It was the 1980s when the fermented soya bean buddies of tofu and tempeh first announced themselves to hip health buffs and vegos and were heralded as the new saviours from the East.
It seemed that the phyto-oestrogen properties could protect against breast and prostate cancers and relieve menopausal symptoms, and early studies, combined with the fact that there are lower incidences of these cancers in Asian countries than the West, backed it up.
But Asian countries eat their soy mostly in fermented form, not in the mass-produced forms that have now snuck under the cloak of brightly coloured wrappers throughout the West.
“Soy protein isolate, soy isoflavones, and textured vegetable protein from soy and soy oils are finding their way into thousands of processed foods,” says Pollan. You’re now likely to find soy products in sauces and spreads, cheese, biscuits, breakfast cereals, pastries and soupsadding flavour, bulk or texture. In America, 75 per cent of the vegetable oils consumed come from soy. Australia is fast catching up.
Health authorities have now judiciously backed away from soy’s anti-cancer claims, with many now saying that such massive consumption may actually have the opposite affect. The jury is still well and truly out – history has never experienced soy consumption at such levels.
Soy has also made big inroads into the weight-loss industry via slimming bars
and weight-loss concoctions. The problem is that soy products contain nasties, unheard of in our grandparent’s time, called obesogens.
Obesogens – also found in the plastics of food packaging, pesticides sprayed on food crops and high fructose corn syrup – are endocrine disrupters that hijack the regulatory system that controls body weight, potentially leading to increased appetite and fat production. Some studies horrifyingly suggest that obesogens may even be capable of reprogramming stem cells to become fat cells.
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