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ARE SOY PRODUCTS GOOD SUBSTITUTES FOR MEAT
AND DAIRY PRODUCTS?
 Today,
the soy industry has become a multi-billion dollar business. It attributes its
huge success mainly to the anti-cholesterol and anti-meat gospels of current
nutritional thought. It took a long time for soybeans to gain acceptance in
the West as they were probably seen as conventional beans, and therefore cooked
in the same way. However, today we see soy products proliferating in the North
American market. While the traditionally
fermented soy products of miso, shoyu,
tempeh and natto are known to provide
bounty of vitamins, minerals, carbodrates and fiber, the hyper-processed soy
"foods" has no nutritional values at all.
Non-fermented soybeans products such as tofu
are anti-nutrients. They contain extremely
high amounts of phytic acid. This acid is an anti-nutrient that binds
to minerals in the digestive tract and carries them out of the body. As
such, vegetarians have high rates of iron
and zinc deficiencies.
Soybeans also inhibit protein digestion as they contain trypsin inhibitors.
Fragmented foods such as textured vegetable
protein (TVP), soy "milk" and soy protein powders, vegetarian meat
and milk substitutes are made
by heating the soybeans and washing them with alkaline water. The purpose is
to remove the fats and neutralise their potent enzyme inhibitors. Today, scientist
tells us that these processes denature the
bean's protein content, making them very hard to digest. Another
compound called MSG, a neurotoxin added to TVP to make it taste like the various
foods it imitates is harmful.
Soybeans are deficient in cysteine, methionine and vital sulphur-containing
amino acids. They are also lacking in tryptophan, another essential amino
acid. Soybeans also contain no vitamins A or D that are required by the body
to assimilate and utilize the bean's protein. For these reasons, the
Chinese usually do not consume soybeans alone.
They usually combine them with fish or fish broths and other forms of proteins.
With so much being said against the benefits of soy, the New Zealand government
is considering removing soy formula from the market and making it available
only by prescription.
The final conclusion has yet to be drawn. Research is still ongoing. However,
some recent studies have said that soy's
phyto-oestrogens, which are supposed to help alleviate the effects of low oestrogen
production in the body, is now believed to be a causative
factor in breast cancer and infantile
leukaemia. These phyto-oestrogens or isoflavones are also
believed to depress thyroid functions
and cause infertility in some animals.
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