Death By Supermarket (12 page)

This whole foods diet, which as you can see includes some soy, provides combined chemical or physiological effects on the human body. But Americans are most certainly not eating the whole foods that Asians traditionally ate. We are eating highly industrialized soy substances. Dr. Daniel writes, “The old-fashioned traditional products bear little or no resemblance to the modern soy protein products promoted by the soy industry and sold in grocery stores.”
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My investigation revealed that modern industrialized soy is indeed
science fiction. Aside from the naturally occurring antinutrients and toxins outlined in the previous chapter, like all foods subjected to industrialization, soy is adulterated with substances that are bad for humans. And most soy is genetically modified.

In
Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating
, Jeffrey M. Smith writes, “On May 23, 2003, President Bush proposed an Initiative to End Hunger in Africa using genetically modified (GM) foods. He also blamed Europe’s ‘unfounded, unscientific fears’ of these foods for hindering efforts to end hunger. Bush was convinced that GM foods held the key to greater yields, expanded U.S. exports, and a better world … The message was part of a master plan that had been crafted by corporations determined to control the world’s food supply. This was made clear at a biotech industry conference in January 1999, where a representative from Arthur Anderson Consulting Group explained how his company had helped Monsanto create that plan. First, they asked Monsanto what their ideal future looked like in fifteen to twenty years. Monsanto executives described a world with 100 percent of all commercial seeds genetically modified and patented. Anderson Consulting then worked backward from that goal, and developed the strategy and tactics to achieve it. They presented Monsanto with the steps and procedures needed to obtain a place of industry dominance in a world in which natural seeds were virtually extinct.”
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They didn’t count on Europeans, who were not going to have anything to do with GM foods. Furthermore, the United States was not going to control the world’s food supply if the Europeans had anything to do with it. Meanwhile, as Europeans continue to fight genetic engineering of their food supply, U.S. companies have succeeded in getting government approval for forty varieties of genetically engineered crops and putting these genetically modified mutations into 60 percent of the factory foods Americans eat.

DNA is the unique blueprint of an organism. An organism relies on the information within its DNA to conduct every biochemical process
necessary for its survival. Genes are the elements of the DNA that contain specific features or functions of the organism. For example, the genes within your DNA will dictate if you have blue eyes or brown, or if you will be stocky or lanky. In crops, DNA dictates whether a fruit or vegetable is wind resistant or loves hot sun, among other qualities.

Genetic engineering, which is also known as recombinant DNA technology, is a two-step process. Molecular biologists use enzymes to dissect specific genes from the structure of DNA in living organisms. They then insert vectors (such as viruses and bacteria) into these genes to create desired characteristics, and insert these altered genes into the DNA of the organism they wish to alter. They are essentially creating new genetic DNA, which will dictate if a crop will be frost-, bug-, or drought-resistant and so on. This new crop is now “genetically modified.”

Genetic engineering has created corn that resists insect infestation, “Monsanto Roundup Ready” wheat and soybeans, and fruits and vegetables that have altered nutrient content and higher levels of antinutrients and toxins but don’t rot. (Antinutrients are compounds that interfere with the absorption of nutrients.) It has instilled “antifreeze” genes into vegetables to extend the growing season and created genetic pesticides within the DNA of crops that essentially kill or ward off predators.

Humans, animals, birds, fish, insects, organisms, microorganisms, and so on have always lived and died in a seemingly random, but actually highly organized, pattern of coexistence. No one knows what altering the natural DNA of organisms will do to the natural food chain, our future health, or the environment. Genetic engineering occurs purely for the profit of big business. Small farmers do not need genetic engineering, and in fact, small farming thrives by using time-tested, old-fashioned methods of agriculture and animal husbandry.

Genetic engineering may be creating new and more dangerous toxins in our food supply, including allergens, and it may be contributing to human resistance to antibiotics. Genetically Modified (GM) foods are foreign to human physiology and have never previously existed on the face of
this planet. No long-term tests have been conducted on GM foods, and the tests they have undergone are reminiscent of the flimflam review process the FDA uses to grant Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status to food additives. Moreover, GM foods are not labeled, so you have no idea if you are eating genetically engineered organisms.
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Although we don’t yet understand the repercussions of eating GM food, we do have some understanding of the dangers of unleashing these organisms into our environment. Genetically altered organisms and seeds are not stagnantly and obediently sitting where scientists assign them. They are carried by insects, birds, and wind into neighboring fields and beyond, and the pollen from genetically modified crops cross-pollinates with natural crops.

In the meantime, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not labeled, so you have no idea if you are eating them.
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GMOs are suspected to increase the risk of food allergies and cancer, the creation of new, more virulent viruses, and antibiotic resistance.
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Animals fed GMO feed refuse to eat it.
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When force-fed GMO feed, animals develop stomach lesions and malformations of organs.
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Eighty percent of all soy substances originate as GM soybeans that are resistant to Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup. When you eat a “Roundup Ready” soy product, you are eating both the genetic organism that made it resistant to Roundup and you are eating the Roundup. So when you eat a soy product or feed soy to your children, the most important question to ponder is, do you really want to eat something that is made by Monsanto? If you’d like to know more about GMO I recommend the documentary
The Future of Food
, which you can view on
thefutureoffood.com
.

Much of the U.S. soybean crop today is processed into oil that accounts for 80 percent or more of the edible fats and oils consumed in this country in the form of shortening, margarine, cooking oil, and salad dressings. When you see the term “vegetable oil,” assume it is close to or all soy oil. Oil manufacturers use the chemical and heat processes described on
page 109
, which create oxidizing free radicals that are then deposited in your
coronary arteries as plaque. When you see the word “partially hydrogenated,” bet on the fact that you are eating soy oil, which has been rendered into dangerous trans fats (described in
chapter 12
). Prior to recent mandatory trans fat labeling, all fried foods in this country were fried in partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

Lecithin, extracted from soybean oil, is a natural emulsifier and lubricant used in many foods. As an emulsifier, it can make fats and water compatible with each other as in, say, keeping chocolate and cocoa butter in a candy bar from separating. Because we have been told for decades that lecithin prevents a number of diseases, including brain aging, some consumers are also taking soy lecithin supplements, thinking it’s a miracle food. But again we have the problem of the damaging processing of lecithin out of soybeans. Dr. Daniel writes, “Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left over after crude soy oil goes through a ‘degumming’ process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticide residue and has a consistency ranging from gummy fluid to plastic solid.” In other words, the oil industry didn’t know what to do with the massive amounts of sludge left over after refining soybean oil, so they came up with an industrialized process that could turn it into so-called “healthy” soy lecithin and put it into every conceivable factory-food product and many health-food-store products.

The chemical processing used to refine soy protein isolate—a very popular additive used to bulk up protein in products—infuses the soy protein with known carcinogens, such as nitrites and nitrosamines, among other toxins. High-temperature processing denatures some of the protein, rendering it largely ineffective as a metabolic building material. While soy naturally contains aluminum (toxic to the nervous system and kidneys), processing imparts even more. Soy also naturally contains fluoride, and processing impregnates soy with extra doses of it, which may be playing a role in the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders, as well as hypothyroidism and osteoporosis. Soy protein isolate also contains minute residues of up to thirty-eight petroleum compounds
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and is also often “enhanced” with MSG.
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On his website, Dr. Weil recommends one cup of soy foods, such as soy milk, per day. However, unlike all the wholesome ads we see for soy milk, my investigation revealed that soy milk is really a ghastly brew that few people would willingly drink without the added sugar that covers up the natural greasy, beany taste of soybeans. Also added is vitamin D
₂
, although, as internationally recognized biochemist and nutritionist Mary Enig, Ph.D., and Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (a nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about nutrition), point out in their book
Eat Fat, Lose Fat: Three Delicious, Science-Based Coconut Diets
, “Research indicates that synthetic vitamin D
₂
has the opposite effect of natural vitamin D, causing softening of the bones and hardening of soft tissues such as the arteries. The dairy industry used to add D
₂
to milk but quietly dropped it in favor of D
₃
when they realized how dangerous it was.”
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Some brands of soymilk also contain canola oil, which is a chemical-and heat-processed monounsaturated fat that contains oxidizing free radicals, which cause coronary artery plaquing. Another additive often used to thicken soymilk is carrageenan, which is suspected to cause ulcerations and malignancies.
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Soy milk naturally contains high levels of glutamate (an excitotoxin) and can contain hydrolyzed vegetable protein, an additive that always contains MSG. Soy milk must never be given to infants in place of formula as it is so deficient in vital nutrients that near fatal incidents have occurred. “The myth that soy is a health food has led many parents to believe that soy milk is a complete and nourishing food not only for adults but for babies and children,” writes Daniel in her October 25, 2005, newsletter that discusses the possible link between soy milk and the death of three-month-old Brooklyn twins.
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Regarding the assertion that only fermented soy is healthy to eat, Dr. Weil writes, “That is simply not true. Some of the best forms of soy—edamame, tofu, and soy nuts—are unfermented and are much more likely to help you than hurt you.”
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(A very strange choice of words.)

According to Dr. Daniel, edamame, which are boiled green vegetable
soybeans, are safe to eat—occasionally—since the soybeans are harvested young before developing mature levels of antinutrients and toxins. But she is concerned that many people today are “noshing on edamame like it’s popcorn.” Tofu is made by soaking and slow boiling soybeans, then curdling the resulting mash. Outside of monasteries, where a lowered sex drive caused by eating large amounts of soy was desirable, tofu has always been eaten in very small amounts in Japan. It is a distant choice after favored animal proteins like pork and seafood. Tofu has been studied here in the United States, and Dr. Daniel writes of one that found that “men and women who eat two or more servings of tofu per week in midlife are more likely to experience cognitive decline, senile dementia, and brain atrophy later in life than those who eat little or none.”
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Weil recommends eating soy nuts, and Mireille Guiliano, author of
French Women Don’t Get Fat
, suggests soy nuts as a snack when your flight is delayed or some such event occurs that allows traditionally nonsnacking Frenchwomen to eat between meals. According to Dr. Daniel, soy nuts are notoriously hard to digest and may cause cramps and flatulence, and they are among the soy foods that contain the highest level of isoflavones (phytoestrogens).

Fermenting does not remove the isoflavones, but Dr. Daniel believes fermented soy foods such as miso,
natto
, tempeh, and raw (unpasteurized), naturally fermented tamari or
shoyu
can be eaten regularly because such foods are typically eaten only in small amounts. Soy sauce is a classic example of the difference between traditional Asian soy and Americanized soy. Supermarket soy sauce is not the
shoyu
created by the traditional long, healthy fermenting process; rather, it’s made by a fast, cheap industrial process that imparts chemicals, artificial dyes, and MSG.

The soy industry told us soy was a prestigious health food, and we bought that message. So instead of eating small handfuls of edamame, tiny pieces of tofu in our miso soup, a few sprinkles of naturally fermented
shoyu
on our meals of real food, Americans are consuming inordinate amounts of chemical-processed soy—and babies are now being fed soy
formula instead of breast milk. Reading about babies and kids was the most disturbing part of the research I did on soy.

Eleven-year-old Kevin was a tall, slim and attractive all-American boy. His mother delighted in his articulate, quick wit. The joy his mother felt was dampened only by self-doubt and remorse over feeding his twin brother, Dennis (who was lactose intolerant), soy formula. Dennis had developed into a sluggish, underachieving, overweight, gawky adolescent with large breasts. Brittany had also fed her baby soy formula and agonized over her seven-year-old son’s small stature. The kids at school were merciless about his small penis. Marc and Jennifer finally decided to take matters into their own hands when eleven-month-old Chrisy’s pediatrician refused to see anything out of the ordinary about her developing breasts, pubic fuzz, and premenstrual spotting. The young parents were incredulous when they read that soy formula had estrogenizing capabilities.
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