There are many dangers of soy that you need to know.
Soy is a very controversial food that is both healthy and unhealthy depending on the source of the soy foods.
I want to show you what you need to be looking for when choosing soy foods to eat.
If you make the wrong choices, you can really hurt your health and your body.
If you make the right choices, you can add even more nutrients to your diet and provide your body with all the benefits soy can provide.
I want to cut through all the lies today and tell you the 100% truth about soy.
What Are Some of the Dangers of Soy?
Soy, when it's from the wrong sources, creates many dangers for you (source Fat Burning Kitchen). Soy can actually be VERY dangerous to you, and I want you to know those dangers.
Here's a quick list of some of those dangers:
- Contains large quantities of natural toxins or anti-nutrients
- Leads to gastric distress and reduced protein digestion
- Contains growth inhibitors so never feed to a child
- Depresses thyroid function
- A large percentage of soy foods are genetically modified
- Contaminated by pesticides
- Leads to weight gain, inflammation, and cancer
- Large amounts of phytic acid which blocks uptake of minerals
- Phytoestrogens cause adverse effects like infertility, hypothyroidism, and cancer
- Highly allergenic
Some of the above concerns can be eliminated if you get soy from the right sources and prepare it the correct way.
This means you have to do a lot of work yourself to find soy foods that aren't dangerous. This is why it's probably best to avoid all soy foods. If you want to put the effort into finding the right sources and preparing them yourself, soy can be a healthy choice.
I'll explain more…
Healthy Forms of Soy
Soy beans must be fermented in order for them to be healthy.
Fermentation of cooked soy beans removes the enzyme inhibitors and the phytates.
So you must find an organic source of soybeans without pesticides and other dangerous ingredients and then you must eat the soybeans as a fermented food.
Some good foods with fermented soybeans are real soy sauce, miso, tempeh, and natto.
You should make these soy foods yourself using a healthy source of soy beans.
This is THE only way I recommend ANY soy foods. Do it yourself or risk putting some very dangerous foods into your body. You might be able to find them from someone else, but be very careful with the foods you choose to east.
You need soybeans in whole form. If they are processed in ANY way, you don't want them. Same goes for pretty much every other food!
Soy Foods to Avoid
If you find soy foods in a typical grocery store, the easy rule here is to avoid them!
Most soy foods that you will find are going to be highly processed forms of soybeans. This is the problem! Processed foods are very unhealthy for you and this is no exception with soybeans.
Here's a list of soy foods to avoid:
- soy flour
- soy grits
- soy flakes
- soy nuts
- soy nut butter
- soy lecithin
- soy isolates
- soy protein
- textured soy protein (TSP)
- textured vegetable protein (TVP)
- soy milk
- soy baby formula
- tofu
- soy ice cream
- soy protein bars
- soy energy bars
- tofurky
- tofu hot dogs
- soy chips
- soy rice cakes
- meatless burgers
- meatless meals
- soybean oil
You want to avoid all of the soy foods listed above. Each and every one of them will hurt you. These are very dangerous foods and very unhealthy.
They are not worth the risk. Find a better source.
Remember to only eat natural and healthy foods. Soy can fall into that category if you know where your soybeans are coming from (no pesticides, not genetically modified).
Remember that any soy foods you are eating must be fermented.
Benefits of Healthy Forms of Soy
If you are able to find a whole food source of soy and prepare it in a healthy way, you can reap many benefits of soy.
Please remember, processed soy foods DO NOT give the benefits below.
- excellent source of molybdenum and copper
- very good source of protein, manganese, and phosphorus
- good source of iron, omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, vitamin B2, magnesium, vitamin K, and potassium
- some cardiovascular system benefits from lowering of LDL cholesterol
- includes genistein which has shown to slow tumor formation
In order to get these benefits, the source must be healthy and the dish must be fermented.
WLC's Final Recommendation on Soy
Soy is a very controversial food because of the many processed versions of soy.
If you stick to whole food sources of soy beans that have not been processed, modified, or dangerous ingredients added to them you can reap the benefits of soy.
This is very difficult to do in today's world as there are so many very unhealthy sources of soy. Because of this, my overall recommendation is to avoid soy at all costs.
If you know the source of your soy is healthy (not processed, not genetically modified, and fermented), then go ahead and have the soy as it's probably healthy.
If you're not sure about the source of your soy, get rid of it from your diet. It's most likely very unhealthy.
This is just like any food…
Soy was once a very healthy food, but we've taken what God has given us and processed it so that it's now a very dangerous food. If you can find soy how God intended it to be, then I promise you it will be very healthy for you.
It's going to be next to impossible to find a healthy form of soy, so just be careful. Soy foods can be very dangerous!
Mark says
Hi Josh, Do you know of any soy free chocolate protein powders that you can recommend?
President of WLC says
The big issue with all protein powders is they are a processed food and most of them are going to have some dangerous ingredients. Some of them might not even have some of the ingredients listed. For example, some might say this may include soy, nuts, etc as this food is manufactured within a facility that also manufactures soy, nuts, etc.
Even the protein powders that are very expensive due to their supposedly better ingredients will still have soy lecithin. It’s very difficult to find a great protein powder that you know is healthy because protein powders are processed!
One place that I have trusted over the years (I hope my trust in them is not false) is True Nutrition. I have been using their protein for a couple years on and off. I don’t actually use protein powder as much I did in the past. I try to focus on whole food sources, but here’s a link to their soy-free protein powders page:
Soy-Free Protein Powders
Hope that helps, Mark! If you decide to give any a try, make sure you don’t add any artificial sweeteners. I would go with unflavored and flavor yourself with real cocoa powder if you would like chocolate flavoring. Let me know what you decide to try and if it works well for you.
Jeff says
Hi Josh,
What about other “milk like” drinks, like,
Almond milk? Rice milk? Coconut milk?
Would you recommend any (or all) of them over soy milk?
Thanks.
President of WLC says
Hey Jeff,
Yes, other milk drinks like almond milk, coconut milk, and hemp milk are great BUT you have to watch out for some of the ingredients as with any foods.
Raw almond milk and raw coconut milk is great as long as they don’t have added preservatives or other dangerous ingredients. I also would make sure there aren’t any artificial flavors or sweeteners.
One of the best ways to make sure you’re getting good milk like drinks is to make it yourself. But, I do understand in today’s world that life gets busy and many people don’t have time to make food themselves.
And yes, I would HIGHLY recommend almond milk, coconut milk, and hemp milk from a good source with no dangerous additions. I do not recommend rice milk since most has a huge amount of sugar and next to ZERO protein. This will only hurt you. Any highly concentrated forms of sugar are not recommended.
Hope this helps,
Josh
Linda Rogers says
Hey Josh God Bless you today. Thanks for the info about soy. What do you think about prixworkouts is it worth investing in?
President of WLC says
Hey Linda, God Bless you too! Thanks for the blessing. I am not sure what prixworkouts actually is and have never heard of this. Do you have a link or more information?