Barefoot Healthy Hippie

This article explores what makes soy healthy. It's important to note that Dr. Greene, who I quoted, is teamed up with Silk Soy Milk. That makes him bias, but it doesn't change the health facts about soy.

"I love sipping a glass of organic soymilk, made from whole soybeans. This is completely different from scarfing down a bag of greasy potato chips made with partially hydrogenated soybean oil that has been chemically derived from genetically modified soy plants and different from gorging on heavily processed convenience foods containing hydrolyzed vegetable (soy) protein, textured vegetable (soy) protein, or soy protein isolates and concentrates. Is soy healthy? It depends on how we grow it, how we process it, and how we eat it. How much do we eat? What other ingredients are in our soy-containing foods? What other nutrients are in our diet? Are we allergic to soy?"
-Dr. Alan Greene from DrGreene.com

Nutritional Information

The fact is that soy has no cholesterol and is low in fat. If you are watching fat and cholesterol intake, then soy is a far healthier choice than meat. That is, whole soy, not processed soy.

The following chart is the nutritional information for whole, raw soy beans. The serving size is the yield of ten pods.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 29	(123 kJ)
% Daily Value 1
Total Fat	1.4g	2%
Sat. Fat	0.2g	1%
Cholesterol	0mg	0%
Sodium	3mg	<>%
Total Carbs.	2.2g	1%
Dietary Fiber	0.8g	3%
Protein	2.6g
Calcium	39.4mg
Potassium	124mg

Compare that to the following chart, which is for 2.9 ounces of raw tofu. Notice that processing of the soy increases all catagories, good and bad.

Nutrition Facts
Calories 117	(491 kJ)
% Daily Value 1
Total Fat	7g	11%
Sat. Fat	1g	5%
Cholesterol	0mg	0%
Sodium	11mg	<>%
Total Carbs.	3.5g	1%
Dietary Fiber	1.9g	7%
Protein	12.8g
Calcium	553.2mg
Potassium	192mg

The following paragraph also came from DrGreene.com. The study it sites can be found in the book, Blue Zones, which I read and loved, I would quote directly from the book except I borrowed and returned it and haven't bought my own copy yet.

"In Okinawa, Japan. more of the people live to be over 100 years old than any place else in the world. The Okinawa Centenarian Study examined lifetime eating habits of 600 residents of Okinawa who were over 100 years old. Tofu, a non-fermented soy food, has been an important part of their diet for hundreds of years. The study concludes that high consumption of whole soy foods (about two servings a day) is one of the main reasons that elderly Okinawans have 80 percent fewer heart attacks and 75 percent fewer hormone dependent cancers (including breast, prostate, ovarian and colon cancer) compared to Americans. The Okinawans also have a lower rate of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The centenarians in the study shared several lifestyle factors, including regular physical activity and low-calorie diets containing an abundance of soy foods, vegetables and fish."

The study also concluded that their exercise and way of life had a lot to do with their longevity. These people had friends visiting them every week, they walked miles and still did a lot of their own labor. They were mostly vegetarian, maybe one meat serving a week because of expense. They also ate a lot of miso soup and tofu.

Another reason to eat soy, or be vegetarian in general (or at least cut back on meat) is that it's more sustainable than cows, chicken, fish, etc. It takes less water, less space, and less energy to grow plants than raise animals for food. It takes 8 gallons of water per pound of hamburger meat when you count up what the animal drinks and the water it takes to grow the food for the cow to eat for a lifetime. (Conscientious Cooking, a book published in the late 70s which is out of print and I wish I had.)

How to choose the right product

Up to 80% of soy beans grown in the US are genetically modified. There have not been long term studies on health risks of modification, but I wouldn't risk it for myself or my family. Organic soy beans are not modified and are not grown with pesticides or other chemicals. (One caveat is if the farm is located near a grower of modified plants there will be cross pollination so there is no guarantee of purity.)

Choose products that are made from whole soy beans, not just the isolated soy protein. Anything that is isolated is never as strong/healthy as the whole product. Herbs are a great example. Removing the salicylic acid (asprin) from the willow bark will still stop a headache, but it can cause your stomach to bleed. The whole willow bark has properties that keep your stomach from bleeding as well as stopping the headache.

There are soy milks that are made from whole beans, and some that are made from just the soy protein so read your labels!


Everything in Balance

Eating too much soy is not healthy, and eating pizza at every meal and then adding a cup of soy milk to your diet won't benefit you either. Over processing and over indulging in any food is a poor health choice.

How much is too much? No one really knows. I found sources recommending two servings per day and others say not more than two per week.

The bottom line: Whole soy is the best choice, read labels, buy organic.


The next article will be SOY: The Bad