Nexus - 0703 - New Times Magazine-pages

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TRAGEDY AND HYPE — The Third International Soy Symposium — Far from being the perfect food, modern soy products contain antinutrients and toxins which inhibit digestion and block the absorption of vitamins and minerals. Each year, research on the health effects of soy and soybean components seems to increase exponentially. Furthermore, research is not just expanding in the primary areas under investigation, such as cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis; new findings suggest that soy has potential benefits that may be more extensive than previously thought. o writes Mark Messina, PhD, General Chairperson of the Third International Soy Symposium held in Washington, DC, in November 1999.' For four days, well- funded scientists gathered in Washington made presentations to an admiring Press and to their sponsors—United Soybean Board, American Soybean Association, Monsanto, Protein Technologies International, Central Soya, Cargill Foods, Personal Products Company, SoyLife, Whitehall-Robins Healthcare and the soybean councils of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota. The symposium marked the apogee of a decade-long marketing campaign to gain con- sumer acceptance of tofu, soy milk, soy ice cream, soy cheese, soy sausage and soy deriv- atives, particularly soy isoflavones like genistein and diadzen—he oestrogen-like com- pounds found in soybeans. It coincided with a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision, announced on October 25, 1999, to allow a health claim for products "low in sat- urated fat and cholesterol" that contain 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving. Breakfast cereals, baked goods, convenience food, smoothie mixes and meat substitutes could now be sold with labels touting benefits to cardiovascular health, as long as these products con- tained one heaping teaspoon of soy protein per 100-gram serving. MARKETING THE ‘PERFECT FOOD' "Just imagine you could grow the perfect food. This food not only would provide affordable nutrition, but also would be delicious and easy to prepare in a variety of ways. It would be a healthful food, with no saturated fat. In fact, you would be growing a virtual fountain of youth on your back forty." The author is Dean Houghton, writing for The Furrow,? a magazine published in 12 languages by John Deere. "This ideal food would help prevent, and perhaps reverse, some of the world's most dreaded diseases. You could grow this miracle crop in a variety of soils and climates. Its cultivation would build up, not deplete, the land...this miracle food already exists... It's called soy." Just imagine. Farmers have been imagining—and planting more soy. What was once a minor crop, listed in the 1913 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) handbook not as a food but as an industrial product, now covers 72 million acres of American farmland. Much of this harvest will be used to feed chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows and salmon. Another large fraction will be squeezed to produce oil for margarine, shortenings and salad dressings. Advances in technology make it possible to produce isolated soy protein from what was once considered a waste product—the defatted, high-protein soy chips—and then trans- form something that looks and smells terrible into products that can be consumed by human beings. Flavourings, preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic nutrients have turned soy protein isolate, the food processors' ugly duckling, into a New Age Cinderella. The new fairy-tale food has been marketed not so much for her beauty but for her virtues. Early on, products based on soy protein isolate were sold as extenders and meat substitutes—a strategy that failed to produce the requisite consumer demand. The indus- try changed its approach. "The quickest way to gain product acceptability in the less © 2000 by Sally Fallon E-mail: SAFallon@aol.com & Mary G. Enig, PhD E-mail: MGEnig@aol.com All rights reserved © 2000 by Sally Fallon E-mail: SAFallon@aol.com & Mary G. Enig, PhD E-mail: MGEnig@aol.com All rights reserved APRIL — MAY 2000 NEXUS + 19