Rich Murray: Sunday Observer (London): Phillimore: soy toxicity 8.27.00 7.30.1 rmforall

July 30, 2001

Rich Murray: Sunday Observer (London):

Phillimore: soy toxicity 8.27.00 7.30.1 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/691

http://www.mercola.com/2000/oct/8/soy_crisis.htm

Sunday Observer (London) August 27, 2000

Soy-Bean Crisis: Scientists versus the soy industry.

Jane Phillimore addresses some of the concerns raised by new research

Twelve years ago, I visited an alternative health practitioner with

some non-specific health symptoms. I'd hardly sat down before

he told me that my diet needed radical attention - I had to cut out all

dairy, wheat, alcohol and caffeine, and substitute protein in the form

of soy milk and tofu instead. Nowadays this kind of advice is routine,

but at the time, it seemed glamorously radical:

I had to trek to Clapham's one health-food shop to stock up on soy milk

because Sainsbury's certainly didn't have their own brand

(as they do now) and veggie/soy sausages were just a

glint in McCartney's eye.

In the event, I lost a stack of weight and felt immensely rejuvenated.

So much so that, four months later, I started eating normally again.

Just as well, because it has now been found that soy - far from having

the magical, health-giving properties that the alternative medicine

brigade endlessly bangs on about - can actually be bad for you.

Its reputation as an anti-cancer, cholesterol-lowering,

osteoporosis-fighting, low-fat all round good egg of a product is

based on bad science and superlative marketing

by the powerful soy industry.

Worldwide the evidence is starting to stack up against soy. In this

country (United Kingdom), MAFF is so worried about the possible

health problems of phytoestrogens in soy that they are funding a

rolling programme of 19 separate research projects, due to end in 2002.

Preliminary findings by Professor Ashby of

AstraZeneca Central Toxicology Laboratory in Macclesfield,

for example, confirm that soy infant formula (currently the

sole food of 6,500 British babies) has an oestrogenic effect on rats.

According to public health minister Yvette , no new advice

will be given on soy until the independent COT

(Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products

and the Environment) has reviewed the programme's findings.

This could take several years. Meanwhile, if you've been seduced

by the message that soy is the healthy 21st-century superfood, read

on...

Is soy bad for you?

It contains high quantities of various toxic chemicals, which cannot be

fully destroyed even by the long cooking process. These are:

phytates, which block the body's uptake of minerals; enzyme inhibitors,

which hinder protein digestion; and haemaggluttin, which causes red

blood cells to clump together and inhibits oxygen take-up and growth.

Most controversially of all, soy contains high levels of the

phytoestrogens (also known as isoflavones) genistein and daidzein,

which mimic and sometimes block the hormone oestrogen.

Surely, the Japanese eat huge quantities of soy, and as a result have

low rates of breast, uterus, colon and prostate cancers?

That's the big myth on which the idea of 'healthy' soy is built. In

fact, the Japanese don't eat that much soy: a 1998 study showed that

a Japanese man typically eats about 8g (2 tsp) a day, nothing like the

220g (8oz) that a Westerner could put away by eating a big chunk of

tofu and two glasses of soy milk.

Secondly, although Japanese people may have lower rates of

reproductive cancers, this is thought to be due to other dietary and

lifestyle factors:

they eat less fatty meat, more fish and vegetables and fewer tinned or

processed foods than in a typical Western diet.

[Murray: They eat much less dairy: milk, butter, ice cream, and cheese.

All over the world, the higher the use of dairy, the more prostate and

breast cancers, promoted by the potent growth hormones in cow milk.]

Thirdly, Asians have much higher rates of thyroid and digestive

cancers, including cancer of the stomach, pancreas, liver and esophagus.

I'm vegetarian and eat loads of tofu and soy milk. Should I stop?

Soy has become vegetarians' meat and milk, the major source of protein

in their diet. But eating soy actually puts vegetarians at severe risk

of mineral deficiencies, including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium

and especially zinc. According to Dr Mike Fitzpatrick, a New Zealand

biochemist who runs a soy information website (see below), this is

because soy contains high levels of phytic acid, which blocks the

absorption of essential minerals in the digestive tract. To reduce the

effects of a high-phytate diet, you need to eat, as the Japanese do,

lots of meat or fish with tiny bits of soy.

I'm intolerant to cow's milk, so should I drink soy milk instead?

Soy has become the fashionable option for people 'intolerant' to dairy

products. It's little known that soy is the second most common allergen.

Only 1 per cent of the population is truly allergic to cows' milk and,

of those, two-thirds will also be intolerant to soy milk. In addition,

soy milk is high in aluminium. That's because the soy protein isolate

it's

made from is acid-washed in aluminium tanks. No wonder it tastes bad.

Can soy affect your thyroid?

It's been known for years that phytoestrogens in soy depress thyroid

function. In Japan, 1991 research showed that 30g of soy a day results

in a huge increase in thyroid-stimulating hormone. This can cause

goitre, hypothyroidism, and auto-immune thyroid disease.

I'm pregnant. Should I avoid soy?

Probably, and especially if you're vegetarian. A new study of babies

born to vegetarian mothers showed that baby boys had a five-fold risk

of hypospadias, a birth defect of the penis. The researchers suggest

this was due to greater exposure to phytoestrogen rich-foods, especially

soy. Inappropriate hormone levels such as that caused by a high intake

of soy during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy can also cause damage to

the fetus's developing brain.

But surely I can feed my baby soy formula? It must be safe: it's

available in every supermarket and chemist (pharmacy).

Soy-fed babies are taking part in 'a large, uncontrolled and basically

unmonitored human infant experiment', said Sheehan, director of

the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research, in 1998.

A newborn baby's sole food is the milk it drinks: a soy-fed baby

receives the equivalent of five birth control pills' worth of estrogen

every day, according to Mike Fitzpatrick. These babies' isoflavone

levels were found to be from 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than

in non-soy fed infants.

As a result of this phytoestrogen overload, soy-fed babies have a

two-fold risk of developing thyroid abnormalities including goitre and

auto-immune thyroiditis. Boys risk retarded physical maturation,

while girls risk early puberty (1 per cent of girls now show signs

of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before the

age of three) and infertility. Researchers have also suggested that

diabetes, changes in the central nervous system, extreme emotional

behaviour, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency

and IBS may be caused by high phytoestrogen intake in early life.

Last year, compounds in soy were also implicated in the development of

infantile leukaemia. Current government (UK) advice is that breast is

best and that soy formula should not be given to infants unless on the

advice of a health professional.

Can soy help with prostate cancer?

Ex-junk bond trader Milken certainly thinks so. He consumes 40g

of soy protein every day with that hope in mind. The science is less

conclusive - a recent study on Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii

showed that men who had eaten two or more servings of tofu a week

during mid-life not only had 'accelerated brain ageing', and more than

twice the incidence of Alzheimer's and dementia, but also looked five

years older than those men who didn't.

My mother died of breast cancer and I've been advised by both

mainstream and complementary medical sources that increasing

my soy intake may offer me protection against the disease.

Is this true?

The evidence is highly inconclusive. In The Breast Cancer Protection

Diet , published last year, Dr Bob Arnot states that eating between

35g and 60g of soy protein daily protects against breast cancer by

raising intake of the oestrogen-blocker genistein. But this ignores

contrary evidence. In 1996, research showed that women eating

soy had an increased incidence of epithelial hyperplasia, a condition

that presages malignancy. In 1997, genistein in the diet was also

found to stimulate human breast cells to enter the cell cycle.

As a result, the researchers advised women not to eat soy

products to prevent breast cancer.

But surely soy prevents osteoporosis, the bone thinning that

particularly affects post-menopausal women?

No. In fact, soy blocks calcium and causes a deficiency of vitamin D,

both of which are needed for strong bones, say American nutritionists

and soy debunkers Sally Fallon and G Enig.

Is there any kind of soy product I can safely eat?

Yes. Fermented soy products, such as soy sauce, tempeh and miso. The

long fermentation process counteracts the effects

of natural toxins in soy.

Can I avoid soy?

It's hard. You can stop eating the obvious candidates such as soy milk

and tofu, but soy is also to be found in breakfast cereals, ice cream,

convenience food such as hamburgers, fish fingers and lasagne, and all

manner of baked goods from cakes and biscuits to tortillas and bread.

If that's your mission in life, read labels carefully, and eat organic

processed foods wherever possible.

Finally, the pro-soy lobby always says that, in the US, a quarter of

the population has been fed infant soy formula for 30 to 40 years,

with no adverse health problems. So why should I worry?

Scientists are only just beginning to research and understand the

harmful long-term effects that eating large quantities of soy can have

on the human body. As Fallon and Enig write: 'The industry has

known for years that soy contains many toxins. At first they told

the public that the toxins were removed by processing. Then they

claimed that these substances were beneficial.'

Sounds like there's a big battle ahead.

For further information, contact http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz ,

a detailed information resource on soy run by

biochemist Dr Mike Fitzpatrick. Sally

Fallon and G Enig's excellent article 'Tragedy and Hype: The Third

Soy Symposium' is on http://www.nexusmagazine.com.

'The Trouble With Tofu: Soy and the Brain' by D MacArthur is on

http://www.rain.com

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT: An excellent report illustrating the

dangers and common misconceptions of soy.

One point in the article that I would disagree with, however, is the

author's statement that only 1 percent of the population is allergic to

cow's milk. Although this may be true with the conventional means

of allergy diagnosis, a large majority of the population has some

degree of allergy or sensitivity to cow's milk, and would do much

better avoiding it completely.

It would be best to avoid both cow's milk and soy " milk " and drink only

water.

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Rich Murray: Sunday Observer (London): Phillimore: soy toxicity 8.27.00 7.30.1 rmforall

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