Dear Dr. Daniel: I want you to know about the wonderful soy shake product that I use myself and have been selling to my friends. I love that _______ is a whole soy based beverage powder made from organic, not GMO soy. I love this company. There are no health dangers to their soy because it’s organic and they use a special process that is different. It’s a gentle process that protects the valuable phytonutrients in soy. All the dangers you describe as coming from soy are the result of the poor processing methods other companies use. Please let people know that ______is a good and healthy product. It cures cancer, heart disease, weight loss . . DG
Dear DG. I have received numerous letters such as yours since The Whole Soy Story was published in 2005. Many of these letters are from MLM companies like yours, including ____, _____, ____ and _____. This reply also applies to the assorted shakes powders sold in supermarkets, health food stores, health clubs and so forth. When people contact any of these companies about the dangers of soy, the responses are virtually interchangeable except for the company name. Supposedly their products are processed differently from the competition, using a unique and “secret” process that makes soybeans both safe and healthy. .
Certainly organic soybeans are safer than GMO soybeans, as there are serious dangers to all GMO foods, soy, corn or whatever. GMO soy contains higher and more resistant levels of protease inhibitors, among other toxins. Whole soybeans are also better than soy protein insomuch as this will minimize some harmful processing methods, particularly the use of hexane to split the bean. It is also possible that some of the other processing methods might be gentler. For example, the process might involve alkaline baths with a lower pH than is used by some commercial companies. Gentler processing methods could conceivably result in lower levels of the toxins lysinalanines and nitrosamines.
That said, I find it highly unlikely that your product – or the similarly hyped products — have removed the dangerous estrogenic isoflavones. Unless the companies use alcohol extraction, the isoflavones will not be removed. In fact these companies don’t want to remove the isoflavones because they all boast about their “health effects” and claim that their unique product somehow has all the benefits and none of the dangers of isoflavones. Saponins, which can bind with cholesterol and damage cell membranes will also be present in any soybean product that has not been alcohol extracted. Not surprisingly, these are marketed as healthy “all natural” cholesterol lowerers, bile acid reducers and cancer preventers and curers.
In all probability, your product also contains a full complement of protease inhibitors (which interfere with protein digestion), phytates (which inhibit mineral absorption), lectins (which can cause blood cell clumping), and oxalates (linked to a multitude of health problems, including kidney stones and vulvodynia). As far as I know, no modern process yet invented can remove all of these things. What’s needed to eliminate or deactivate many of them is old-fashioned fermentation, the traditional method used to make miso, natto and tempeh. Such foods eaten in a richly varied diet are healthy and nutritious. But these are NOT the soy ingredients put in your shake powder.
Please write your company and ask them to send reports from independent laboratories proving that these antinutrients and toxins have been largely eliminated. This is what will convince me, not claims that their “special, secret, patented and unique process” does this work. Over the past ten years, I have reviewed numerous soybean processing manuals and seen many patent applications. I have yet to see any evidence that this can be done. Rather many years of USDA studies show it cannot. I discuss these processing issues thoroughly in The Whole Soy Story, particularly in Chapters 4-12. Given the fact that manufacturers cannot get rid of them, isoflavones, protease inhibitors, phytates, saponins and other antinutrients and toxins have been elevated from devils into angels and are being marketed as health promoting. They are not. In conclusion, I cannot recommend this or similar products based on their “claims.” Show me the evidence.
Dear Dr. Daniel: First, thank you so much for being so generous and sharing your email address with us. I am an Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) student and just heard your talk and Sally Fallon’s talk and I have been so distressed. I mainly eat vegetarian so conversation about vegetarian options is very important to me; especially when it reduces the amount of choices there are.
A few years ago I started hearing about the negatives associated with soy products and switched to almond milk and drastically reduced our consumption of soy products. The one soy product I have been consistently using and loving for years is a powder for a smoothie called _______. I have attached the label and would appreciate your taking a look at the ingredients. It also says on the front label ‘Identity Preserved Soy 24 mg of isoflavones per serving). I don’t know what that means but hope it’s good. I have been a rep for this company for years and have benefited greatly by using their products. This drink makes me feel so good and satisfied every day, and I am really upset at the thought of it not being healthy for me. I have shown it to so many dieticians and nutritionists and have always gotten such positive feedback so I hope you will look and tell me if you think it is bad for me.
I will also tell you that I have a low thyroid and have been taking 90 mg of Armour Thyroid for the last 40 years. It has helped but not as much as when I add these juice and juice plus soy products.
I do want to be healthy and help others improve their health, so I am open to your honest opinion.
Also, and very important, are plant milks (i.e. almond, hemp, oat, etc). I’ve tried finding if there is any negative information out plant milks but aside from rice milk, I haven’t found any negative. Are they healthy? Thank you, thank you for your help. To your best health, NP
Dear NP: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I can’t drink to this product! I have serious concerns about this juice drink for anyone, but especially for someone with thyroid problems. My first concern is with 24 mg of isoflavones per serving. A Japanese study at the Ishizuki Clinic found that just 35 mg of isoflavones per day caused thyroid suppression in healthy individuals in just three months. If you drink just one serving per day, you will come in under that, but that too would be a high level in susceptible individuals. It is also highly likely that you are getting soy isoflavones or other phytoestrogens in other products as well. This will definitely be the case if you follow the manufacturer’s suggestion of taking the product mixed with one cup of soy milk. Isoflavone content varies from glass to glass to glass of soy milk, depending upon the brand, the year, the growing conditions of the crop and other factors, but the likelihood is high that a glass of soy milk contains about 45 mg.
Boosting the thyroid (with Armour) while also depressing it (with soy isoflavones) has a strong “push me, pull me” effect that puts stress on the thyroid. Environmental scientist Mike Fitzpatrick PhD points out this is the classic way that researchers induce thyroid tumors in laboratory animals. The fact that soy is “natural” does not make it safe or weak. A single serving of a drink such as this has several times the goitrogenic potency of the pharmacetuical thyroid-inhibiting drugs methimazole and 6-propylthiouracel. Knowledgeable physicians now recommend taking thyroid medications separately from drinking soy milk or other products. Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women’s Bodies/ Women’s Wisdom and other books, and a longtime proponent of soy consumption, makes this recommendation.
I must also object to an unwarranted – and probably illegal – health claim on the label of the product you are taking. It says that one scoop of the product “contains 24 mg of isoflavones, regarded as essential to today’s women’s health issues.” Essential? One scoop puts a woman’s thyroid at risk, as stated above. One scoop stirred into soy milk and drunk by a woman of reproductive age could alter her menstrual cycles and hormone patterns in ways indicative of infertility. One scoop every day would also be risky for a woman who has been diagnosed with – or has a family history of – breast cancer. So many studies have linked soy breast cell proliferation, (a well known marker of breast cancer risk) that warnings have been issued by the Israeli Health Ministry, French Food Agency, German Institute of Risk Assessment and Cornell University’s Center for Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors. As for this product helping a woman sail through menopause, the evidence on soy and menopause is inconsistent and contradictory, according to a review by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Please visit the website www.soyonlineservice.co.nz, where you will find numerous letters from people whose thyroid problems have developed or been worsened by eating or drinking soy products. This website also includes many abstracts of studies involving soy and the thyroid. More than 70 years of studies, after all, link soy to thyroid dysfunction. I’d also recommend that you read my book The Whole Soy Story, particularly chapters 26 on soy isoflavones, chapter 27 on soy and the thyroid, chapter 29 on soy and the reproductive system and chapter 30 on soy and cancer.
In addition to the isoflavone danger, I have other concerns with this product’s fructose content. Though not as bad as High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), the evidence is mounting that it is addictive and more harmful than sugar. For more information, search this website and also www.mercola.com.
Reviewing the label, I must also point out that much of the high vitamin content comes from added supplements and not from the powdered vegetables and fruits. That’s to be expected given that true Vitamin A and D3 do not occur in any plant foods. This means your “healthy” green drink is actually a rather incomplete multi in a overpriced package loaded up with fructose and soy isoflavones. I do not know why you feel better taking it. With any such product, risk is not certainty. Perhaps you are getting a sugar hit. Maybe you are so protein deficient that your body responds positively even to inferior soy protein. Another possible explanation is the soy isoflavones stimulate the thyroid, giving you more energy for the time being. Sadly, this daily “whipping” is likely to lead to thyroid exhaustion and slowdown over the long term. You may also just need the vitamins and minerals because of overall deficiencies in your diet.
Since you are mainly vegetarian, I would recommend you go to the Home page of this website and take our “vegetarian tour.” If you intend to remain vegetarian, I would suggest eating lots of free-range eggs and a raw dairy products to get much needed fats, fat-soluble vitamins, cholesterol and high-quality protein. For more info on safety and availability of raw dairy, visit www.realmilk.com. If you cannot tolerate any form of dairy, I recommend a coconut tonic drink as described in the book Eat Fat/Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon.
I cannot recommend rice, almond, oat or hemp milks. These highly processed products are often sold as “equivalents” of dairy milks but only because they are propped up with cheap, poor quality and hard-to-absorb calcium, Vitamin D2 and other vitamins and minerals. They also tend to contain poor quality vegetable oils, either intrinsic to the beverage as soy oil or hemp oil, or added such as canola oil. Better to supplement with high-quality supplements than to drink these beverages for the supplements they contain. Many also contain high levels of sugar in order to be palatable.
🖨️ Print post
Thank you for posting those questions and your very honest answers!!
Not only is soy dangerous to humans as a well-known hormone disruptor, I also witnessed it in my diabetic cat!
Her diabetes was to the point that she could no longer eat commercial foods, and the prescribed vet foods were so expensive, I had a homemade diet designed for her at UC Davis. What I stumbled upon was the soy content in the meat and eggs that went into her diet–high soy content would make her eyes HUGE, and she’d be woozy and walk around acting drunk (and this was ON insulin!).
After a lot of detective work and manufacturer contacts, I did manage to find some soy-free meats and eggs from my health food store. The cat did much better on them, and I fed her these foods in her “recipe” up until the day she died (heart problems).
If soy in 2 lbs. of meat and 4 eggs (weekly) did this to HER, imagine what it does to HUMANS who eat more than this amount on a daily basis! Then imagine what it does to humans who are already diabetic.
If you already ARE diabetic and are having trouble (suddenly) in spite of established controls, blame your meat and/or eggs. Soy is everywhere.
Everbody know exactly the nature of an “organic product”. Thus to have an “orgenic” soy bean is as simple concept to understand.
But how can you you have an “organic Soy product”, where the “organic” soy bean is treated exactly as a chemical feedstock and processed into a completely different product.
Thus it seems that “Organic Soy Milk Or Organic Soy shake” is a complete oxymoron.
Gl
Dear Dr. Daniels, Thank you for sharing your proven scientific knowledge with us about the dangers of SOY both known and hidden. I know first hand how dangerous and damaging SOY is and CAN be. I was a Machine Operator at one of the Largest Soy Makers in the US, as such I KNOW exactly how and what chemicals (TOXINS) are used and added to the SOY Protein Powder and NOW because of my overexposure (INHALING) the SOY PROTEIN POWDER I am in the battle of my life FIGHTING every day of my life to stay Alive. I was diagnosed with end stage renal failure my doctors said “I HAD TOO much PROTEIN in my body that the kidneys were overworked and eventually failed. I have Read 100’s of articles on Soy including the ones where the Mega billion dollar SOY industry which has many tentacles and they are far reaching the industry is not just the soy manufacturers but many, (I QUOTE merchants, scientists, publicists, bureaucrats did I say bureaucrats , former bond financiers, food writer , vitamin companies and retail stores ) many of which has been DUPED from all the industry hype, lies and down right deception marketing practices . Through my 15 years of living with not DYING from “END STAGE RENAL FAILURE even though I am not an “EXPERT” by most people standards I consider myself as an expert, it is one thing to talk about or read about but let me tell you Dr. Daniels living with a so-call chronic is the “PROOF IN THE PUDDING, and Getting Sick and even dying simply because the powers that are not being truthful about “SOY” and all the ways when consumed by unsuspecting consumers can will and does cause many health, medical issues and yes the unthinkable “DEATH” Dr. Daniel I understand that you are connected with many people but how can I stand with you.how can I help get the word out because with the many revealing and telling articles that are already on the internet the majority of the consumers are “STILL” not HEARING the message that :”SOY is not the “WONDER” product but it is POISON to many many people. I guess in an attempt to reach out and become an advocate for the REAL risks and dangers of SOY I started with you. Since you are very knowledge maybe you can at least POINT me in the direction I should try to go, no one else should have to “SUFFER ” like I am suffering, I am on a mission and I will not “QUIT” until Consumers are at least aware of the “REAL HIDDEN DANGERS OF SOY, so they can then make informed decision, the consumers should be informed “ENPOWERED” to make their own choices ,SOY or no SOY consumers should have a choice Thanks for allowing us an avenue to connect with you I do appreciate all that you are doing to keep us informed with the TRUTHS AND nothing but the TRUTHS. Thanks again