to manufacture soy formula in China was an American, a Seventh Day Adventist missionary named Dr. Harry W. Miller.

Dear Kaayla,
I’ll be leaving soon to get the little girl I’m adopting from China. I was told to put her on soy formula, but now I’m afraid to. Help!
GH

Dear GH,

Congratulations! I adopted my children too, a son from Korea and a daughter from Vietnam. I fed my children homemade formulas using the recipes in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. You can order it on Amazon or from www.newtrendspublishing.com. Yes, it takes extra time but I’ve never seen a child who didn’t thrive on one of these recipes. This wonderful book also offers tips on how to easily improve some of the commercially available dairy formulas. Good luck!

Infant formula and follow-up formula based on cow’s milk protein or soy protein is for sale in the European Union. Soy formula should only be administered to infants over a longer period when this is necessary on medical grounds.

Press Release — November 19, 2007 — If a mother is unable to breastfeed her baby, she can fall back on infant formula from the drug store or supermarket. Products made from soybean protein and from cow’s milk are on sale. Soybeans contain high concentrations of isoflavones. They should, therefore, only be given to infants over longer periods in exceptional, justified cases. Isoflavones are similar to the female hormone oestrogen; however, they have a far weaker effect. Furthermore, soybeans may also contain higher amounts of the plant component, phytate. Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel, President of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), comments, “Infant formula and follow-up formula made from soy protein should only be administered on medical grounds and then only under medical supervision.”

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When Crown Shakur died of starvation, he was 6 weeks old and weighed 3.5 pounds. His vegan parents, who fed him mainly soy milk and apple juice, were convicted in Atlanta recently of murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty.
This particular calamity — at least the third such conviction of vegan parents in four years — may be largely due to ignorance. But it should prompt frank discussion about nutrition.

I was once a vegan. But well before I became pregnant, I concluded that a vegan pregnancy was irresponsible. You cannot create and nourish a robust baby merely on foods from plants.

Indigenous cuisines offer clues about what humans, naturally omnivorous, need to survive, reproduce and grow: traditional vegetarian diets, as in India, invariably include dairy and eggs for complete protein, essential fats and vitamins. There are no vegan societies for a simple reason: a vegan diet is not adequate in the long run.

Protein deficiency is one danger of a vegan diet for babies. Nutritionists used to speak of proteins as “first class” (from meat, fish, eggs and milk) and “second class” (from plants), but today this is considered denigrating to vegetarians.

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