by Roelien Steenkamp

Created on: April 15, 2010

The Controversy Surrounding Soy: A ‘Yellow Jewel’ for the Chinese yet a Danger for the Westerner?

It’s a bean, cultivated over 13000 years ago, and brought from China to America by seamen, Samuel Bowen, in 1765. It’s a tough bean that can grow in depleted soil, yet it is superior in protein and use than any other legume. It has gone from being a simple ‘curiosity food’ in the New World to a ‘food that can feed hungry nations’ after WW2, when both China and America sought so strongly after a cheap, sustainable meat substitute. If its extracted oil is not used in mayonnaise, margarine and salad dressing, it is shipped off to livestock farms for animals to feed on and industrial factories for the use of glycerine, paint, enamel and soap. Nowadays, the soybean seems ‘over-exploited’, ´common’ and ‘multi-purposeful’, but it’s still highly praised by its founders and scattered by the Japanese during the mame-maki ceremony to ward off evil. Where, though, should the soybean fit into your diet?  

 The Essential Difference

In Asia, the soybean is fermented and this is a crucial process for reducing the concentration of anti-nutrients (the bean should never be eaten raw) present in the bean. This allows the daidzein or soy isoflavens to be bioavailable for digestion by the body. These isoflavens contain more nutrients than the regular soy contained in Western products such as tofu, soy oil, flour, and milk. Fermentation activates considerably more nutrients such as B-Vitamins, glutathione and beta-glucan. Western soy products are usually made in industrial factories, in the presence of nitrates and extreme heat, in order to isolate Soya proteins. These processes deplete many nutrients of the soybean usually only present after fermentation.

 What Vegetarians Should Consider

 Due to its high protein and vitamin B6 content, doctors and dieticians recommend it to vegetarians as a substitute for meat. Although all soybean products are considered complete proteins, most products consumed are unfermented and have undergone many industrial and refined processes. Vegetarians should be careful when choosing soy products and should practice choosing soy foods such as tempeh, miso, soya sauce and natto. Vegetarians should also remember that their soy should not be genetically modified and that a large intake of soy could possibly cause the body to treat it as an allergen

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