The Soy Revolution

Book by Holt Stephen

"I've Heard About the Benefits of Soy, But ..."

Most people are tired of being told that their diet is unhealthy, but they are acutely aware of the importance of nutrition for health. If you are like most consumers today, you are concerned about your health and have probably resolved to improve your diet. You have heard about soybean products, but you may not know exactly what it is that makes them healthful foods, so you are not sure why you should make an effort to include soy-based foods in your diet. This book should help you solve these dilemmas.

Let me assure you that adding soy foods to your diet is not another nutritional fad, nor am I a "soy nut." However, this book does present a significant amount of information about the health benefits of soy and points you toward a natural way to better health.

This book is a synthesis of the main research findings of thousands of dedicated scientists and health-care workers, and it reflects my interpretation of the literature. For readers who require more technical information and referenced resources, this is provided in my first book, Soya For Health.

The Soy Revolution also explains what you should know about foods and dietary supplements derived from soybeans. For a variety of reasons, you will be hearing more about soybeans in the coming decade or two and, in fact, I believe the health benefits of the soybean are so important that I described this plant as the "food for the next millennium," during my plenary lecture to the Korean Soyfood Association in Seoul, South Korea, in 1997.

It is no exaggeration to say that new research findings about soy appear, quite literally, every day. A day does not go by without popular news media or the medical press reporting on the newly discovered benefits of components of soy. While I was writing this book, just when I thought the information presented was complete one more important soy study appeared, taking me back to the manuscript to add more material.

Some of the material you will read in this book might seem a bit technical, but there is no way to do justice to the vast amounts of information available without examining in detail the chemical components of a plant that is one of nature's most important nutritional gifts. Bear with me on this; you will find that by the end of the book, you will have information that can change your life.

Research reveals that in the future soy can play an important role in reducing the incidence of many degenerative diseases and illnesses that are the leading causes of death in most Western countries. If people are serious about preventing or treating conditions such as heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), cancer, and diabetes, they will need to consider adding soy foods to their diets.

Equally exciting are the potential preventive and healing properties of soy for conditions such as osteoporosis, kidney disease, conditions of the prostate gland, various gastrointestinal disorders, and obesity. Soy also has a part to play in easing the symptoms and adverse health consequences of menopause, maintaining normal weight, and enhancing athletic performance. In addition, I believe that soy may contribute to retarding the aging process. Indeed, preventing the common diseases associated with aging represents a giant leap in improving our quality of life as we grow older. Many people in our culture live into their seventies, eighties, and even their nineties, but spend too many of these later years coping with ill health. I believe that soy can help people feel better and live longer, with an enhanced quality of life.

This book attempts to sort through the facts about soy and guide you to the best ways to use this unique food in order to build and maintain health. You probably know that fractions of soy are used as an additive in many commercial food products and that soy is a viable substitute for animal protein. While it is true that soy is a high-quality protein food, that is just the beginning of the soybean story. Nor are all soy products created equal; each has unique characteristics and strengths. Some processed soy foods also have weaknesses.

In the West, soy is a relatively new addition to the array of foods considered fit for human consumption. Until the last couple of decades, most North Americans and Europeans thought that soy was little more than a plant used to produce soy sauce and animal feed. Then, soy-based milk substitutes and protein drinks were introduced and some "natural" food markets started to sell such products as "soyburgers," which were billed as meat substitutes. Yet most of the several billion bushels of soybeans American farmers produce annually is used as animal feed or is exported. The Japanese and Koreans are two of the biggest customers. People who explore the commodities markets quickly learn that the soybean crop is of critical importance to the agricultural sector of our economy. Soy derivatives are also used in many nonfood commercial products such as adhesives, building materials, and even breast implants. The famous entrepreneur, Henry Ford, once sported a suit made from fabric produced with soybeans!

Though soy is a relatively new food source in the West, it is an ancient one in the East. Soy has been a dietary staple in eastern Asia for more than 3,000 years. To understand the potential significance of soy as a beneficial food for human beings and an ecologically positive crop for our planet too, it is helpful to understand the role that soy has had in other cultures.

THE SACRED PLANT

Soybean cultivation probably originated in northern China and Inner Mongolia before it eventually spread throughout Asia. It is known to have been cultivated in China as early as 4,000 years ago. For many centuries the plant was an important staple food in Korea, Japan, and other Asian countries. The expansion of the Buddhist religion throughout Asia, with its vegetarian philosophy, was an important influence for the adoption of soy as a staple food. Over the centuries Buddhist monks have flavored soy in numerous ways to produce delicious vegetarian meals with soy protein. Some of these dishes have a taste that is indistinguishable from veal or pork.

The Chinese word for soybean is ta-tou, which means "greater bean." It was considered so valuable for human (and animal) health, that the Chinese Emperor Shen-Nong declared it one of the five sacred crops. This emperor researched the healing properties of over one hundred plants and compiled the earliest known medical treatise, entitled The Medical Bible of the Yellow Emperor.

By the middle of the fifth century CE, soybean foods were used therapeutically in China to restore proper heart, liver, kidney, stomach, and bowel functioning. Ancient Chinese medical writings discuss soy derivatives, most notably in the work of Taoist physician Szu-miao. Known as the "King of Medicaments," Szu-miao practiced at the beginning of the Tang dynasty (early in the eighth century). He identified the various types of soybeans, and much modern research confirms what he recorded centuries ago.

In the sixteenth century, during the Ming dynasty, physician Li-Shi-zhen spent more than thirty years compiling a fifty-two volume Chinese Materia Medica of pharmaceutical botany in which soybeans are described as effective remedies for such conditions as edema (abnormal water retention), kidney disease, and poisoning. Contemporary researchers also have corroborated the findings of Li-Shi-zhen's sixteenth-century research.

In contemporary China, soy is known as "China cow" because it is used to make soy milk, an excellent alternative to animal milk. Soy milk is a versatile and healthful source of protein that is devoid of saturated fat. As we accept the obvious evidence that soy protein is a healthful alternative to dairy protein, I believe soy milk will one day overtake dairy milk in the Western diet.

Soybeans are hardy crops, and there is no question that cultivating the soybean has allowed the Chinese people--and other Asians--to survive in spite of famines, political and social upheavals, and numerous natural disasters. In addition, the incidence of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and cancer, when compared with that of Europeans and North Americans, is generally lower among the Asian populations who eat a traditional soy-based diet. We can be grateful that a food considered sacred in one part of the world has finally made its way to our society, even though it has taken many centuries to get here.

SOYBEANS TRAVEL TO THE WEST

One version has it that soybeans first arrived in the United States from China early in the nineteenth century as ballast in a Yankee clipper ship. Others claim soybeans made their way to the U.S. via Europe, perhaps being introduced by the British, who took soybeans from China. However, it took more than another century before soy began to be viewed as a significant food source for humans in either Europe or America.

During World War I there was a shortage of inexpensive oils, both for industrial use and human consumption. Since it is a great source of oil, there was an economic incentive to cultivate the hardy soybean. However, the soybean's true nutritional value was not yet recognized. Throughout the 1920s and '30s, soybeans were considered most valuable for their oil, and soy meal was treated as a mere by-product. Soybean growers were encouraged to develop varieties of soybeans with a high oil content. Because the flavor of the oil was not considered palatable to Americans, the oil was used for industrial purposes. By the end of the 1930s, though, new processing techniques solved the flavor problem, and soy oil began to become important in the food processing industry. Recognition of the value of soy meal for animal feed quickly followed and, after World War II, there was an ever-increasing demand for soy protein products to feed to domestic animals.

In sp...