So, yes, let’s talk about soy. Soy is made from soybeans. Interestingly, soybeans are not beans at all. They are legumes. Now, legumes and their negative effects on our health are a different post all together but, they aren’t necessarily good. In fact, legumes are the primary cause of a condition called “Leaky Gut”. Mmmm, sounds wonderful doesn’t it? We will talk about legumes in general and Leaky Gut a different day. Now, back to the soybeans and soy.
Now, why am I interested in soy? Well, it’s in a ton of modern day, highly processed “foods” and “food products” (I find it bizarre to even put the words food and product in the same phrase). Now, when you look at soy there are two versions. The fermented version, primarily found in Asia, has some positive health effects. However, we don’t live in Asia. We live in the good ole’ U.S. of A. where the USDA won’t ban anything that profits big food companies. So, we get the other version, unfermented soy. Here are a few of the side effects of unfermented soy products: infants that are fed soy products may have more than 20,000 times more estrogen in their bodies than infants fed other formulas, soy increases your body’s requirement for Vitamin D (so they put a toxic version called D2 in to soy milk for good measure), it contains potent agents that block the synthesis of the thyroid, it interferes with protein digestion.
So, let’s look specifically at protein digestion. Some weight-loss powders used in shakes and smoothies use soy in their products. They then tout the weight-loss effects. So, here is the connection, down and dirty. The soy blocks ones ability to process protein and many other nutrients correctly. Then, if you replace a REAL food meal with this shake that is loaded with soy, you are in effect starving your body of nutrients. Oh! but, you lose weight. Well, I can lose weight in that fashion in a concentration camp too. I think we can agree that, that wouldn’t be a healthy way to go about losing weight.
So here is my advice to you: avoid soy and every other modern day “food products”. Trust that nature knows better than we do when it comes to food. Eat lean meats, lots of vegetables, some fruits, seeds and nuts. You will be glad that you did.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/soy-health_b_1822466.html