Soy is Not Evil

A few individuals have been incredibly successful at demonizing this little legume, and I think it's time to address their fear-mongering. How in the world did an innocent bean become the subject of intense ridicule and fear? I hope I can put a few things in perspective for you.

IT’S A BEAN The first thing I want make reeeeeeally clear is that we’re talking about a bean! A bean! Soy bean – it’s a bean. It’s not a toxin. It’s not a chemical. It’s not a weapon. It’s a bean, it’s a legume, a plant food. The way some people talk about soy beans would make you believe that they’re threatening the very survival of the human species. Who are these people and why are they bean bashing?

CRITICAL THINKING Well, the general answer to that question is actually more questions. Whenever you’re given any information – particularly when there are scare tactics or fear-mongering – always ask yourself: 1. Who is providing this information? 2. What do they have to gain directly? 3. What do they have to gain indirectly?

It’s so important to hone our critical thinking skills, particularly these days when we’re bombarded with and overwhelmed by so much information. Our access to information – through the Internet – is a good thing, but it also means we have a lot more rubbish to sift through.

Particularly when it comes to something like vegetarianism and animal rights, people have no idea how powerful the machine is that drives the anti-vegetarian, pro-meat/pro-animal exploitation industry agenda. This machine is driven by corporations, the government, and media – and it’s incredibly powerful. I’m not saying this to make you cynical, because I find cynicism really boring and really unattractive. I am saying this so you know how important it is that you know where you’re getting your information from and to think really critically about what it is the messenger has to gain.

Soy and vegetarianism are so intricately linked that the soy detractors know if they scare people about soy, they scare people about vegetarianism, and it's working. A lot of these groups and individuals have a meat agenda - you can see for yourself on their websites.

VERSUS WHAT? So what does all of this have to do with soy? Well, there are a handful of individuals and “organizations” who’ve made it their mission to demonize soy, namely the Weston Price Foundation, Mercola, and Kaayla Daniel, who wrote The Whole Soy Story. But one of the things we need to keep in mind – if we want to be thoughtful, critical, savvy thinkers is that thousands of conclusive, lab, clinical, epidemiological studies undeniably point to the harmful effects of meat, dairy, and eggs and benefits of plant foods. And yet so many people have bought into the fear-mongering about soy. Can you imagine if – in our behavior – we actually reflected these truths? Can you imagine if we sincerely and lovingly said to friends and family: I’m sorry – you eat meat and drink cow’s milk – don’t you know these are linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, gout, etc. Can you imagine if we actually put credence into what we know is true. We don’t say that to non-vegetarians, but when someone wants to criticize vegetarianism as a whole – one of the first things they say – right after they ask where you get your protein – is “soy is dangerous.” Soy causes breast cancer. Soy causes dementia. Soy makes boys turn into girls – I swear to God – I’ve heard ‘em all.

So, here are the main points I want to make about soy, and I’ll go into a little more detail about each one.

1. You don't have to eat soy foods to be vegetarian/vegan. There are thousands of edible plant species available if you don't like or have an allergy or sensitivity to soy. 2. Eat foods in their whole state as much as possible. Tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame, tamari/soy sauce all experience either no processing or a limited amount of processing. Make whole foods the foundation of your diet. 3. Soy is neither miracle food nor is it poison. It is a bean that, like other plant foods, like other beans, contains health-promoting nutrients. 4. Be informed so you can help debunk the myths. I can’t stress this enough. We don’t have to have a degree in nutrition to dispel the myths – even if you just get people thinking by encouraging them to dig deeper to find out whose behind the scare tactics, that’s enough.

In Detail:
1. You don’t have to eat soy foods to be vegetarian. Let’s face it, soy foods are linked with vegetarianism whether we like it or not. When someone hears vegetarian, the first thing people think is soy foods. Well, you can enjoy a varied, full, delicious, nutritious diet without soy foods. Some people don’t like tofu or tempeh (because they haven’t been to one of my classes or tried my recipes), so fine. Some people are allergic to soy. OK – some people are allergic to peanuts or strawberries – that doesn’t mean peanuts are inherently bad or strawberries are inherently evil. So, just because someone’s allergic to soy doesn’t mean soy in and of itself is bad. That’s #1 – you don’t have to eat soy.

2. Eat foods – all foods, including soy – in their whole state. So what are these foods and why should eat them in their whole state? Well, to answer the second question first: One of the things that’s happening is that concentrated soy protein is being put in a number of processed foods – everything from Clif bars and cookies to ice cream and pudding – it’s showing as soy isolate protein or isolated soy protein, and there are a couple problems with that. One is that we don’t know what the effects are going to be, because our diets have never been so full of these isolated proteins in these processed foods. We don’t know. In the laboratory, scientists have extracted soy protein and soy isoflavones to determine their effects on the bodies of non-human animals and then try to interpret this to human experience, to human health, which is problematic for a number of reasons – particularly because of the differences in physiology and genetics between humans and non-human animals and also because there’s a real problem with isolating nutrients.

I’ve talked about this before: the complexity in a blueberry is beyond what we can replicate in a lab and its health benefits stem from the combination of all of its components eaten all at once in its whole state. So, to isolate the seemingly beneficial properties of something like soy to prove its health benefits or dangers is not sound – in my opinion. But nobody asked for my opinion when the benefits of soy were regarded as an opportunity to make a lot of money. So in the last 10 years or so, the inclusion of isolated soy protein in processed foods has increased tremendously. And that means a lot of money to be made.

So, what’s the common denominator here? Is the problem with soy in general? Or isolating soy proteins? Is the problem with soy in general? Or with processed foods? There’s a big difference between isolating the protein and putting it as filler in every packaged food on the grocery shelf and eating whole soy foods. So that leads to the answer to my other related question. What are these whole soy foods?

Well you have your unprocessed soy foods such as tempeh, miso, whole soybeans such as edamame, natto (a fermented soy food eaten in Japanese cuisine), tamari/soy sauce, and soybean sprouts and you have your minimally processed whole soy foods, such as tofu and soy milk. Soy milk and tofu are included as “whole foods” because the processing involved – heat from cooking and blending of the whole soybeans with water and coagulants – does not turn them into purified isoflavones. Yuba, a byproduct of soy milk, would also fall into this category. Whole soy foods.

The problem isn’t soy. The problem is processed foods. The more the foundation of our diet is whole plant foods, the healthier we will be and the less confusing all of this will seem. Now, does mean we can never have a little soy cheese on our pizza or we can never enjoy something like TVP (texturized vegetable protein) in our chili? No. The research does not support the conclusion that eating a little processed food is going to be detrimental – just don’t make it the foundation or the mainstay of your diet. Should we be afraid of consuming soy foods as a part of a healthful, whole foods, plant-based diet? No. Should we eat a soy-based diet? No. Variety, variety, variety.

3. Soy is neither miracle food, nor is it poison. Be wary of health claims made about single nutrients. You don’t have to become a nutritionist to eat healthfully and to make sense of it all. In fact, I think it’s our focus on single nutrients that is making everyone so bloody confused about how to be healthy.

Related to what I said about becoming critical thinkers, it’s so important we take the latest scientific studies with a grain of salt and just relax and eat a whole foods plant based diet. It’s really that simple. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but everyone’s so confused because of studies that come out every day! One thing to keep in mind is that often when you hear something like “scientists conclude” or “studies show” or “research reveals…” you have no idea what the details are and the sound bites are not sufficient to make us understand. Was the study based on animal research, which is difficult to interpret to human physiology? How many people were in the study? Was it a test-tube study and has it be extrapolated to a real human population? If it was a clinical study, is there a chance people lied in the questionnaire? Are the reports of the study quoting the whole study (i.e. did the journalists do their own research) or are they merely quoting an abstract – or worse yet – a press release? Is the use of language misleading or misinterpreted? Is it biased information based on studies done by the meat, dairy, egg, sugar, or soy industries or even by those who advocate the consumption of those foods, such as the Weston Price Foundation and Mercola, who advocate meat from every animal under the sun? It’s important we ask these questions when we hear about the latest study before drawing conclusions that will effect our own health, the health of our loved ones, and the lives of animals.

So, don’t rely on sound bites from the media about what’s healthful. It’s really not very complicated. Eat a whole-foods plant-based diet, including whole soy products if you want them. If you don’t like them, don’t eat ‘em. Although, if you WANT to learn to like them, come to one of my cooking classes or check out my cooking DVD, in which there are two tofu recipes, the purpose of which is to empower people to understand the different kinds, which helps demystify it. http://www.compassionatecooks.com/video.htm

4. Become Informed and Pass it On! There have been a number of negative claims about soy (though the overwhelming research is positive), and I invite you to check out the details yourself, and you can do so by visiting a page on http://www.compassionatecooks.com/ under Resources: Cooking & Nutrition Info. There’s a document called the Safety of Soy, and it repeats some of what I’m saying here, but it also provides links to a few different sites that go through each of the negative claims point by point and puts them into context. Of all of them, my favorite is the first one, Eating Soy: Myths, Truths, and Everything in Between by Christa Novelli, M.P.H. I think she does a fantastic job explaining each of the claims made so that you’ll walk away with a much better understanding of what the heck is going on here. The goal is to be informed and empowered – for yourself and so that you can pass along the correct information to those who are misinformed. Please pass on the correct information – it’ll make my job a heckuva lot easier!

FINAL POINTS
I want to say two more things about soy. One is that another argument used against soy, sadly, this often comes from environmentalists, is that the rain forest is being cut down to grow soy beans. Actually, much of the rain forest is being chopped down for cattle grazing, but it’s also being chopped down to grow soy--but not for human consumption. Americans and Europeans can't raise all the feed domestically that is needed to sustain their meat addictions, so agribusiness has started cutting down the rain forest. The overwhelming majority of soy (or corn or wheat, for that matter) grown is used to feed animals in on animal factories. In fact, Greenpeace recently unveiled a massive banner over an Amazon soy field that read, "KFC-Amazon Criminal," to accentuate the point that large chicken and other companies like KFC are responsible for the destruction of the Amazon. It takes many pounds of soy or other plant foods to produce just 1 pound of animal flesh--so if you're worried about the rain forests being chopped down for grazing or to grow soy, the best thing you can do is to stop eating other animals.

The last thing I want to say is that soy crops – grown for human and cattle consumption – are the most genetically modified crops, so I encourage you to buy organic soy foods. I encourage you to buy organic in general, but please make a point to buy organic soy in particular. At this point, under the current standards, if it’s organic, it’s not genetically modified, but stay tuned, and check out the Organic Consumers Association and join their mailing list to stay on top of those issues.

We need to be informed, we need to inform others, and we need to hold people accountable. Whenever we hear someone make claims about something that just doesn’t make sense, it is up to us to counter their ignorance with information. We’re not taught to have keen critical thinking skills, and we’re manipulated every day by the media and advertising. Armed with the right information, we can push back.

The Ugly Reality of Mutilation

THE UGLY REALITY OF MUTILATION
The word “mutilation," whose root means "to cut up; to cut off," is a disturbing one, but I’m not using it merely to disturb. I’m using it because it aptly describes what we systematically do to billions of live animals on a regular basis - because we can. To my mind, to mutilate someone physically, to harm them physically is the ultimate violation of their rights as an individual, but as we know, animals don't have rights - even over their own bodies. If it’s too painful for us to contemplate having the animals we love terrorized and cut up, I think we have to ask ourselves “what’s the difference for those animals for whom nobody is grieving?” It’s the same for them. It's not about us. It's about their suffering. It’s about them.

HENS
The most commonly known type of mutilation is "debeaking": the act of searing off a segment of a hen’s beak – while she is a chick. I say “she” because you should know by now that male chicks aren’t raised – they’re discarded, ground up, thrown out – cause well, they’re males. And males don’t lay eggs.

To prevent economic losses from the frustrated birds pecking at one another and creating injury and death, it is perfectly legal and perfectly acceptable and perfectly widespread to cut off the beaks of the animals. This doesn’t stop the animals from pecking, of course – but it lessens the injury and thus lessens the economic losses.

This procedure is often called "debeaking," which is a bit of a misnomer, because their entire beak isn’t removed. Some call it “beak trimming,” which I don’t like because it sounds as if the chick is going to the hair dresser. Whatever you call it, it is a painful procedure which involves cutting through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue with a searing hot blade. As the bird grows, their beaks are often so mutilated and still sensitive that it makes it difficult for them to eat and of course preen themselves. And sometimes, the birds’ beaks are seared a second time because the beaks can grow back – the first time is in their first week of life and if there’s a second time, it’s when they’re between 12 and 20 weeks of age.

Visit http://www.eggindustry.com/ for more information.

TURKEYS
Turkeys are also raised in confinement in large sheds that are as large as football fields. As with the closely confined battery cage hens, the birds will become frustrated and exhibit stress-induced aggression. To minimize damage to the flesh and to the pocketbooks of the operators, baby turkeys (called poults) also undergo the painful procedure of having not only a portion of their beaks removed but also their toes. The babies are hung upside down, while the tips of their front three toes are exposed to microwave radiation, which kills the tissue. Often their toes are just cut off with scissors, and their snoods – the little piece of skin on the top of a turkey’s head – is pulled off (they say they do this to prevent damage from frostbite or fighting). Sometimes their rear toes are also cut off with scissors – of course all of this without anesthesia.

Visit www.upc-online.org

PIGS
When piglets are only a couple weeks old, they’re mutilated in many ways. First comes the castration. The piglet’s scrotum is cut open by a worker, who pulls out his testicles while the piglet screams and writhes in pain. Just imagine for one second if this were a puppy or a kitten. It’s unfathomable. Next, their ears are notched. This is actually very common practice across the species. With scissors, a portion of each piglet’s ears are sliced off – just to make identification patterns. In addition, workers cut off piglets’ incisors with pliers that are similar to wire cutters, without the use of painkillers, in order to prevent them from biting each other – or chewing on themselves – out of boredom and frustration. Finally, their tails are cut off to reduce tail biting, another habit that arises from boredom and frustration in stressful conditions. The pain is severe and continues for many days.

Visit www.pigspeace.org

CATTLE – BRANDING, DE-HORNING, EAR-NOTCHINGI think the most obvious way that cattle are mutilated – something you’re all familiar with, and that’s branding. Branding – often done twice a year – is done by a rancher to register and identify his animals. All ranchers brand cattle, and most ranchers brand their horses too. The red hot steel tool, heated with a propane torch, is pressed into the side of the animal. Another method used is something called “freeze branding” which causes the hair to grow back white when it does grow back. This is no less painful than branding with a hot iron. This is done to “beef cattle.” It’s not done with dairy cows because they are always kept close by so they can be milked several times a day.

While the animal is restrained for the branding, this is also when they castrate the calves, cut off parts of their ears, and cut a slice of skin off their wattle, the fatty portion of the animal’s neck. I’ll say once again: all this is all done without anesthesia.

In what is called “ear marking,” portions of the ear are removed or cut, and they also cut the wattle so that when their skin heals, it hangs down in a certain identifiable position. All of this is done for identification purposes. Some ranchers use plastic tags secured to the cow's ear instead of the knife cut. I’ve helped removed these tags that are inserted without anesthesia or antiseptic, and the remaining hole is often bloody and crusty and raw.

Something else that’s done to cattle when they’re enduring all of this – when they’re just calves – is dehorning and disbudding. Neither of these practices are regulated, and neither is done with anesthesia. Disbudding is the removal of the very early growth of what will become the horn if left to grow. The most common and most painful method is to use a hot iron. Dehorning is the removal of the horns after they have formed from the bud. Methods of dehorning include the use of wire, guillotine shears, or dehorning knives, or saws. Dehorning adult cattle is not advised – because their horns are connected to their sinus cavities, serious damage can occur, but it is done nonetheless.

They remove the horns of cattle (females can have horns, too) for the same reason they cut off the beaks and toes of birds: to reduce the damage to the “flesh” caused by the cattle fighting or coming in contact to one another. The industry says “Horns are the single major cause of carcass wastage due to bruising, and trim associated with bruising for carcasses from horned cattle is approximately twice that for carcasses from hornless cattle.” In other words, the more the animals have “bruising” on their flesh, the less money for the people in the industry.

DAIRY COWS
Though dairy cows aren’t branded, it doesn’t mean they don’t have pieces for their bodies removed. To increase the comfort of the workers who milk the cows – who attach the milking machines to their udders – a large portion of the cows’ tails are cut off. So the workers aren’t annoyed or inconvenienced. It’s called Tail Docking.

If you’ve EVER spent one moment watching cattle, you’d know that they are constantly bothered by flies. Their tails are used to swat away flies and is the only way they are able to do this. The defenders of tail docking say that the risk of workers contracting Leptospirosis, which can be spread through the urine and can penetrate broken skin, is increased when the potentially urine-soaked tails hit the workers. But recent reviews of the science conclude that the available data do not support claims that tail docking reduces the risk of Leptospirosis - OR improves the dairy worker's comfort or safety. Experts discourage tail docking, and even the American Veterinary Medical Association criticizes this practice, and they don’t usually go against practices in the meat, dairy, and egg industries.

By the way, the procedure is typically performed without anesthetic and is accomplished by the application of a tight, rubber ring that restricts blood flow to the bottom 2/3 of the tail, which atrophies and detaches or it’s removed with a sharp instrument.

There’s another reeeeally disturbing practice that I couldn’t believe when I first heard about it. In fact, I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. Have you heard of a fistulated cow? A fistulated cow is a cow who has had a hole cut into her side for scientific research. Then a plastic device – essentially a window – is inserted so that her digestive system can be observed. Fistulated cows are pretty common in animal ag/large animal vet programs/ag schools, and students are encouraged to stick their arms in and feel the stomach, etc. At agriculture fairs, this is essentially an attraction for visitors. But industry defends this as essential for understanding the health of the species. A cow with a window into her digestive system. Anyway, thought you might be interested in that.

GOATS AND SHEEP
I mentioned before that pigs and cattle have pieces of their ears removed and are also ear-tagged. The same goes for goats and sheep. Goats also often have their horns and buds removed, an incredibly painful procedure. The reasoning behind this is similar to that used in the cattle industry – to reduce damage to the flesh but also to adapt the goat's head to fit into a milk stanchion. They cut off their horns – which serve many practical purposes for the goats – to make it easier to get them through the milking line. Goats and sheep are also castrated without anesthesia, and goats also have their wattles cut.

Sheep raised for their fur – which humans turn into what they call wool – endure something else entirely. You may have heard of something called mulesing. This is the name for the removal of pieces of skin from around the tail of a sheep. It’s common practice in Australia, where most sheep are raised for their fur. Defenders say it is a way to prevent flystrike (which is the incidence of maggots eating at their skin, and you can learn more about that on by doing some research on the lack of necessity of this cruel practice. Performed with large metal shears, no anesthetic is used.

Visit http://www.peta.org/ for more on the campaign against mulesing. After striking a deal with the Australian wool industry, it’s supposed to be phased out by 2010. We’ll see.

DOGS
Dogs kept as research tools in laboratories have their vocal cords severed (and I’ve even heard of people doing this to their own dogs). This is merely so that the researchers don’t have to listen to the dogs barking – ya know – communicating – all the time. Other ways we mutilate the animals we are supposed to love is by cropping the ears and tails of certain breeds of dogs – a cosmetic surgery – this is major surgery - that has no medical or practical purpose other than to continue this tradition and to meet the standards for certain breeds set forth by the American Kennel Club.

CATS
A hideous procedure that has gotten a lot of attention lately, thanks to activists and politicians who are banning this practice in many cities and states, is the declawing of domestic cats. Declawing is not a painless procedure, and it’s also not done for medical reasons. The cat's claw is not a toenail at the end of the toe as in other animals. It is movable digit attached to muscle as a finger might be. To declaw a cat is to cut off half of their toes. This is just another way that we just remove body parts for our own convenience.

WILD ANIMALS KEPT AS PETS
Finally and related to this is the barbaric act of keeping wild animals as pets. Aside from all of the ethical problems with this, people who do keep wild animals often have their claws and sharp teeth removed. The injustice of that is so striking to me – these dignified animals with their strength and dignity just cut off. It’s like the bear baiting of many years ago – when a declawed and detoothed bear was chained up and essentially mauled by a dog – for entertainment purposes. Also, if you don’t know about the bears in China confined in small cages practically no bigger than their own bodies just to extract the bile from their gallbladder – well their claws are removed. In addition, the bears are subjected to painful methods of bile extraction whereby a steel catheter is inserted into the abdomen. This is known as the "free-dripping" technique.

For more on the farming of bears for their bile, please visit http://www.animalsasia.org/. It’s’ a fantastic organization that has been so incredibly effective at rescuing these bears and trying to ban this practice.

Unfortunately, I think I’m probably leaving out some examples, but there you have it. The choices we make about animals' bodies comes down to human greed, gluttony, convenience, and vanity – not necessity.