Soy and Growth

Not only do soy food contain substances that interfere with protein uptake but they also contain substances that interfere with growth.

Soy, Protein and Growth

The anti-nutrients present in soy and soy food inhibit the digestion of protein.  In traditionally made tofu, most of these substances are found in the liquid component of tofu. 

Wherever they are found, these compounds can lead to indigestion - mild to severe, As said before they can interfere with protein and amino acid uptake. If eaten frequently and over time these compounds have a negative effect on the pancreas and can even lead to pancreatic cancer..

Soy and soy foods also contain a substance known is a "haemagglutinin."' This substance causes red blood cells to stick together - which is not usual considered a good thing (really never a good thing).

Now both the protease inhibitors (these keep you from digesting protein) and the haemagglutinin are considered growth inhibitors. In the laboratory, rats that are feed these substances fail to grow properly.  Are you thinking about the soy meat extender used in the fast food hamburger that your child or loved one  is eating?  Or maybe the soy cheese extender used in that pizza from the place that delivers pizza with cheese in the crust? Or how about that soy milk?

Again remember that a little traditionally produced soy products will not cause irreparable harm is most people.  That said, soy products should not be considered a replacement for meat or a protein replacement but a condiment to be eaten with a rich variety of other nutrient rich foods.

Soy and Protein

Most soy products, even those that are prepared in a traditional fashion, contain enzymes that keep you from benefiting from the protein that you eat with the soy products.

Protease Inhibitors

The particular enzymes found in soy products that prevent you from benefiting from protein are known as Protease inhibitors.  This term is used for any enzyme or anti nutrient that interferes with the working of trypsin and other enzymes whose job it is to prepare the protein found in foods to be taken up in the gut.

These anti nutrients are found in raw, cooked and fermented soy products.  Cooking reduces the amount of these anti nutrients but doesn't remove them completely.  In order for cooking to remove all of the anti nutrients, the length of the cooking would denature the amino acids (proteins are made of amino acids) in the soy and converted them to other toxic substances.

Traditional fermentation of these products, achieves a greater reduction in the anti nutrients but again some are still present.

Modern production methods, especially of tofu, do little to neutralize these protease inhibitors. Yes, that is most of the tofu found on the shelves in the supermarket.

However, the improper processing of tofu, soy sauce and tempeh are small items compared to the amount of soy isolate protein, soy whey, soy lecithin, soy milk, etc., that is added to almost every processed product found in stores today.

  The soy protein is used as an "extender" because of the high cost of meat. These are present in many reshaped burger patties, processed chicken (like the breaded ones you dip in the sauces).

Fast food restaurants proud claim to use textured soy protein. A popular "Mexican" fast food restaurant in South California uses textured soy protein in its meat products. Another restaurant used to be accused of using kangaroo meat in their tacos (probably an urban legend) but that almost sounds better than textured soy protein.

None of these soy products are even prepared with any idea of reducing these toxins.

This doesn't mean that one cannot enjoy an occasional meal with traditionally prepared soy products but be moderate in eating these.  The population most at risk is the vegetarian, vegan, and so called "heart healthy" dieters that substitute meat and animal milk for modern soy products.

Highest Toxic Load

The soy bean has one of the highest toxin loads of all the edible beans. Most of these toxins will not be neutralized by cooking, or digestion.

The Use of Soy Beans

The traditional cuisines of China and Japan feature foods made from soy bean.  However most of these foods have been transformed by some type of fermentation.  Examples of these types of food are natto, traditionally made tofu, soy sauce and its Chinese equivalent - Jiangyou (which can be fermented up to three times).  Tempeh is also a traditional soy food that originated in Indonesia.

Most of those are fermented using some of my favorite things - mold!

Tofu was most often made in monasteries.  People had noticed that individuals that regularly ate tofu and some other soy products were not as likely to be "interested" in starting a family.  Enough said.

We'll talk more about soy beans and their products in other posts.

Fermentation is a great way to neutralize toxins.  Here's a tip for those of you who like to juice your greens.

 

Lacto Fermented Green Juices

Add about 1/4 cup whey to every 4 to 5 cups of juice from greens or other vegetables and stir.
Let it sit, covered with a lid, at room temperature for 12 hours. 
Then transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 3 hours or so. 
Then use as you normally do.

Green juice preserved in this fashion can be kept for a week or so, but is really best during the first few days.

Most of toxins (nitrates, oxalates, etc.) will be neutralized by the fermentation.  The juice will not "oxidize" to form other harmful substances or make nutrients unavailable to you (which is why you should only drink fresh juiced greens or lacto-fermented green juice).

Plant Perils

Many foods, especially plants that we use for food ,have toxins in them that can inhibit our uptake of vitamins and minerals.   Ingested in excess or at length these can damage the gut.

 

Toxins, Uptake Inhibitors and Antinutrients

We hear quite a bit about what foods have certain vitamins or minerals in them that are "good for us."

We've also heard stories about how many vitamin supplements that people take go right through their gut, without being absorbed by our bodies and out into the sewage.  Sometimes still in the pill form.

What if I were to tell you that this can happen when you are eating "real" food also, not just supplements.

 Many times we forget that the determination of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc., is made in a laboratory. It is not usually determined from examining or comparing these values to the actual food that has been processed by the human gut.

From the moment that you place food in your food, there are many reactions that must take place for you to receive the optimum nutrition from that food.

The very structure of some foods keep us from utilizing their nutrients and can even damage the gut..  Other foods have compounds they produce that keep us from taking the nutrients into our system.

We'll discuss this phenomenon in later posts.

Fresh or Preserved Food

We should try to eat fresh food or food that has been preserved in traditional ways as often as we can.

 

Good Food that is Good for You!

We have been speaking about Nitrates.  Nitrates occur endogenously* in many foods, such as fruit and vegetables.  Nitrates are also used as food additives (purified as Sodium nitrate or unpurified as celery salt or celery juice) in certain processed meats.   

*The plant or organism made them itself, humans produce nitrates in our digestive tracts.

So even through food such as ham or hot dogs that contain nitrates, which  can be consumed safely in the presence of vitamin C; we should also discover what other things were used in making the product and their effect on our health.

 

Another important aspect of this is how healthy the animal or plant was.

 

Plants should be raised in nutrient dense soil and properly prepared. (Yes, that could mean cooking or lacto fermented that Kale!)

 

Animals should be raised humanly and given the proper food for their kind.  

 

This allows the food made from these animals and plants to have the optimum nutrients that makes the food worth eating and/or preserving.

 

We should try to eat fresh food or food that has been preserved in traditional ways as often as we can. For example, salt has traditionally been used to preserve food, long other preservatives.

 

 A good whole of thumb is to never buy anything that has more than 3 ingredients. These ingredients should be compounds that you can pronounce and are familiar with.