Exposing the Lies About Soy and Genetically Modified “Franken-Foods”
Dear Health-Conscious Reader,
The world’s biggest, most powerful agriculture companies are experimenting with your life. You never agreed to take part in it. But it’s triggering infertility, tumors, kidney and liver disease and more.
Big-Agra giants like Monsanto are helping to put untested mutations on your dinner table. These Franken-food experiments are better known as GMOs, or genetically modified organisms.
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Big-Agra’s number one cash crop – soy – is creeping into thousands of products you eat every day, whether you know it or not. sixty to 70 percent of ALL processed foods contain some soy.
And, almost all soy crops are genetically modified. This “mutant soy” is clinically documented to cause depression, fatigue, infections, brain fog, nausea… even cancer.
Genetically modified foods have a shaky track record and have never been proven safe. And the test results that reveal the real dangers never see the light of day. When you eat them, you’re taking part in a global Franken-foods experiment.
Today, I’ll show you how and why this horror show is unfolding and what you can do to avoid the crippling side effects.
I’ll also uncover the compelling studies showing soy is no “miracle food,” and give you 8 simple steps to avoid the hidden soy in your diet and how to get these Franken-foods off your dinner table.
The “Soy” In Your Food Isn’t Nature’s Soy
You may have heard that the Japanese are among the healthiest, longest-lived people on earth. There’s no sure way to know why this is true, but the speculation is that it’s because of what they eat.
And Japanese people eat many different soy products.
Food manufacturers have taken this idea and run with it, trying to convince you that their soy products are healthy … but there’s a problem.
It’s not the same soy.
You see, the Japanese ferment their soybeans in a traditional way to make the kinds of soy foods they eat like natto, miso, tempeh, edamame and tofu.
But those are a far cry from soy foods made from the genetically modified, heavily processed soy that’s in nearly every product you can buy at your local grocery store.
First, Japanese soy products are made with soybeans from conventional breeding programs and are not genetically modified. The Japanese don’t allow franken-soy.
Second, their soy products are produced through natural fermentation processes.
Natto is made by simply:
- soaking soybeans in water, until the beans stop swelling.
- steaming them so the beans become soft but don’t lose their skin.
- laying the cooked beans on cooked rice straw and tying the package shut to let a little heat and oxygen ferment it naturally.
That’s it. Three steps. Soak, steam, ferment.
The Chinese have been doing this for thousands of years. And they discovered that mashing up soybeans and mixing them with certain minerals would make a sort of curd… now known as tofu.
And the Chinese and Japanese have known for centuries what food manufacturers don’t want you to know: You don’t eat unfermented soybeans.
They have huge amounts of natural toxins that block food digestion, and also absorption of essential vitamins and minerals. Modern research has discovered that non-fermented soy has elements that can depress thyroid function, stunt growth, and cause red blood cells to clump together.
Producers Are Lying To You About Their Soy
But food manufacturers have spent billions to blind us to these effects, and instead tell you how “nutritious” their soy products are.
Vegetarians have latched on to the soybean as a wonder food, using the food manufacturers’ own propaganda. They claim it’s high in protein, low in calories, carbohydrates and fats, has no cholesterol, is high in vitamins, and is easy to digest.
This is the language they use to demonize the traditional foods that nourished our ancestors for thousands of years: butter, raw milk, meat and eggs.
The truth is, the soy you find in processed food is genetically modified, oxidized, nutritionally worthless at best, and dangerous at its worst. It’s simply a chemically extracted fraction of the bean.
Instead of “soak, steam, ferment,” here’s how they process soy industrially:
- Industrial crushing processes called cracking breaks down the raw, genetically modified bean to thin flakes.
- They are then “defatted” by percolating them like coffee.
- Instead of water the flakes are cooked in a petroleum-based hexane solvent to extract the soy oil.
- The remains of the flakes are toasted and ground into meal.
- For soy flour, the oil then goes through a process of
1. cleaning
2. bleaching
3. degumming
4. and deodorizing
all to remove the solvent, and soy’s horrible smell. - The sludge that forms in the oil during storage used to be a waste product. Now you know it as soy lecithin.1
In other words, the part of the soy that’s left over as garbage after the petroleum processing and bleaching is the heart-destroying oil that makes up the trans fats in every kind of junk food you can think of.
And do you know how they make the soy protein isolate used in fake meat and dairy products that vegetarians and food manufacturers claim is so good for you?
It goes something like this:
- A slurry of soy beans is first mixed with an alkaline solution to remove fiber
- The mix is then separated using an acid wash. (This is done in aluminum tanks that can suffuse the toxic metal into the soy.)
- It’s then neutralized in an alkaline solution.
- The curds are spray-dried at high temperatures to produce the soy isolate protein powder.
- Then they use a high-temperature, high-pressure process to squeeze out a vegetable protein (textured vegetable protein, or TVP) used for other foods – like kids’ meals at public schools.
Does that sound nutritious, or even natural?
In fact, it’s unhealthy, and downright dangerous.
1. The high-temperature processing makes any protein completely worthless.
2. The spray drying forms nitrites, which are known carcinogens.
3. A toxin called lysinoalanine forms during application of the alkaline solution.2
These are what’s in store for you when you eat so-called “health” foods made with soy.
When you process any food:
- It strips out most if not all of the minerals and natural co-factors.
- It destroys phytonutrients.
- It alters the physical properties of the food itself (think “trans-fats” and high fructose corn syrup).
And, as if the processing isn’t bad enough, the actual soybeans forced on growers by companies like Monsanto could be the most frightening part of it all…
Government Steps In To Hide the Danger of GMOs
When giant agricultural corporations wanted to flood the market with genetically modified seeds, there was a problem. What about safety? What were the effects of eating an ear of corn laced with pesticide? What would happen if someone ate soybeans designed to survive the potent weed-killer called Round-up?
“Not a problem,” announced the federal government.
As long as these “Franken-foods” are “substantially equivalent” to the real thing, the GMO products would be deemed safe – and made available for sale.
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“Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” Phil Angell, |
So, if a GMO food – or other plant – is “substantially equivalent” in composition and nutritional characteristics, it doesn’t have to be tested for safety.
Responsible scientists were quick to point out the problems with substantial equivalence.
In 1998, Geneva’s Center for Environmental Law argued against the World Trade Organization accepting “substantial equivalence” as a standard for GMO safety.
They said it was inadequate to prove safety, would undermine meaningful standards in those countries, and that it ignored scientific research that showed “substantially equivalent” GMO foods had significant negative health impacts.3
For example, in 1989, Showa Denko (a Japanese chemical engineering company) genetically engineered bacteria that would produce the food supplement tryptophan.
This unexpectedly also produced trace amounts of a toxin that caused 37 people to die and 1,500 to become permanently disabled. Several hundred more have since died…
… and this genetically modified product was a purified single chemical that had passed the required substantial equivalence testing.4
Plus, there’s no such thing as “substantial equivalency.” If you change even one gene of a natural food, you’re changing the physical nature of the entire food. So how can you say that’s even close to equivalent? Who knows what consequences it will have? How could anyone know?
Unfortunately for all of us, commercial interests won out over science, and substantial equivalency is allowed. And now you’re part of the biggest food experiment ever conducted… and you never gave your ok.
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine points out that GMO foods have been linked to:
- Infertility
- Weakened immune system
- Accelerated aging
- Genetic problems with cholesterol, insulin control, cell signaling, and protein formation
- Changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system5
These Franken-foods may be considered “substantially equivalent,” but the research shows they’re substantially more dangerous, too.
There’s plenty of solid evidence. Take a look at some of the studies I’ve found…
85% of the Food on Store Shelves Contain GMOs
In the rush to please the Big-Agra giants, our government has sold us out. Today, as many as 85% of the processed foods on store shelves contain genetically modified ingredients.6
And that’s not good, if the few studies on GM foods can be believed.
In 2008, Italian researchers found that GM foods had a negative impact on the immune systems of mice.7 Turkish scientists found evidence of liver and kidney disease in rats fed genetically modified corn.8 And Danish researchers found enough differences in rats fed genetically modified rice to question its safety.9
So where are the studies? A medical researcher in Spain found that there’s an almost complete lack of proof that GM foods are safe.10 And there’s a good reason why.
No One is Allowed to Test GMO Crops…
So where is all the research on genetically modified crops? It’s hard to come by.
And there’s a good reason for that. The manufacturers won’t allow it.
That’s right. Monsanto – and the handful of other big producers of genetically modified crops – don’t allow scientific testing.
If you want to get your hands on GMO seeds, you have to sign an “end-user agreement,” just as if you were buying software. And these end-user agreements ban testing and comparisons to other products. The only testing that happens is testing that the manufacturers approve.
As Scientific American points out, the only tests approved are those that the manufacturers decide are “friendly.”11
So, are genetically modified foods safe for you to eat? Sorry… That’s on a need-to-know basis. And the manufacturers have decided that you don’t need to know.
And in the case of soy, what you don’t know can hurt you.
Soy is one of the most widespread and successful GMOs in history. All soy is genetically modified and it’s in thousands of products you eat every day.
Soy-based products are everywhere in today’s American diet. You may not realize it, but soy crops up in unexpected places in your fridge and cupboard, from ice cream and yogurt to pasta and cereal. Not to mention the frying oil used in fast food.
How did this happen?
Because the FDA endorsed it, the food industry jumped on the soy bandwagon in a big way. By 2004, 80 percent of all vegetable oils were derived from soy, and nearly all processed foods now contain some form of it.
Big-Agra Connections In the White House
Monsanto and other Big-Agra fat cats are at the highest levels of power. Just look at Obama’s choices to head the USDA and the FDA: Tom Vilsack and Michael Taylor.
Mr. Vilsack is a long-time supporter of genetically modified foods. And Michael Taylor, the “food-safety czar,” is the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.
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The Fox Guarding the Henhouse: Failing on his campaign promise to rid the government of Big-Agra special interests, Obama littered his administration with former Monsanto executives and researchers. Aside from Tom Vilsack and Michael Taylor taking top positions in Obama’s White House, here’s just a partial list of other Big-Agra thugs making key decisions about YOUR health: Roger Beachy: Director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Beachy is former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center. Islam Siddiqui: Now the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative, he is also Vice President of the Monsanto-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife. Rajiy Shah: Former agricultural director for the pro-biotech and frequent Monsanto partner Gates Foundation, he was USDA Under Secretary and now head of USAID, spreading Big-Agra influence overseas, mostly to third-world countries. Elena Kagan: As Obama’s Solicitor General, she took Monsanto’s side on a case against organic farmers. She now sits on the Supreme Court. Ramona Romero: Corporate counsel to chemical giant DuPont, Romero was nominated by Obama and confirmed by the Senate to serve as General Counsel to the USDA. |
Taylor has a long history of lobbying for, and being employed by, Big-Agra companies with a vested interest in GMOs. Not only was Taylor a vice president at Monsanto, he was one of the FDA officials who signed off on an FDA policy stating that GMOs don’t need safety testing.
Monsanto’s Long Arm of Corruption
Reaches Around the Globe
Back in 2000, Monsanto wanted to plant over 49,000 acres of genetically modified cotton in Indonesia. But hours before the agreement with Indonesia’s government was to be signed, it was shot down by the Ministers of Economy and Environment. There had been no environmental assessment, as required by Indonesian law.
But just five months later, the Minister of Agriculture signed the agreement with Monsanto, without the required environmental assessment.
Why? As it turns out, it was a $50,000 bribe from a Monsanto employee that did the trick.
But that $50,000 was just the tip of the iceberg. As it turned out in U.S. court, Monsanto had paid some $700,000 in bribes to Indonesian officials, and wound up slapped with a $1.5 million fine.12
According to a report in the Asia Times, 140 Indonesian officials received bribes from Monsanto over the deal, including a former Minister of Agriculture, whose wife received a house worth $373,990.
Now, I realize that Indonesia was known at the time for official corruption. But if the genetically modified crop was really safe, wouldn’t it be easier to simply prepare the required assessment?
Even more disturbing is an earlier U.S. government policy that cleared the way for us to become unwilling lab rats.
The Great Soy Hoax: “Miracle Food” Exposed As Toxic Burden
For years now, you’ve been hearing about the miraculous benefits of soy-based products as a “healthy” meat substitute.
In 1999, the FDA endorsed soy protein as a way to lower saturated fats and cholesterol in the American diet, leading to an explosion in the food industry’s use of soy-based products.
But let me ask you a question: Would you willingly eat something that causes nausea, gas pains, and indigestion? That leads to hormonal imbalance, thyroid problems, gout, and even cancer? That contains “bad” fats and other unhealthy substances? That has no positive effect whatsoever on heart health?
Of course, you wouldn’t.
But beneath all the soy-health hoopla, I’ve found studies strongly suggesting that many of these products pose a number of serious health risks.
REVEALED: The 5 Big Dangers of Soy
In the journal Circulation, the American Heart Association announced that soy has little effect on cholesterol and is unlikely to prevent heart disease.13
This isn’t meant to suggest that all types of soy are unhealthy. But it proves that soy isn’t the “miracle food” the FDA and the food industry would have you believe.
Here are five reasons why that’s very bad news for your health.
● Indigestion and Blockage of Key Nutrients:
The problems start with the soybean itself. In raw form, it’s poisonous to the human body. In fact, eating raw soy can cause stomach aches, nausea, cramping, and gas. Other soy ingredients prevent the body from absorbing essential minerals. Ironically, soy also makes it more difficult for the body to digest protein, the very thing soy was supposed to provide as an alternative to meat protein.
● Boost of Feminizing Estrogen:
Even more serious, soybeans contain substances called “isoflavones” that mimic estrogen, the female hormone. Eating enough soy can disrupt a woman’s menstrual cycle. One researcher calculated that, based on body weight, feeding your baby exclusively on soy formula is like giving it five birth control pills a day!14
● Gout and Thyroid Disruption:
As if that weren’t enough, there’s a chemical in soy that can cause gout and thyroid enlargement. Eating as little as 45 grams of soy products a day (about three-quarters of a cup of tofu, for instance) can cause thyroid malfunction within three months in healthy adult men and women.15
● Cancer and Harmful Fats:
Soy causes cancer in animal studies.16 (By the way, soy makes its way into most industrial animal feed, which means it’s also making its way to your table.) It’s also high in omega-6 fatty acids—up to 18 percent of the whole bean. This is the kind of fat we’re supposed to reduce in our diet.
● Dangerous Clotting of Red Blood Cells:
Another chemical in soy makes red blood cells cluster together. Among other dangers, this prevents the body from absorbing oxygen.
There’s Only One Safe Way to Eat Soy…
The Asian diet is famous for its heavy use of soy-based products like tofu and soy sauce. So why aren’t the Japanese suffering from the ill effects of soy?
Their soy is not genetically modified, and they don’t process it industrially.
Fermented soy-derived foods like tempeh, miso, and natto do not contain significant amounts of soy’s toxins.
Tofu, also a staple in traditional Asian cuisine, is not a fermented soy product. But the process of making tofu removes most of the harmful toxins in a different way.
Like some cheeses, tofu is made from the pressed “curds” of the bean, while the “whey,” or liquid left over after the pressing, is thrown out – and most of the toxins along with it.
How To Avoid the Franken-Food Monster
• Avoid processed foods whenever possible. I always recommend eating whole foods, grass-fed beef, and other minimally processed food products, across the board. These energize your body and give you vigor, strength, and long-term health.
• Check the label. Soy byproducts are everywhere, and they go by many (FDA-approved) names. Here are the ones to look out for:
Vegetable protein
Soy protein isolate
Soy flour
Protein concentrate
Textured vegetable protein
Vegetable oil
Plant sterols
I’m not saying small amounts of this stuff will kill you, but it’s best to be aware of how much you’re consuming, given the potential health hazards. If you find these ingredients on the label, try to find substitutes without them.
• Limit your overall soy intake to a maximum of 25 grams per day. This isn’t as easy as calorie counting, but again, it’s worth watching how much soy and soy-based products are finding their way into your diet.
• Stick to traditional soy foods. Tofu (in moderation), tempeh, miso, natto, and soy sauce are all fine. Other kinds of foods that substitute soy for meat, like soy-based hot dogs, aren’t healthy alternatives.
• Buy organic whenever you can. The safest foods are certified-organic foods. If your grocer doesn’t carry organic foods, let them know you’ll shop elsewhere if they don’t begin stocking them.
• Stick with “non-GMO” labeled dairy products and other packaged foods. This can be tricky, because the manufacturers of genetically modified foods are lobbying hard to get “non-GMO” labels banned. But for now, they’re still legal. And, in my opinion, a good sign that these foods are safer.
• Grow your own, when you can. Non-GMO seed companies have moved much of their seed production to Europe and Asia, where contamination is less likely. American agribusiness giants have less clout in these countries, and untainted seeds are still available. Also, you may be able to get seeds from farms in places like North Carolina that grow non-GMO soybeans for the Japanese market.
• Let your members of Congress and the Senate know you’re concerned about this issue and demand that genetically modified crops be banned until proven safe.
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1 Lawrence, Felicity, “Should we worry about soya in our food?” The Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk
2 Rackis, et al,”Evaluation of the Health Aspects of Soy Protein Isolates as Food Ingredients”, prepared for FDA by Life Sciences Research Office, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 1979, pg 22
3 Stilwell, M., Van Dyke, B., Codex, Substantial Equivalence and WTO Threats to National GMO Labeling Schemes, Center for Environmental Law, www.ciel.org
4 A) “Tryptophan produced by Showa Denko and epidemic eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome,” National Center for Biotechnology Information (Abstract) October 1996
B) Fagan, John B. “Tryptophan Summary,” http://www.holisticmed.com, November 1997
C) “Toxic L-tryptophan: Shedding Light on a Mysterious Epidemic,” Seeds of Deception.com, Comments by Scientists and Others
5 “Genetically Modified Foods,” American Academy of Environmental Medicine, www.aaemonline.org
6 Harlander, S., “Safety Assessments and Public Concern for Genetically Modified Food Products: The American View,” Toxicologic Pathology 2002;30(1):132-134
7 Finamore, A. et al, “Intestinal and Peripheral Immune Response to MON810 Maize Ingestion in Weaning and Old Mice,” J. Agric. Food Chem. 2008;56(23):11533–11539
8 Kiliç, A., Akay, M.T., “A three generation study with genetically modified Bt corn in rats: Biochemical and histopathological investigation,” Food Chem Toxicol. Mar. 2008;46(3):1164-70
9 Poulsen, M., et al, “A 90-day safety study in Wistar rats fed genetically modified rice expressing snowdrop lectin Galanthus nivalis (GNA),” Food Chem Toxicol. Mar. 2007;45(3):350-63
10 Domingo, J.L., “Toxicity studies of genetically modified plants: a review of the published literature,” Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2007;47(8):721-33
11 Scientific American August 2009
12 Asia Times, January 20, 2005
13 Sacks, Frank, MD, et al, “Soy Protein, Isoflavones, and Cardiovascular Health. An American Heart Association Science Advisory for Professionals From the Nutrition Committee,” Circulation 2006, 113:1034
14 Fitzpatrick, Michael, MD, as quoted in Lawrence, Felicity, “Should we worry about soya in our food?, The Guardian, July 25, 2006
15 Daniel, Kaylaa, as quoted in Nestor, James, “Too Much of a Good Thing? Controversy rages over the world’s most regaled legume,” SFGate.com, August 13, 2006
16 Rackis, Joseph J, et al, “The USDA trypsin inhibitor study, Background, objectives and procedural details,” Qualification of Plant Foods in Human Nutrition 1985;35