Soybeans came from China where it was originally grown using traditional methods and consumed in the form of fermented foods like tempeh, miso, natto and shoyu (soy or tamari sauce). Soybean consumed in the west and most industrialized nations is a genetically modified seed (GM) and widely consumed in the form of soy milk, soy protein and tofu. These soy foods are very different from what the Oriental people used to eat and are quite dangerous to the health as well.




The soybean is different from other pulses because it contains large amounts of harmful substances such as potent enzyme inhibitors and hemaglutinin, a clot promoting substance. Ordinary cooking doesn't deactivate these "antinutrients" which are known as growth depressants (1). When consumed, they can produce serious gastrointestinal problems, chronic deficiencies in amino acid and reduced protein digestion. These harmful substances are deactivated during the process of fermentation, which the Oriental people do very wisely before consuming soybean.




Soybeans are also high in phytic acid or phytates, more than any other grain or legume. Phytic acid blocks the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc in the intestine. Studies have found that grain and legume based diets high in phytates cause mineral deficiencies (2). This phytic acid in soy is not easily reduced by phytate reducing techniques such as long and slow cooking. Only a long fermentation can reduce it significantly.

The processing mechanism to make soy milk denatures the proteins to the extent that they become very difficult to digest and highly reduced in their effectiveness (3). This processing doesn't remove the phytate completely from the soy milk; it remains and inhibits the mineral absorption in the body. Soy protein isolate manufactured by high-temperature and solvent extraction processes is also a low quality protein and still contains enzyme Trypsin inhibitor substance.  

In 2007, almost 60% of soybeans produced in the world were Genetically Modified (GM) seeds. In 2008, almost 95% of soybean produced in the U.S. was from GM seeds. There have been no long term studies to establish the safety of GM foods (4). However, the scientific studies on Soy have been producing some scary results. In a study on rats, when female rats were fed GM soy, most of their babies died within three weeks (5). In the same experiment, only 10% babies died of those females fed natural soybean.

A human feeding study of GM soybean revealed a very dangerous problem from GM foods. It found that gene inserted into GM soybean transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function (6). This means, after we stop eating GM foods, we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us for a long time.

Wishing you Health, Wealth, Love and Happiness,
Pankaj Kotak

REFERENCES

1.    Haines PC., et al. Relationship of Pancreatic Enzyme Secretion to Growth Inhibition in Rats Fed Soybean Trypsin Inhibitor. Journal of Nutrition. 1961.

2.    Harland BF., et al. Nutritional status and phytate:zinc and phytate x calcium:zinc dietary molar ratios of lacto-ovo vegetarian Trappist monks: 10 years later.  Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 1988 Dec;88(12):1562-6.

3.    Wallace GM. Studies on the Processing and Properties of Soymilk. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. Oct 1971;22:526-535.

4.    Pusztai A. Genetically modified foods: are they a risk to human/animal health. Biotechnology: genetically modified organisms. 2001.

5.    Ermakova I. Genetically modified soy leads to the decrease of weight and high mortality of rat pups of the first generation. Preliminary studies. Ecosinform 1. 2006:4-9.

6.    Netherwood T., et al. Assessing the survival of transgenic plant DNA in the human gastrointestinal tract. Nature Biotechnology. 2004;22:204-209.