Babies and Soy: A Word of Caution

By Katie Mehrer
Considering all of soy's health benefits, it is tempting for new and expectant mothers to see soy-based infant formula as a "miracle food" and to stock their pantries sky-high with the stuff. Well, hold on there mama. That most vulnerable member of the population, an infant unable to breastfeed, stands at great risk of developing a serious thyroid disorder due to a diet based entirely on soy formula. That disorder is hypothyroidism, or an under-active thyroid and it is a common cause of fatigue, depression, obesity, constipation, extreme sensitivity to cold and a number of other symptoms, most so common that the disorder can go undiagnosed for years.

Precocious (Early) Puberty – Beware of infant soy formulas and other soy products

Elaine Hollingsworth, director of the Hippocrates Health Center of Australia and author of Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry, writes about the terrible effects of soy products on children: "I am not exaggerating when I say that HUNDREDS of people have rung me during the past year to tell me about dreadful health problems that started after taking up the soy habit. Serious thyroid malfunctioning is one of the most common complaints. This is not surprising, since it has been known for years that isoflavones in soy can depress thyroid function, causing autoimmune thyroid disease and even cancer of the thyroid. By far the worst calls are from women whose children have been fed soy formula. They tell me heartbreaking stories about baby girls who show signs of early maturation, such as underarm odour, breast development, body hair and even menstruation as early as two, three and four years of age! The risk appears to be greatest in girls who ingest soy formula for nine months or more. In baby boys, 12 months of soy feeding can lead to gross effects by the age of 11 or 12. Breasts can appear and testicles do not develop. Several women have rung asking what to do for these pathetic boys, who refuse to participate in sports, fearing shower-room ridicule, and who will be dependent upon thyroid drugs for life. I can't help, and I don't think anyone can. Nature did not intend infants to be fed hormones, and life-threatening consequences occur when they are. Of course, these horrible problems do not occur with every soy-fed baby, but is it worth taking such a chance? Your child will not thank you, and you may never have grandchildren. Drinking soymilk during pregnancy can cause a failure to produce breast milk, which can lead to feeding the baby soy formula. By far the worst cases of soy damage are reported to us by women who have drunk soy milk while pregnant, and then fed their babies soy formula. This is a deadly combination. These women cannot restrain their tears when describing the dreadful health problems their children have. They keep repeating to me, "I didn't know, I just didn't know, the doctor told me to drink it for my bones and give him soy formula."

Soy research/references

• • Just How Much Soy Do Asians Eat?
  • Just How Much Soy Did Asians Eat?

In short, not that much, and contrary to what the industry may claim, soy has never been a staple in Asia . A study of the history of soy use in Asia shows that the poor used it during times of extreme food shortage, and only when the soybeans were carefully prepared (e.g. by lengthy fermentation) to destroy the soy toxins.

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Soy is an important crop on American farms, and there is a strong soy lobby. The health claims of the soy industry have one purpose and one purpose alone – to sell more soy! But scientists have known for years that the isoflavones in soy products can depress thyroid function and cause goiters in otherwise healthy children and adults. Researchers at Cornell University Medical College said that children who got soy formula were more likely to develop thyroid disease and that twice as many diabetic children had received soy formula in infancy as compared to non-diabetic children. In fact, in other countries such as Switzerland, England , Australia and New Zealand , public health officials recommend highly restricted medically monitored use of soy for babies and for pregnant women.
Soy also contains a natural estrogen, which is why it is recommended to women at menopause. The president of the Maryland Nutritionists Association, Mary Enig, Ph.D. stated that "The amount of phytoestrogens that are in a days worth of soy infant formula equals five birth control pills." Dr. Enig believes that soy infant formula may be associated with early puberty in girls and slower physical growth in boys. Others say it may effect fertility and normal brain development.

Brain.com reports an ongoing study involving 3,734 elderly Japanese-American men. That research has found that the men who ate the most tofu during mid-life had up to 2.4 times the risk of later developing Alzheimer's disease. Lead researcher Dr. Lon R. White said that men who ate tofu at least twice weekly showed brain aging about five years faster than those who seldom ate tofu. Soy has also been implicated in interference with the absorption of zinc, calcium, protein enzymes and amino acids. Visit Soy Online Services for more information

• • The Rise in Soy Allergies
  • The Rise in Soy Allergies

Soy is one of the top allergens—substances that cause allergic reactions. In the 1980s, Stuart Berger, MD, labelled soy one of the seven top allergens—one of the "sinister seven". At the time, most experts listed soy around tenth or eleventh—bad enough, but way behind peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, shellfish, fin fish and wheat. Today, soy is widely accepted as one of the "big eight" that cause immediate hypersensitivity reactions.

Allergies are abnormal inflammatory responses of the immune system to dust, pollen, a food or some other substance. Those that involve an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE) occur immediately or within an hour. Reactions may include coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hives, diarrhoea, facial swelling, shortness of breath, a swollen tongue, difficulty swallowing, lowered blood pressure, excessive perspiration, fainting, anaphylactic shock or even death.

Delayed allergic responses to soy are less dramatic, but are even more common. These are caused by antibodies known as immunoglobulins A, G or M (IgA, IgG or IgM) and occur anywhere from two hours to days after the food is eaten. These have been linked to sleep disturbances, bedwetting, sinus and ear infections, crankiness, joint pain, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal woes and other mysterious symptoms.

Food "intolerances", "sensitivities" and "idiosyncrasies" to soy are commonly called "food allergies", but differ from true allergies in that they are not caused by immune system reactions but by little-understood or unknown metabolic mechanisms.7–9 Strictly speaking, gas and bloating—common reactions to soy and other beans—are not true allergic responses. However, they may serve as warnings of the possibility of a larger clinical picture involving allergen-related gastrointestinal damage.

Profit vs. Risk

The soybean industry knows that some people experience severe allergic reactions to its products. In a recent petition to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Protein Technologies International (PTI) identified "allergenicity" as one of the "most likely potential adverse effects associated with ingestion of large amounts of soy products". Yet PTI somehow concluded that "the data do not support that they would pose a substantial threat to the health of the US population". This statement is hardly reassuring to the many children and adults who suffer allergies to soy products. And it ignores a substantial body of evidence published during the 1990s showing that some of these people learn for the first time about their soy allergies after experiencing an unexpectedly severe or even life-threatening reaction. Severe reactions to soy are rare compared to reactions to peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish, but Swedish researchers recently concluded that "Soy has been underestimated as a cause of food anaphylaxis" (Foucard T., Malmheden Yman, I., Allergy 1999, 53(3):261-265).11 read the entire article
Why You Should Avoid Soy

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Newest Research on Why You Should Avoid Soy

by Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig PhD

"...soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or "antinutrients". First among them are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not

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completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer. Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors. Approximately 25 per cent of bottle-fed children in the US receive soy-based formula – a much higher percentage than in other parts of the Western world. Fitzpatrick estimated that an infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day. Scientists have known for years that soy-based formula can cause thyroid problems in babies."

"Dr Fitzpatrick's literature review uncovered evidence that soy consumption has been linked to numerous disorders, including infertility, increased cancer and infantile leukemia; and, in studies dating back to the 1950s, that genistein in soy causes endocrine disruption in animals."
The health claims of the soy industry have one purpose and one purpose alone – to sell more soy! That's why you'll only hear about the benefits of soy from the industry, but Soy Online Services thinks all consumers deserve the right to make an informed choice about what they are eating and feeding to their children, their household pets and their livestock.

From the Weston-Price Foundation: Uncovering the truth about soy – Myths and Truths About Soy.

Why Not Eat Soy?

• High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
• Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals, soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
• Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
• Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.
• Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
• Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
• Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinaolanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
• Free glutamic acid, or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
• Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum, which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys. From: www.westonaprice.org
Beware of the Toxicity of Soy Products

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Hundreds of epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive distress, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, cognitive, immune system breakdown, and even heart disease and cancer.
Contrary to popular belief that soy is a health food, evidence reveals that soy consumption has been linked to numerous disorders, including infertility, increased cancer and infantile leukemia, Type1 diabetes, and precocious puberty in children have been fed soy formula. (early maturation, such as breast development and menstruation as early as 6 years of age). Scientists have known for years that the isoflavones in soy products can depress thyroid function and cause goiters in otherwise healthy children and adults. A combined research team of Cornell University Medical College and Long Island Community Hospital medical experts have found that children who develop Type1 diabetes are twice as likely to have been fed soy formulas as those fed all other foods This confirms concerns based on animal studies raised in the 1980's and 1990s by Health Canada researcher Dr Fraser Scott and led to the American Academy of Pediatrics issuing their warning to pediatricians against any use of soy based formulas.

Dr. Mercola – "Soy formula is one of the worst foods that you could feed your child. Not only does it have profoundly adverse hormonal effects as discussed above, but it also has over 1000% more aluminum than conventional milk based formulas."
June 9, 2001 — From tofu and tacos to burgers and baby formula, soy products have swept the nation as a healthy source of high protein, with a reputation for being all natural and all good. But a 20/20 investigation has found that amid all of this praise, some scientists are now challenging this popular wisdom, and suggesting there may be a downside to this "miracle food." ABCNews.com
Researchers at Cornell University Medical College said that children who got soy formula were more likely to develop thyroid disease and that twice as many diabetic children had received soy formula in infancy as compared to non-diabetic children. In fact, in other countries such as Switzerland , England , Australia and New Zealand , public health officials recommend highly restricted medically monitored use of soy for babies and for pregnant women.

"While even in 1966 there was considerable research on the harmful substances within soybeans, you'll be hard pressed to find articles today that claim soy is anything short of a miracle-food. As soy gains more and more popularity through industry advertising, we are moved once again to raise our voice of concern. Soybeans in fact contain a large number of dangerous substances.

• One among them is phytic acid, also called phytates. This organic acid is present in the bran or hulls of all seeds and legumes, but none have the high level of phytates that soybeans do. These acids block the bodyís uptake of essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and especially zinc. Adding to the high-phytate problem, soybeans are very resistant to phytate reducing techniques, such as long, slow cooking.
• Soybeans also contain potent enzyme inhibitors. These inhibitors block uptake of trypsin and other enzymes that the body needs for protein digestion. Normal cooking does not deactivate these harmful "antinutrients," that can cause serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and can lead to chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake.
• Beyond these, soybeans also contain hemagglutinin, a clot promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. These clustered blood cells are unable to properly absorb oxygen for distribution to the body's tissues, and cannot help in maintaining good cardiac health. Hemagglutinin and trypsin inhibitors are both "growth depressant" substances. Although the act of fermenting soybeans does deactivate both trypsin inhibitors and hemagglutinin, precipitation and cooking do not. Even though these enzyme inhibitors are reduced in levels within precipitated soy products like tofu, they are not altogether eliminated. Only after a long period of fermentation (as in the creation of miso or tempeh) are the phytate and "antinutrient" levels of soybeans reduced, making their nourishment available to the human digestive system. The high levels of harmful substances remaining in precipitated soy products leave their nutritional value questionable at best, and in the least, potentially harmful." Brandon Finucan & Charlotte Gerson