Soy foods used to be the darling of the healthy food set, and tofu – one of the better known soy products – was almost synonymous with healthy living. However, more is known now about soy, and there are some down sides. So is soy good or bad? The short answer is: mostly bad, but it depends.
What is soy?
Soy, also called soybeans, is a legume, like other beans, lentils, peas, and peanuts. Most forms of soy in our food supply are in the form of soybean oil, soy meal, and other fractions of the whole bean.
Where is soy found?
Not too many people go to the store to get a bag or box of soybeans, so where is it found in our food supply? Practically everywhere, in large part because it comes in many forms and is inexpensive due to government subsidies. Some places you can find soy include:
- Edamame, which are soybeans cooked in the pod and eaten as is
- Tofu, also called bean curd, and many products made from tofu
- Soy protein isolate, added to many foods
- Fermented soy products, including soy sauce, miso, and tempeh
- Soybean oil
- Soy lecithin, which is used as an emulsifier in foods and even as a nutritional supplement
- Soy powders used as nutritional supplements
- Soy milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream
- Soy baby formula
- Many processed foods
On the plus side
Soy is a good source of protein and other nutrients. It’s cheap and so its use keeps the cost of food down. But that’s about all the benefit it provides. The down side…now that’s a much longer story.
The hormonal down side of soy
Soy is estrogenic, which means that it mimics the effect of estrogen in the body. This was considered to be a good thing for menopausal women who are plagued by hot flashes and other symptoms. However, estrogens can contribute to or accelerate growth of certain cancers such as breast cancer.
Babies are given soy formula and children are often fed soy foods, which might be a factor in earlier body maturation in adolescents and even pubescent changes in young children.
Soy has been found to suppress the thyroid gland, not a good thing, especially in women in the menopausal age group who tend to be hypothyroid to begin with. Symptoms of low thyroid function include fatigue, weight gain, depression, and thinning hair. That sounds like a lot of us.
Toxicity
Soy is one of the most likely crops to be genetically modified (GMO). Negative effects from GMO foods have been surfacing as they become more common in the food supply and as more studies on them are done.
Soybean oil is found in most vegetable oil mixtures and in many processed foods; soy oils are about 80% of the cooking oil market. But soy is one of the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crops. This is especially problematic since pesticides and many other toxins are fat-soluble, meaning that they are concentrated in soy oil.
Soybean oil has a good balance of beneficial omega-6 and omega-3 oils, which is why some sources recommend it, but is often hydrogenated, a process that makes oil toxic.
Processed foods
Because soy is relatively inexpensive, soy meal, soybean oil, and soy protein isolate are commonly found in many if not most processed foods. If you need to avoid soy due to allergies or because it’s a generally unhealthy food, it can be hard to do unless you’re a scrupulous label reader or do your own cooking.
Ironically, soy products and soy-based substitutes for meat and dairy products are often considered to be healthy, and are typically a mainstay of a vegetarian or vegan (no animal products) diet. Soy is a versatile bean that can be made into a wide variety of products that taste more or less – usually less – like the real thing. These products include Tofurkey (a tofu-based turkey substitute), soy ice cream, soy milk, soy cheese, soy-based meat analogs such as veggie burgers, and others.
The irony is that, although most healthy eaters know to stay away from processed foods, they embrace these soyfoods. But don’t be fooled: If you take a legume that looks and tastes like a lima bean and make it look and taste like anything from bacon to ice cream, you’d better believe there’s a whole lot of processing going on. There’s an alarming array of additives used to make the almost tasteless soybean taste like food.
Allergies
Soy is very allergenic; in fact, it’s one of the biggest allergens. But is soy itself really to blame? The fact that so many people are allergic to soy could be due to the fact that it’s usually genetically modified rather than to the soy itself.
Another factor is that people tend to become allergic or sensitive to foods that they are exposed to almost daily, and this is usually the case with soy, since it’s hard to avoid. The three biggest allergens are corn, wheat, and soy, and these are the three ingredients most likely to be found in foods; there’s a connection here.
Yet another problem is that soy is difficult to digest, which contributes to allergies.
Weight
Soy is often used as food for our meat and milk animals. This is because it’s cheap, and also because it puts weight on the animal readily. Since obesity is at epidemic levels, do we really want to chow down on food that’s used specifically to fatten animals? Even if you don’t have a weight problem or want to gain weight, eating soy isn’t a good way to put on healthy weight.
Soy nutritional supplements
Soy protein powders are commonly sold as nutritional supplements. Soy powders concentrate the beneficial aspects of soy, but also the bad, and so they should be avoided, especially if not organic. CAM sells only soy-free supplements because of the many problems associated with soy.
The bottom line on soy
Due to the issues presented here, soy should mostly be avoided, but with a few exceptions. Edamame are soybeans boiled or steamed in the pod; the beans are eaten and the pods discarded. Edamame can be quite nutritious and a good addition to the diet if you aren’t allergic. Because of the problems with pesticides and GMOs, any soy product eaten, edamame or otherwise, should be organic or at least non-GMO.
What about fermented soy products, such as miso, natto, tempeh, seitan, and soy sauce? These have many nutritional benefits, especially if organic. However, many people such as those with yeast issues don’t do well on fermented foods, so these foods should be consumed with caution. These fermented soy products, if eaten at all, should be consumed only in small amounts, more as condiments.
