With more than 33% of recently polled population now choosing soy milk as their beverage of choice, you could assume that it has found its way safely into the ranks of mainstream consumption. It now sits comfortably in the dairy case among the bottles of cow’s milk. You have heard and seen the ads lauding it’s health benefits for some time now, lulling consumers into a sense of security about the healthy choice they are making. Most soy products, posing as ‘milk’, ‘cheese’ and ‘meat’ are lauded as ‘natural-foods’ that are ‘good for you’.

What is the standard for natural? It seems to be a definition missing in today’s consumer mentality. I have seen things labeled natural that had not one ingredient that I could pronounce. It seems clear that since the industry is not going to regulate the term, wise consumers should develop their own standard of what they will consider natural, and therefore healthful for use.

My favorite methodology for determining what is truly natural comes from my book, Traci’s Transformational Health Principles. It is known as the “Natural Food Filter.” Although I won’t discuss it in it’s entirety here, one aspect of the filter is asking if the product could be created in a cave, with only tools found in nature to create it. If you could imagine perhaps fashioning a mortar and pestle out of stones to produce it, with any amount of inconvenience, then that product would gain “Nature’s Blessing” and be considered natural.

Having this in mind, let’s examine the processes used to produce the soy products we are choosing to get healthier today.

The soybean. Such a good natural food. Nature made it very soft, sweet and palatable when it’s harvested green from the plants in the late summer. If we consume it at this stage, it will impart it’s value freely and leave freely, allowing us to move forward on our journey in life and health. If left unharvested, Nature will allow the beans to shrink and dry, form strong acids for their preservation through the winter, so they may grow the new bean plants in the spring.

The edible green soybean, also known as edamame (ey-dah-MAH-meh) is rich in phytoestrogens, making it decrease the environment for estrogen-dependent cancers and reduce symptoms of menopause. It is an excellent source of calcium, ringing in with over 250 mg in a 1 cup serving. The full spectrum of all 8 essential amino acids found in edamame are easily assimilated by our body because they are not bound together in complex chains.

Edamame is a food of convenience as it comes frozen in bags, doesn’t even need to be
cooked, and can simply be thawed under hot water. It even tastes good. I love edamame.
Buy some and learn how to use it.

The dry soybean is such an abused food. After nature dries it and makes it hard and full of acid to store, the harvester comes and collects it. Most soybeans go to the oil refinery because soybean oil, or “vegetable oil,” is used in practically every processed food in the United States. After the chemical solvent is applied to the ground dry soybean paste, the 20% of it that is oil is separated and the remaining 80% is now an industry byproduct that must be disposed of, or better yet, sold.

Before the defatted soy byproduct can be sold, however, the chemical solvent (hexane) must be removed from the paste because it now comprises 35% of the mixture. After the solvent is removed and the product is toasted, it’s sold as animal feed. If the toasting is skipped, it can be sold as people feed. It is the defatted soy flour that is the basis for so many soy foods on the market today. Soy concentrate and soy protein isolate are two of them. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) is another, also known as TSP.

“TVP is made through a process known as “extrusion cooking,” in which a dough is formed from high PDI (Protein Dispersibility Index) defatted soy flour and water in a preconditioning mixing cylinder and cooked during passage through the barrel of a screw-type extruder such as the Wenger. Sometimes steam from an external source is employed to aid in the cooking process. Upon exiting the die, superheated steam escapes rapidly, producing an expanded (spongy yet fibrous) lamination of thermoplastic soy flour which takes on the various shapes of the die as it is sliced by revolving knives—granules, flakes, chunks, goulash, steakettes (schnitzel), etc., and then dried in an oven.”

You can probably guess by now that I am not a big fan of soy meat substitutes made from TVP. Or the products based in soy protein isolate or soy concentrate.

Soybeans are processed to imitate a lot more than meat. A plethora of soy products have inundated the commercial market—soy milk, soy cheese, soy yogurt, soy protein, soy infant formula—the list is long. Not all are made from oil production byproducts, however; most are made from the dry bean.

The phytic acid content in dry soybeans is prohibitive. In fact, research suggests that even soaking the beans does not remove all of it. The phytic acid content of soy products inhibits the assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. It has been linked to stunted growth in children on soy-rich diets and has also been linked to hyperthyroidism and pancreatic disorders.

I personally feel that when the dry beans are fully sprouted, soybeans are soft and easy to chew, however, they have a sharp, bitter flavor that makes consuming large quantities of them undesirable. I do not know what element in the bean makes it so bitter, but I can guess that there’s an element in soybeans that is just not good for people. Just by looking at Nature’s clues, the fresh edible soybean is probably the best way to use it. After all, it still looks like a bean (as opposed to a soy-dog), and is thus obviously very close to its original state. When in doubt, err on the side of the original configuration, and your health can only benefit.