Soy is apparently very healthy. That’s all I can get from my web searches on it, anyway. Healthy is well and good, but is there another reason why it’s getting used in so many food products with artificial taste? Is it especially cheap, or does it grow on relatively barren ground? Other reasons?
Well, there’s the fact that the plant makes its own fertilizer. Soya’s lumpy roots actually “make their own” nitrogen, in a way I don’t pretend to understand.
Peas and beans have bacteria living in the root nodules that ‘fix’ nitrogen from the air, producing nitrates the plant can absorb. Infertile soil is pretty often just low in nitrates, even though the other substances plants need might be adequate
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What you are referring to is that soy is a “nitrogen fixer”, like other legumes:
Bacteria that live in the roots “fix” atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. That’s one of the attractions - it can serve the same purpose in crop rotation as, say, planting a field in clover for a while, while still being a valuable crop.
Basically, it has a good yield, is easy to grow, tolerant of a wide variety of conditions, and useful for a wide variety of purposes.
That said, tofu tastes like eating a sofa cushion.
Soy is flexible: it can be formed into a variety of shapes and it’s nuetral taste allows it to be flavored failry easily. As a bonus, it packs a heap of protein into a low cal package. Somewhere around 10grams of protein for every 90cals. That is an excellent ratio. It also has antioxidents.
It grows in a variety of soils, is pretty rugged and economical to grow.
Whether as a burger or a drink, soy can be used and flavored to do the job. It’s abundant and has a great balance of cals/protein/anitoxidents.
I love adding soy sauce to many of my dishes. I think it is used as a flavor enhancer similar to MSG but without the bad rep MSG got lately (unfairly IMHO).
Actually, it’s not. Or potentially not. Although there is naturally some debate among experts, there are studies linking soy with brain abnormalities, cancer and thyroid disease, among other things.
Although I’ve found references to that symposium and the mentioned studies elsewhere online, I’m not familiar with any of the sources (eg, who is this guy and is he a respected physician or a quack, promoting an agenda?). They do list an impressive list of references for their article, however. But from what is at least a familiar/known source, there is also this:
Anyway, I would not take for granted that “Soy is apparently very healthy.” Especially if you have any symptoms associated with hypothyroidism, I would consume soy products with caution.
And to answer your question as to “why soy,” just follow the money…
Dr. Mercola is one of many doctors whose predictions I take with a grain of salt, but he’s not the only one who’s worried about soy. This site presents the other side of the story, and might be worth looking at.
And for the other side of the other side of the story you could look here. You will notice that a couple of the links on that site are trying to sell books or push products, but so is the link that ultrafilter posted.
Soy is big business. So is the meat industry. Like the Atkins diet, or any dietary issue for that matter, it’s difficult for a layman to know what to believe when the “experts” contradict each other.
For what it’s worth, the UK Food Standards Agency (the equivalent of the FDA) is mildly concerned about health effects of phytoestrogens:
You can also read an interview with the author of the site I linked to earlier here and use that to inform your opinion. Personally, I’d like independent verification of some of her claims.
Exactly. And it’s like a giant circle-jerk (if you’ll pardon the expression), because when you try to find verifiable information from reputable sources, most of what you come up with are the same 3 or 4 people, who all reference each other’s sites. Just try to find any information on hypothyroidism that doesn’t lead you right back to Mary Shomon, “The” purported expert in the field. Except that she’s not a doctor and not a scientist. She’s a layperson, just like me, who happens to suffer from that disease and has apparently done a lot of research and, wait for it… wrote a book and sells some supplements. It’s extremely annoying.
And I’m sorry, but the cite you reference is very obviously biased. Right off the bat they resort to name-calling, referring to anyone who says soy could potentially be bad for you as “soy bashers” and “anti-soy advocates.” It looks like just a bunch of arm-flailing to me, as they’re short on facts and references and long on defensiveness. All the links they do provide lead only to newsletters on other sites about vegetarianism or “diet guru” types, who only report on their own “interpretation” of studies that they never actually show you.
Granted, the so-called “soy bashers” are also writing “op-ed” style pieces, but at least they offer quotes by scientists, doctors and experts in the field (Daniel Doerge, a research scientist for the Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Claude Hughes, director of the Women’s Health Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles being two examples) and offer an extensive list of references. And at least the “anti-soy” websites provide links that take you directly to reports (.doc file) from reputable organizations, such as the UK Food Standards Agency where you can read the science behind the claims.
And not only does the UK Food Standards Agency agree that there are some concerns, as ultrafilter also points out above, but so does the FDA.
For me, especially because I suffer from Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (Hypothyroidism), the bottom line is that the default position that “soy is very healthy” cannot be assumed to be absolute and any soy consumption should be done with caution.