My motto is “everything in moderation,” but how many of us are actually living life with that motto? Seems that we all drink too much, work too much, eat too much, exercise too little, and complain too much; so what happened to moderation?
My favorite example of this is, SOY, it seems that everything that we eat, drink, or buy contains some form of soy! It has been labeled as a “health food” and dominates the shelves of our health food stores. We find soy in our beauty products, clothing, and for fillers in almost anything imaginable.
An example of this may be seen recently when my husband and I went shopping for a new mattress. We came across a new eco-friendly mattress that is made with layers of soy! I had to politely explain to the salesperson that I did not think that it would be a good idea for us to sleep on a bed full of estrogen (more on this later).
Here is my issue with soy: it is cheap to mass produce so has been misrepresented as a good healthy alternative to meat, dairy, and protein in general. Here is the down and dirty on soy:
· Contain phytates which block the body’s ability to absorb certain minerals; such as magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc.
· Contain enzyme –inhibitors, which the body needs for protein digestion
· Contain hemagglutinin, which is a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together
· Over 90% of soy is genetically modified http://www.saynotogmos.org/
· Is one of the highest pesticide contaminated food that we eat
And one of my personal favorites…
· Soy is a phytoestrogen, which means that it mimics the effects of estrogen
Why does this reason scare me the most? Take baby formula for an example, chances are the formula that you are looking at contains soy in the list of ingredients. What does this mean? This means that you could be feeding a baby the equivalent of approximately 5 birth control pills a day! Check on the Weston Price website for more information http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert/715-soy-formula-birth-control-pills-for-babies.html . Studies have shown the effects of phytoestrogens to cause early puberty and impaired fertility.
So is it ever ok to eat soy? Yes…like I said earlier, everything in moderation. Fermented soy is also an option (fermented soy includes tempeh, natto or miso). The fermentation process reduces the phytate levels allowing us to digest the nutrients better.
