While listening to the KPFA morning show this morning (free speech radio in the bay area), featuring Michael Pollan, author of "Omnivore's Dilemma" and discussing his latest book "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto", he made a good point when answering a callers question about whether or not Tofu is safe to eat or not.  The caller, a young Bay Area man asked, "I am wondering about the healthfulness of Tofu, I have had a couple of conversations with friends who say it is not healthy because it is processed and other friends who say it is, what are your thoughts on this?"

Michael responded saying, "To make tofu you have to process it...but there is processing and there is processing!  There are certain processes that have been used for hundreds of years that are actually safe and make very nutritious food, tofu is a very nutritious food, although sometimes it is made with GM soybeans, which means it is not Organic which may or may not bother you.  But there is a real distinction between the traditional Asian ways of processing soy, to make tempeh, soy sauce and tofu, and some very modern approaches to the soy bean   We have now learned to extract the pure soy protein isolate, a.k.a soy isoflavens, these are showing up in the food supply, and I am more skeptical of those, because they are very new methods and in some cases the FDA has declined to give their seal of approval to soy isoflaven as an additive.  So basically in general, if people have been doing for hundreds of years, then that product is probably fine, ya know, the best foods are the oldest foods!"

Listening to this program got me thinking, since I was raised Vegetarian, and have consumed a lot of tofu in my day, in various forms, and usually every day, I wondered if the soy I had been eating was 'safe' or not.  I remembered an article I had read about eating soy, and it listed a few symptoms for risks associated with eating soy, like Digestive Problems, which is something that I suffer from daily.  There have actually been studies of the "dark side" of soy, which was unbelievable to me, as I have always thought of soy as the miracle food, a great substitution for everything, and tastes good prepared in most every way.  I read that Soy is a $4 billion (US) industry, and besides claiming how soy promotes heart health and can help reduce certain 'cancers' and lower cholesterol, I began to wonder if 'soy' was just another bad product promoted by the bad money hungry companies, using the power of Marketing to sell this soy dream.   I thought back to my friend Gabby who lived in Japan for a few years, coming home and telling me how healthy and beautiful the Japanese were, and how they "drank miso for breakfast daily, and ate fermented soy products like tempeh and natto" but she failed to mention that they ate tofu by the mother load with every meal, actually the opposite they ate very little tofu, except that which was in the miso soup or in some stir-fry's.  In the United States we seem to be under the impression that processed soybean snacks are the 'healthy alternative' and that drinking soy shakes and soy power bars as a healthy snack to eat after pumping it up at the gym.  And I am the first to tell you, after years running competitive for a Division One College, that our whole team ubiquitously reached for a Powerbar™ after workout.  And truthfully, I didn't really think about the high amounts of added processed soy I had been eating all those years until I had a child.  After giving birth to my first child, my doctor told me I was to supplement my newborn with formula because he was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his head, and therefore needed to be supplemented with formula in addition to breast milk, in order to bring his red blood cell count up.  Since I was avidly against formula as a new mom, I was not convinced that this was the right thing to do for my baby.  They sent me home with two types of formula, one soy and one dairy.  I turned to a friend who told me, "there are high risks for infants fed soy formula, because they are so tiny and are in a important developmental stage, the estrogens in soy can affect their hormonal development, growing brains and reproductive systems."  She continued telling me that soy formulas contain high levels of manganese, which has been linked to ADD as well as neurotoxicity in infants."  Needless to say, I chose not to supplement my infant with soy or dairy formula, and my son seemed just fine.   And ironically, two years later when I gave birth to my second child, at home, with a new midwife, he was also born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his head, cutting off his oxygen when he was born.  When I asked my midwife about the supplementation with formula that my last doctor had not just suggested but down right demanded that I feed my newborn, she looked at me perplexed and told me she had never, in her 26 years of delivering babies, heard of such a thing.  And to put an exclamation point on this topic, I have also heard that the Israeli health ministry has recently advised its citizens to avoid soy formula indefinitely.

There are two sides to soy:  One, because soy contains isoflavens, which are plant nutrients with disease-fighting activity, there are studies that claim that these 'isoflavens' that mimic the body's own estrogens, which raise women's estrogen levels, which mimics menopause, causing symptoms like hot flashes.  And two, isoflavens could possibly block the body's estrogens, helping to reduce risk for breast cancer and uterine cancer before the onset of menopause, as high estrogen levels have been linked to cancer.  There are many conflicting studies on these effects of isoflavones on human estrogen levels, ultimately proving that they affect different people in different ways.  Lets take soy milk for example: Soy milk is a second or third level in terms of processing, as it is made from ground up soy beans mixed with water, then boiled, removing some toxins; then sugar is added to improve the very bland taste of plain soy milk.  In one eight ounce glass of soymilk you will intake 35 milligrams of isoflavones, which for women may change estrogen levels and hormonal funtions, and for men may lower testosterone levels and sex drive.  And on top of trying to 'figure out' soy, we consumers can't always trust these 'studies' as they may be backed by 'funders' of soy milk manufacturing companies or the government...who knows.  But one thing is for certain, just like anything else, moderation is the key.  Since there are so many studies out there on the effects of soy, on both sides of the fence, it is better to be safe then sorry, and include a balanced amount of soy in your diet.  If you talk to any nutritionist (and I have talked to quite a few) they will say that people with balanced diets with a variety of whole foods and little un-processed foods, tend to not get in trouble.  And in addition, take Michael Pollan's advice, and look for soy products like tofu and tempe from companies that have been doing it for some time, while using Organic processes.  And lastly, stop eating the 'dairy alternative' products and 'soy' snacks as a part of your daily diet.  These are bound to be just as bad for you as any other processed food, and hard for your body to digest.  I read this great line in an article in Ode Magazine by Julie Hanus, that I wanted to share, she said, "What amazes me is that so many vegetarians and vegans will say that the FDA would never approve a "soy prevents heart disease" claim unless there were good strong evidence.  Hello!  This is the same FDA that gave us Vioxx and aspartame.  I'm sure in Berkley in the 60's there were little companies that made tofu and soy milk, and people still beleive that soy is that kind of food.  What they're not getting is that we have Big Pharma, and now we have Big Soy!"

So, take Julie's advise, and research your Soy products before eating them (and feeding them to your children) every day!