Did you know
that close to 70 % of package foods contain soy?
I came across this
article in my many hours of reading on health issues and I wanted to share
it with you. Soy seems to be used in just about everything today and
passed along as a great health food. I think if you read the article that
I have enclosed you may look at it a bit differently!
If your using
soy to help balance your hormones consider looking into natural
progesterone cream as an alternative. It's safe
with no side effects and can truly balance your
hormones. Research has even shown that it can help
prevent and aid in the healing of breast cancer and other female
cancers as well as prostate cancer in men. Many women have even
avoided a hysterectomy and thyroid surgery by using this
natural cream. If you know a mother using soy formula please forward this
on to her fast. Please read this article, knowledge is
power!
By Sally
Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
Jenny Smith, a secretary and
receptionist, could not explain what was happening to her. She began to
make mistakes in her work and suffer from memory lapses. She would type a
word backwards without even realizing it and proofread right over her
mistakes. Her speech was slurring and when she answered the phone. . . she
didn't know what to say. One day she found herself walking across a busy
intersection against the lights and didn't know how she got
there.
Leslie Blumenberg went to pick up her mother at the airport
and got lost coming home. Although she had lived in the area for years,
she became completely disoriented. It took her two hours to find her way
back to her house. She was also suffering from cognitive problems, her
words would jumble when she tried to speak coherent sentences, and she
forgot how to spell.
Leslie had been eating soy foods, lots of
them, for three years. When she went off soy, her problems cleared up, her
mind returned to normal. But Jenny Smith did not eat soy. Her problems
cleared up only when she went on a diet and stopped eating bread. She
discovered that she could eat homemade bread without any problem. But
supermarket bread gave her brain fog.
Jenny had a thyroid problem
and had been taking thyroxine for years. When her office connected with
the internet, she went online to a thyroid site. There she learned that
soy was a potent thyroid depressant and should not be consumed by anyone
with thyroid troubles. Next trip to the grocery store, she began to read
labels and discovered that every loaf of bread in the supermarket
contained soy flour.
" Thyroid enlargement in rats and humans,
especially children and women, fed with soyabeans has been known for half
a century," according to Theodore Kay at Kyoto University in Japan. His
1988 study attempted to determine the amount of iodine required to prevent
goitre in populations consuming soy foods. He found that small amounts of
iodine could indeed prevent noticeable thyroid enlargement, but even large
amounts did not prevent pathological changes to the thyroid gland. He also
determined that the most potent goitrogens in soy cannot be removed by
cooking.
Although scientists have known for many years that soy is
goitrogenic, it was only recently that they were able to pinpoint the
actual thyroid-depressing compounds. Researchers at the US Toxicological
Laboratory in Arkansas found that the thyroid-depressing substances are
isoflavones, the estrogen-like compounds found plentifully in the
soybean.
This discovery came as a shock to the soy industry, which
has heavily promoted these phytoestrogens as beneficial. It is the
phytoestrogens or isoflavones in soy that are supposed to protect us from
heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and the discomforts of menopause. Yet
in normal women consuming sufficient iodine, just 30g of roasted soybeans
daily, containing about 38mg isoflavones, were found to depress thyroid
function--less than the amount in two glasses of soy milk, two servings of
tofu, or a handful of roasted soy nuts. In sensitive individuals, such as
Jenny Smith, even small amounts of soy were able to provoke the mental
confusion indicative of disrupted thyroid function.
ISOFLAVONES IN
OUR FOOD
Bread with added soy flour, 2 slices
4 mg
Meatless chicken nuggets, 1/2 cup
15 mg
Soy hot dog 15
mg
Soymilk, 8-ounce glass 20 mg
Green
soybeans, raw, 1/2 cup 20 mg
Miso, 1/4 cup
21 mg
Tofu, 1/2 cup 28
mg
Soy cheese, 1/2 cup 31 mg
Soymilk skin or
film , cooked, 1/2 cup 51 mg
Tempeh, cooked,
1/2 cup 53 mg
Soybean chips , 1/2 cup
54 mg
Mature soybeans, cooked, 1/2 cup
55 mg
Dry roasted soybeans , 1/2 cup
128 mg
Revival soy-based meal replacement, 1
serving 160 mg
Further confirmation of
soy's adverse effects on the mind comes from a recent study of Japanese
Americans living in Hawaii. Professor Lon White found a significant
statistical relationship between two or more servings of tofu per week and
"accelerated brain aging." Those participants who consumed tofu in
mid-life had lower cognitive function in late life and a greater incidence
of Alzheimer's and dementia. What's more," said Dr. White, "those who ate
a lot of tofu, by the time they were 75 or 80, looked five years
older."
According to Jennifer A. Phillips, writing for Cambridge
Scientific Abstracts, estrogens (including the phytoestrogens in soy) can
block the efficiency of thyroid hormones. This is why women need more
thyroid hormones than men and are more prone to thyroid troubles. Since
thyroid hormone acts as a neurotransmitter, low levels can mimic
psychiatric disease. Severe hypothyroidism can cause symptoms similar to
Alzheimer's disease, including memory loss, confusion, slowness, paranoid
depression and even hallucinations. Other symptoms of low thyroid function
include fatigue, loss of hair, difficulties at menopause, digestive
problems, constipation, infertility and brittle bones.
Individuals
with low thyroid function are also prone to heart disease. Soy proponents
claim that soy helps the heart because it lowers cholesterol. Yet in 1992,
researchers at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute looked at
every study that had been published about the risk of having high or low
cholesterol and concluded that mortality was greater in women with low
cholesterol than with high cholesterol. And a new study, published in the
Lancet, suggests that high cholesterol levels are protective even for men.
In any case, no study has ever offered direct proof that soy can prevent
heart disease and in most of the major studies in which cholesterol levels
were lowered through either diet or drugs, a greater number of deaths
occurred in the treatment groups than in controls, deaths from stroke,
cancer, intestinal disorders, accidents and suicide.
Scientists
looking at the correlation of soy foods and "brain aging" have focussed on
isoflavones, but there are a number of components in soy foods that can
contribute to reduced mental function. One is phytic acid which blocks
zinc absorption. Zinc is essential for proper functioning of the brain.
Modern processed soy foods contain high levels of MSG, fluoride and
aluminum, all of which are toxic to the nervous system. Furthermore,
during processing, at least two categories of carcinogens are formed,
lysinealanines and nitrosamines.
Other substances in soy can
contribute to the digestive problems so common in individuals with thyroid
troubles, including potent enzyme inhibitors that block the breakdown of
protein, and lectins that are highly irritating to the digestive tract.
These compounds tend to occur in higher amounts in genetically engineered
soybeans.
When soy protein isolate was fed to rats, the animals
required higher than normal levels of vitamins E, K, D and B12 and
developed deficiency symptoms of calcium, magnesium, zinc and many other
minerals.
Soy proponents claim that soy is a staple in Asia. A
"staple" is defined as a major commodity, one that provides a large
portion of calories in the diet, such as rice and fish in Japan, or rice
and pork in China. The Japanese consume 150 pounds of fish per person per
year, or almost one-half pound per person per day and a 1977 dietary
survey in China determined that 65 percent of calories came from pork,
including the pork fat used in cooking. By contrast, overall consumption
of soy in Asia is surprisingly low. The average soy consumption in China
is about 10 grams or 2 teaspoons per day. Levels are somewhat higher in
Japan, averaging about 50 grams or 1/4 cup per day. In both countries, soy
is used as a condiment or flavoring, and not as a substitute for animal
foods. Seafood and seaweed in the Japanese diet provide sufficient iodine
to counteract the negative effects of the isoflavones in soy.
In
Asia, soy is mostly consumed in fermented form, but it is not considered
an appropriate food for babies. When a mother is unable to nurse and a wet
nurse is unavailable, her infant is given milk from cows or water buffalo.
In the US, however, an estimated 750,000 babies per year receive infant
formula made from processed soybeans. Parents use soy formula in the
belief that is it healthier than formula based on cows' milk. In fact,
when soy infant formula first became commercially available, manufacturers
promised that soy formula was "better than breast milk."
Naomi
Baumslag, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University
Medical College and an expert on breast feeding, cites many reasons for
parents to avoid soy formula. "There is a great deal of scientific
evidence that soy formula can be damaging to newborns," she says, citing
high levels of phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, lectins, manganese and
phytoestrogens. High levels of manganese are toxic to babies because they
lack the blood-brain barrier that develops later in childhood. Manganese
overdose is associated with brain damage leading to violent behavior.
Furthermore, soy lacks many factors that are essential to normal brain
development including essential fatty acids, DHA-brain growth factor and
cholesterol.
The most serious problem with soy formula is high
levels of isoflavones. In Japan, soy foods contribute about 25-28 mg of
isoflavones per day, or just less that one-half mg per kilogram of body
weight. In American women, 45 mg of isoflavones or three-quarters mg per
kilogram of body weight per day caused endocrine disruption after just one
month. Babies fed exclusively on soy-based formula receive a dose that is
four to eleven times higher, based on body weight. A recent study found
that babies fed soy-based formula had 13,000 to 22,000 times more
isoflavones in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula. Dr. Mike
Fitzpatrick, a New Zealand toxicologist estimates that an infant
exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent of at least
five birth control pills per day.
PHYTOESTROGENS IN DIETS OF
INFANTS AND ADULTS
Average Isoflavones Intake Isoflavone per Kg of
Body Weight*
Japan (1996 survey) 10 mg
0.17 mg
Japan (1998 survey)
25 mg 0.42 mg
Japan (2000
survey) 28 mg 0.47 mg
In Japanese
women, causing thyroid suppression 38 mg
0.60 mg
In American women, causing hormonal changes
after 1 month 45 mg 0.75 mg
FDA
recommended amount for adults 75 mg
1.25 mg
In children receiving soy formula
38 mg 6.25 mg
*
Assumed 60 kg for adults, 6 kg for infants
Fitzpatrick believes
that soy feeding accounts for the alarming levels of premature maturation
in girls. This was the same conclusion reached in 1986 by investigators in
Puerto Rico, where early maturation is commonplace. The researchers
expected to find a correlation with consumption of milk and meat and were
surprised to discover that the strongest correlation was with soy infant
feeding. Girls who had consumed large amounts of cow's milk as children
actually had lower rates of early development.
In the US, one
percent of all girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development
or pubic hair, before the age of three; by age eight, almost 15 percent of
white girls and just under half of African-American girls have one or both
of these characteristics, according to a recent study reported in the
journal Pediatrics. Fitzpatrick believes that soy infant feeding disrupts
hormonal development in the same way as environmental estrogens such as
PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of DDT), or the synthetic estrogen DES.
The use of soy formula in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program,
which supplies free formula to low income mothers, may explain the
astronomical rates of early development in African American
girls.
The consequences are tragic. Young girls with mature bodies
must cope with feelings and urges that most children are not well-equipped
to handle. And early maturation in girls is frequently a harbinger for
problems with the reproductive system later in life, including failure to
menstruate, infertility and breast cancer.
What are the effects of
soy products on the hormonal development of boys? Male infants undergo a
"testosterone surge" during the first few months of life, when
testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male. During this
period, the infant is programmed to express male characteristics after
puberty, not only in the development of his sexual organs and other
masculine physical traits, but also in setting patterns in the brain
characteristic of male behavior. In monkeys, deficiency of male hormones
impairs learning and the ability to perform visual discrimination
tasks—such as would be required for reading—and retards the development of
spatial perception, which is normally more acute in men than in
women.
Learning disabilities, especially in male children, have reached
epidemic proportions. Soy infant feeding—which floods the bloodstream with
female hormones that could inhibit the effects of male hormones—cannot be
ignored as a possible cause for these tragic developments.
Other
problems that have been anecdotally associated with children of both sexes
who were fed soy-based formula include extreme emotional behavior,
depression, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency,
thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome.
Why have parents not
been alerted to the potential dangers of soy formula? The formula industry
is large and powerful, able to influence the outcome of scientific
research and wage successful publicity campaigns. A good example is a
recent University of Iowa study, funded by the formula industry and
published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, comparing
the reproductive health of adults who had been fed soy- or milk-based
formula as infants. The survey found that the soy group had higher levels
or reproductive disorders, asthma and allergies. Females of the soy group
were more likely to be sedentary and to have taken weight loss
medications. Yet the authors omitted these findings in their abstract and
concluded that ". . . the findings of the current study are reassuring
about the safety of soy infant formula." The University of Iowa study was
widely reported in the press as a vindication of soy formula.
The
JAMA study follows a June 1, 2001 report published in Cancer Research
which found that genistein, one of the isoflavones in soy, was more
carcinogenic than the synthetic estrogen DES when exposure occurred during
"critical periods of differentiation," such as during infancy. Medical
professionals insisted that DES was safe for pregnant women until they
discovered that women whose mothers took DES suffered from very high rates
of cervical cancer. The authors of the Cancer Research study concluded
that ". . . the use of soy-based infant formulas in the absence of medical
necessity and the marketing of soy products designed to appeal to children
should be closely examined."
Concerns about the dangers of soy have
prompted consumer groups in New Zealand and Canada to call for a ban on
the sale of soy infant formula. The law firm of Johnston Lawrence in New
Zealand is collating a list of victims in preparation for a class action
lawsuit in New Zealand, with follow-on legal action in the US. If you
believe your child has been damaged by soy infant formula, or if you have
suffered thyroid problems as a result of soy consumption, send your
confidential information to PO Box 1213, DX SP 20004, Wellington, New
Zealand or roger@johnlaw.co.nz.
In the US, the Weston A. Price
Foundation is spearheading efforts to have soy formula removed from the
market. If you suspect your child has been damaged by consumption of soy
formula, please write to the following congressmen, with a copy to the
Weston A. Price Foundation:
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
United
States Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
328A
Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator
Orin Hatch (R-UT)
Senate Subcommittee on Health Care of the Finance
Committee
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
219
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
The
Honorable Dan Burton (R-IN)
Chairman, House Committee on Government
Reform
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
2157
Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
The
Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Caucus of Complementary and
Alternative Health Care
U.S. House of Representatives
1730 Longworth
House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Weston A. Price
Foundation
PMB 106-380 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20016
Sources:
www.csa.com/hottopics/thyroid/oview.html
soyonlineservice.co.nz
www.westonaprice.org
Sally
Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions:
The Cookbook that
Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, with
Mary G. Enig, PhD (NewTrends Publishing 877-707-1776). She is the founding
president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org) and
founder of A Campaign for Real Milk (www.realmilk.com).
Mary Enig, PhD
is the author of Know Your Fats:
The Complete Primer for Understanding
the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol (Bethesda Press 301-680-8600).
She is President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association and Vice
President of the Weston A Price Foundation, Washington, DC.
Call or
e-mail for more info about natural progesterone. Or if you have tried it
and have question or concerns:
Stacie Rush
Arbonne
Consultant/District Manager
cell 561-629-3493 call any
time!
stacie@naturalskincare.us
www.naturalskincare.us
Discover
Arbonne... Enjoy a home based business and make your own hours!
Ask
me how!
1. Top of the line natural products with NO PETROLEUM.
2.
Only skin care line endorsed by the American Model Assoc.
3. Create
financial freedom and help others do the same.
4. MAKE A
DIFFERENCE!
5. Balance your Hormones...Balance your Life....ask me
how!!
