Staying Healthy Today With Kirk Hamilton
December 15, 2009
The Soy Debate
Over the last 5 years or so the soy debate has grown to epidemic proportions. Internet articles on the detrimental effects of soy frequently get printed and given to me by well meaning and scared patients. Many times I see these patients avoid whole soy foods with a passion and then consume lots of animal products thinking they just saved themselves from being ‘poisoned.' Here is a rule when I look at any nutrition controversy that I apply in my own life and I think it is a good one for you as well - I look at what healthy aging populations do, and in the context they do it. I try and not look at that "commercially extracted" health component of their diet and lifestyle, pumped with marketing and hype to be sold as an individual health food. Because as capitalism in its freest form encourages - sell as much as you can! Doesn't matter if a little or moderate amount is good and more is harmful! That is why you will hear (see) me continually recommending books like - The Blue Zones, Healthy at 100, The Okinawa Program and The Jungle Effect. These books look directly at healthy aging populations, and populations which have a very low frequency of chronic diseases, and record and report on what they actually do (and eat). These books do try and connect these observations to scientific literature, but the key is to imitate how these people really do live. What they really do, and what do they really consume.
I am making the assumption that many of you have heard this soy debate coming from the argument that all soy is bad, and, most of you are hearing that biased side of the argument. I am biased towards soy being a good healthy food IF 1) You don't have a food intolerance to it. 2) It is eaten like healthy aging populations currently do and in the past have done. 3) If the soy product is non-GMO and organic and in the following forms: tofu; tempeh; miso; tamari or shoyu; soymilk from soaked, ground and orgainic soybeans; soy nuts or nut butter, and/or edamame at 1-2 servings per day mixed into a varied diet with lots of plant food. Again organic and non-GMO soy is recommended. Concentrated soy protein isolates, soy protein supplements, concentrated forms of extracted isoflavones which may have shown short term benefits are something I remain cautious about for long term chronic use. Also soy components or derivatives are added to everything in our food supply and is concerning - soy flours, soy oil, lecithin (extracted from soy oil as an emulsifier), soy protein isolates and concentrates, textured vegetable protein (TVP), hydrolyzed vegetable protein (usually made from soy) and unidentified vegetable oils and margarines which are mostly derived from soy. Soy oil is the most widely used oil in the U.S., accounting for more than 75 percent of our total vegetable fats and oil intake.
I think this paragraph from the book The Okinawa Program (Willcox, Willcox and Suzuki, 2001) on page 69 says it best..."Okinawan elders eat an average of seven servings of vegetables and fruit a day, seven servings of grains per day, two servings of flavonoid-rich soy products per day; omega-3 rich fish several times per week; and minimal dairy products and meat." Okinawan soy foods include tofu, soymilk, and edamame, as well as the fermented versions, tamari, and miso.
Other Soy Concerns
Some other concerns about the way soy is consumed and produced in the U.S. and world-wide are:
1) The majority of the U.S. soybean crop is genetically engineered. They are genetically engineered mainly to make them withstand the spraying of weed killers.
2) ½ the soybean grown in the United States is the Monsanto Round Ready variety (genetically engineered to withstand this weed killer).
3) Soy is put into virtually everything, even hamburgers. I recently heard that per capita we are consuming more soy than Asian countries. So the soy we are consuming has to be relatively hidden and not in the forms as mentioned above that healthy aging cultures have consumed for years. As John Robbins says in his excellent review on the soy debate, "...We are consuming soy products today at levels never before seen in history. Advances in food technology have made it possible to isolate soy proteins, isoflavones, and other substances found in the bean, and add them to all kinds of foods where they've never been before. The number of processed and manufactured foods that contain soy ingredients today is astounding...This has never before been done in human history. It is an experiment, and should be undertaken, if at all, with great humility, watchfulness, and caution..." This review by John Robbins is the best review of the soy debate I have read so far, and comes from an individual with a bias like mine - use soy in whole foods as successfully aging cultures have done. (What About Soy? by John Robbins)
4) Around 60 percent of corn and 47 percent of soy produced in the United States is used in domestic livestock production for feed.
5) Each year, the EU (European Union) imports approximately 18 million tons of soybeans and 20 million tons of soy meal from Brazil, the US, and Argentina. The majority of imported soy enters the market as animal feed. Still, a significant amount of soy is processed in oil mills and provides the basis for countless food additives.
6) The EU Member States have not been self-sufficient when it comes to producing animal feed for a long time. Without importing feed, the EU would have to cut back on meat, dairy, and egg production (That would actually be healthy!) The ban on using animal parts in feed brought on by the BSE crisis (mad cow disease) has increased Europe's dependence on foreign imports. Soy is extremely important as a relatively inexpensive source of protein and oil. Soy meal is the single most important animal feed in the EU, accounting for 55 percent of protein-rich animal feed.
7) It seems to me one of the major reasons soy is grown world-wide is to support factory farming of animals. What a stupid reason. There will only be more chronic illness, suffering and medical costs from anything that enhances factory farming. Also there will more destruction of land and rain forest, more water wastage and water pollution (i.e. food borne illness) and increase in green house gasses. Consuming "...meat causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks and planes in the world combined..." A consultant from the World bank Nathan Fiala has stated, "A family of four that gives up eating beef one day a week has basically traded in their pickup for a Prius." (Solar Today, November/December 2009, page 16 - one of my favorite magazine of all time on current solar technology!).
Bottom line, if you eat soy eat organic non-GMO soy in whole foods (if non-intolerant) as traditionally eaten at 1-2 servings per day as tofu; tempeh; miso; tamari or shoyu; soymilk from soaked, ground organic soybeans; soy nuts or nut butter, and edamame and cut down or eliminate meat consumption, which is a main reason why the soy bean is grown in mass quantaties in the first place (for animal feed). We would also be a lot healthier and there would be virtually no ‘Soy Debate" if we dramatically or completely eliminated eating factory farmed animal foods. I strongly encourage you to take 15 minutes to read John Robbins What About Soy? article and also read the The Okinawa Program and The Okinawan Diet Plan.
Current Staying Healthy Today Interview
With Daphne Miller, M.D. - "The Jungle Effect," A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World - Why They Work, and How To Bring Them Home." This interview reviews Dr. Miller's research, suggests dietary tips and ‘pearls' from her travels studying the diets of some of the healthiest cultures in the world, and how these time-tested diet and lifestyle habits are the solution to the chronic diseases that plague modern society. Topics include indigenous diets that prevent: Diabetes in the Tarahumara Indians, in Copper Canyon, Mexico; Heart Disease in Crete, Greece; Depression in Iceland; Bowel Cancer and Intestinal Problems in Cameroon, West Africa and; Breast and Prostate Cancer, and Healthy Aging, in Okinawa, Japan.
Expert Interviews by Kirk Hamilton at www.Vitasearch.com
New Interview
Exercise Performance and Nitrate Supplementation, Andrew M. Jones, Ph.D., United Kingdom, 12/2009
These are current print interviews I do weekly for the www.Vitasearch.com site which is made available by Tishcon Corp.. These interviews are a bit more technical and designed for health professionals but there is usable information for the educated health consumer, such as your selves. Vitasearch.com also contains the Clinical Pearls Database and the Expert Interviews Archives which organizes 35,000 plus articles summaries and a 1000 plus interviews respectively focused on nutrition and prevention research. Tishcon Corporation make this a free educational service to the public and professional. You can join their free weekly nutrition research newsletter called the VitagramTM at www.vitasearch.com.
Staying Healthy Webinar Series
The Staying Healthy In The Fast Lane Webinars Part I and Part II have been completed (November 19th & December 3rd) and are now available for listening and/or viewing at Energetic Nutrition. These two 1 hour information packed slide presentations (compiled & presented by myself) with Q & A are the foundation for How To Stay And Be Well In Today's Busy Modern World.
Upcoming Webinars at Energetic Nutrition
The next Staying Healthy Today webinar is this Thursday, December 17th and the topic is: The Disease That Doesn't Have to Happen; Reversing the Diabetes Epidemic (register now!) . The main theme of this seminar is that most diabetes (type II or adult onset diabetes) is preventable and in many cases reversible with a whole food, predominantly plant-based diet. This epidemic of diabetes, which is expanding not just in the U.S., but world-wide is a chronic disease that can be virtually eliminated. A second theme is that Type II diabetes is "thee model" for how we can turn around our health care system - REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM - by using aggressive diet and lifestyle to not only prevent but reverse a chronic disease, and make it a non-factor as a health issue. This same approach can be applied to heart disease, obesity, cancer prevention, bone loss and other chronic diseases. I believe diabetes reversal is so very important as an example because I don't believe the ‘world' really understands that these chronic diseases are generally preventable and in many cases reversible with aggressive diet and lifestyle therapy. Another reason why diabetes is such a good model is that the diabetic can get immediate feedback from their actions by taking their own blood sugar instantaneously. So a diabetic doesn't have to rely on a health professional to give them feedback on how their condition is doing. They can do it immediately. With a scale to show weight reduction (in most cases) and a goal of a fasting blood sugar less than 90 mg/dl diabetics pretty much know the progress of their own illness and what their lifestyle is doing to their condition.
Reversing The Diabetes Epidemic Topics:
• Carbs don't cause diabetes - Looking at the diets of traditional Asian and African cultures, or indigenous cultures like the Tarahumara Indians of Copper, Canyon Mexico make it obvious that carbohydrates can't be the cause of diabetes. In fact, whole unrefined carbohydrates are the food group of choice for diabetes.
• Why is it the when you look at developing country's dietary intake, the chronic diseases, including diabetes, go up with their ‘modernizing' diets which include the following dietary changes: increasing animal foods, added fats and oils, added sugars and a DECREASE in grain consumption (scroll down the linked page to figure of percent of foods consumed).
• Why is fat in the cell like chewing gum in the lock with regards to inhibiting insulin's ability to allow sugar into the cell...can you say "INTRA-MY-O-CELL-U-LAR-FAT."
• How important is weight normalization important in controlling diabetes?
• What are the five dietary changes and 1 lifestyle change in the American way of living over the last century that if reversed would dramatically reduce diabetes and most chronic diseases?
• Environmental toxins - are they increasing the risk to diabetes?
• Why are probiotics important for diabetics?
• Why do 6 world-renown physician/researchers say that diabetes in many cases is reversible, preventable and at the very least can be improved considerably by whole-food plant-based diets (See Staying Healthy Today Interview Archives - Interviews with Drs. Barnard, Jenkins, Anderson, McDougall, Fuhrman, Miller and Perez)?
This talk is not only important for diabetics but for everyone because it is a model of how to prevent and reverse chronic diseases. This is not only an individual or U.S. problem but a world-wide problem.
Future Webinars at Energetic Nutrition
What Can Gorillas Teach Us About Weight Loss?; Reversing the Obesity Epidemic with the Gorilla Diet and Weight Loss Program, December 29th
Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease, Putting The World's #1 Killer To Rest, January 14th, 2010.
Healthy Aging: What Do Healthy Centenarians From Around The World Have To Tell Us About Living Long and Living Well In The 21st Century and Real Health Care Reform, January 28th, 2010.
Each webinar will have slides and be recorded for future reference. If you want to learn how to Stay and Be Well in the busy, modern world...and save yourself time and money join us for this free series of webinars sponsored by Energetic Nutrition.
Staying Healthy Today Current Research (Linked to PubMed Abstract)
****Soy Food Intake And Breast Cancer Survival.
****The Severity of Autism Is Associated with Toxic Metal Body Burden and Red Blood Cell Glutathione Levels.
****Delayed Acquisition Of Neonatal Reflexes In Newborn Primates Receiving A Thimerosal-Containing Hepatitis B Vaccine: Influence Of Gestational Age And Birth Weight.
****Omega 3 Fatty Acid Treatment In Autism.
****Serum Selenium And Prognosis In Cardiovascular Disease: Results From The Atherogene Study.
****Dietary Protein And Bone Health: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis.
****A Saturated Fatty Acid-Rich Diet Induces An Obesity-Linked Proinflammatory Gene Expression Profile In Adipose Tissue Of Subjects At Risk Of Metabolic Syndrome.
****Green Tea Consumption Is Associated With Depressive Symptoms In the Elderly.
****Metabolic Evidence Of Vitamin B-12 Deficiency, Including High Homocysteine And Methylmalonic Acid And Low Holotranscobalamin, Is More Pronounced In Older Adults With Elevated Plasma Folate.
****A Strong Dose-Response Relation Between Serum Concentrations Of Persistent Organic Pollutants And Diabetes: Results From The National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002: Response To Lee Et Al.
****Association Between Serum Concentrations Of Persistent Organic Pollutants And Insulin Resistance Among Nondiabetic Adults: Results From The National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002.
****A Strong Interaction Between Serum Gamma-Glutamyltransferase And Obesity On The Risk Of Prevalent Type 2 Diabetes: Results From The Third National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey.
****Chronic Exposure To The Herbicide, Atrazine, Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction And Insulin Resistance.
****Probiotic Effects On Cold And Influenza-Like Symptom Incidence And Duration In Children.
****Relation Between Modifiable Lifestyle Factors And Lifetime Risk Of Heart Failure.
****Supplementation With An Algae Source Of Docosahexaenoic Acid Increases (N-3) Fatty Acid Status And Alters Selected Risk Factors For Heart Disease In Vegetarian Subjects.
Until next time Stay and Be Well,
Kirk
kirkhamilton@prescription2000.com
www.prescription2000.com
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