Secret 24: Everything in Moderation - Soy, too

Actually the title that Sally Beare uses for Secret 24 is 'Choose Soy - the Traditional Way', however I have changed it to one I consider more appropriate. Soy is a great example of the importance of eating foods in moderation. In Secret 24, Beare investigates soy products and mentions benefits as well as downsides to eating a lot of soy products. Tofu, miso, soy sauce, edamame, soy milk, tempeh - how much and how often should we be eating soy products?  

Surprisingly the most delicious edamame can be found at Sam's Club.
We love Fuijsan organic, non-GMO edamame 'delicious soybeans lightly salted with sea salt'.
Can't get enough of this snack!

The verdict is still out. The only three things that I can state with certainty about soy products are:

i. if you eat soy products, try to avoid those that have been genetically modified (choose 'non-GMO'). The tofu shown in the picture below is made by Denver Tofu Co. of 'non-genetically modified soybeans' and consists of only three ingredients: organic soy beans, water, and natural nigari*:

Double trouble or twice as healthy?
Tofu and its fermented cousin 'miso'

ii. when buying soy sauce, choose the one that states 'naturally brewed' on the label and look for the kind that has the least amount of salt. I currently have a bottle of 'Yamasa less salt' soy sauce in my pantry. It is naturally brewed, contains no preservatives and although it has 'less salt' it still has 520 mg per tablespoon of soy sauce or 22% of the daily value of a 2000 calorie diet. By the way, if you are gluten intolerant, be careful with soy sauce. Some soy sauces contain wheat.  

iii. do not automatically assume that eating out in Asian restaurants is healthy! Soy products may be genetically modified, contain flavor enhancers such as MSG and preservatives. Visit an Oriental food store in the U.S. and and read the ingredients on the labels of soy products (and other food products) and you may be surprised at the synthetic unpronouncables contained in many of your favorite products. 

Add boiling water and roasted seaweed to the two soy items in first picture and voila - a delicious miso soup.
I use organic miso, white type by Hikari (no MSG added, no GMO) from the refrigerated section at the Japanese store 'Sakura' in downtown Denver and non-GMO tofu from the Denver Tofu Co.  Vitamin Cottage and Whole Foods carry this brand.

When you are the one doing the shopping, you can choose the better quality soy sauce. When the restaurant is doing the shopping, more often than not they will choose the cheapest product available.  And you tend to get what you pay for.....  That soy sauce you are pouring on your sushi might just contain caramel color and MSG. California lists caramel color as a carcinogen (in case you were wondering, caramel color is also used to color Cola brown).  

Apart from the three suggestions above, the verdict on the health benefits of soy products is still out.  

To present both sides of the coin in a visually balanced manner, let me alternately list benefits that Beare mentions in blue and warnings that she mentions in red:  

• women who eat soy regularly have fewer hormone-related problems such as PMS and polycystic ovarian syndrome
• soy contains phytates which block the uptake of magnesium and calcium
• antioxidants in soy lower 'bad' LDL cholesterol levels
• some studies have shown that eating soy in large quantities can be harmful as they have some toxic properties
• soy contains isoflavones.  These inhibit the development of atherosclerosis
• Japanese men in Hawaii who eat more than two servings of tofu per week have more brain aging than those that do not
• the phytoestrogens in soy help slow down the loss of bone density in postmenopausal women
• soy formula for babies and products for children should be used with caution, as the phytoestrogens may affect the sexual development in children and can be an allergen 

and the list continues....

Another consideration is that the benefit is not caused by soy, but whatever lesser food item this is replacing. When I read that 'soy is largely credited with the extremely low rates of breast cancer in soy-eating Asian populations', I wonder whether the absence of breast cancer really is due to the presence of soy in the diet, or due to the absence of dairy products that might contain high levels of steroids, antibiotics and other chemicals fed to the dairy cows? Another example would be the use of olive oil.  Is the Mediterranean diet healthy because of the use of olive oil or because of the lack of use of chemically processed, synthetically blended cooking oils that line the supermarket shelves in the U.S.? Is it the substitution of the lesser item by the better item that is responsible for greater health, or is the improvement in health solely due to the presence of the better food? How much of the benefit is brought about by reducing the processed item and how much is really due to the addition of the fresher, purer item? I believe that much of the benefit stems from avoiding unhealthy food. Thus when Beare states that soy is beneficial, perhaps it is not soy per se that is solely responsible but the fact that it has taken the place of something quite unhealthy in the diet?  Just some food for thought.....

* Nigari?  What's that?  Nigari is E 511.  Sounds rather unappetizing, doesn't it?  So what is E 511?  It is magnesium chloride.  It is the coagulant that changes soy milk into tofu.  にがり or 'nigari' is derived from the Japanese word bitter and is produced by removing sodium chloride from seawater and evaporating the water.  The remnant is a white powder or magnesium chloride. You will rarely find tofu without it.