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 Daniel
Back from the Lion's Den
By Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN
Whining, hysteria and fear marked the Sixth International Symposium
on the Role of Soy in Preventing and Treating Chronic Disease and a
special one-day symposium entitled Effects of Soy on Growth and
Development: How Much Do We Know? held in Chicago October 29 to
November 2, 2005.
As in 2001 and 2003, I attended as a journalist and came with contracts
from Explore, Wise Traditions and other magazines.
So, I assumed that I would attend the 2006 symposium as a guest. The
first morning I showed up early, picked up my press pass and sat near
the front of the room. One hour into the morning presentation, the entire
event was disrupted while I was unceremoniously evicted. Someone important
had recognized me, at which point the publicity office found out it
had made a huge mistake. They were ever so sorry but press passes were
not being given away this year!
In fact, the press was conspicuously absent. Only three of us had
shown up--myself and two tech writers from Belgium. In earlier years
the soy industry had courted editors and journalists, and set us up
for press conferences with industry scientists designed to "help"
us understand all the "good news" we were meant to hear about
soy.
Fortunately, I'd come prepared to pay the hefty entry fees and returned
to the hall just in time to witness industry reaction to last July's
Israeli Health Ministry warning and new strict regulations being implemented
in France.
In brief, the Israelis have taken the strongest and most courageous
stance of any government to date, warning that infants should not receive
soy formula, that children up to age 18 should not eat soy foods or
drink soy milk more than once per day to a maximum of 3 times per week
and that adults should exercise caution because of adverse effects on
fertility and increased breast cancer risk.
The French meanwhile have been studying soy isoflavones and have failed
to be impressed by the industry's claims about health benefits or their
assurances of safety. According to Mariette Gerber, MD, PhD, Professor,
Centre de Recherche en Cancerologie, Groupe d'Epidemiologie Metabolique,
the French government is implementing new regulations that will require
manufacturers to reduce the isoflavone content of soy infant formula
to one part per million and will require warning labels stating that
soy foods and soy milk are unsafe for children under 3 years of age,
children being treated for hypothyroidism and women at risk for breast
cancer.
Attendees were not respectful. Indeed, one insulted her, saying that
even onions contain possible health hazards, to which Dr. Gerber retorted,
"Do you feed infants with only onions?"
Although the soy industry has largely succeeded in putting spins on
unfavorable studies, government warnings are hard to keep under wraps.
Indeed, so much bad news about soy isoflavones has leaked out that Mindy
Kurzer, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, jumped up to the microphone
and cried, "People are hysterical. Let's just take the isoflavones
out of soy formula. Take them out! Stop the fight. Stop the hysteria.
People are talking about this all over the world. There's press right
here in this room. I plead with you to be responsible. The soy industry
is going to be destroyed by this hysteria."
Others too pleaded with me. At the welcoming cocktail reception, Nancy
Chapman of the Soyfoods Association of North America, cornered me and
insisted that she knows of no vegetarians or other health-conscious
people who have been harmed by soy and that she just can't imagine anyone
eating soy every day, much less several times a day. Right. I was then
confronted by a representative from Solbar of Israel, who insisted that
soy is "imperfect but the one and only solution to world hunger."
My attempts to talk to him about small farmers, cottage industries and
the need to think locally rather than foster dependence on products
from global agribusinesses and mega corporations fell on deaf ears.
Indeed, the conversation ended abruptly with his strong recommendation
that I "make myself useful, move to some third world country and
help people grow chickens." And then maybe I could "die of
bird flu."
Back home in Santa Fe, I learned from Larry Dossey, editor of Explore:
The Journal for Science and Healing, that soy industry spokesman,
Mark Messina, PhD, had chickened out of a soy debate. Dr. Dossey had
offered each of us 4000 words to make our case. Without Messina, the
debate was cancelled. Clearly, Messina wanted no public debate on events
at the Sixth International.
SOY NOT THE MAGIC BULLET FOR HEART DISEASE
The new year brought some of the worst news of all for the soy industry.
The American Heart Association has reversed its position on soy, now
saying in its journal Circulation that soy has little effect
on cholesterol and is unlikely to prevent heart disease.
Back in 2000, the AHA had endorsed the FDA-approved health claim that
25 grams per day of soy protein in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol
prevents heart disease. However, mounting evidence that soy does not
lower cholesterol or other heart disease risk factors led the AHA to
reconsider the evidence. After reviewing 22 studies, an AHA panel concluded
that large amounts of soy might reduce LDL-cholesterol but had no effect
on HDL, triglycerides, lipoprotein(a) or blood pressure. A separate
analysis of soy isoflavones, the plant estrogens found in soy protein,
showed no effect on cholesterol or other lipids.
Sales of soy protein products have increased 200 percent since November
1999 when the FDA allowed a soy-prevents-heart-disease health claim
and the AHA encouraged soy consumption. Few people know that, in allowing
the health claim, the FDA disregarded warnings from its own expert scientists
and based its decision almost entirely on just one study--a 1995 meta-analysis
by James W. Anderson, PhD, which was funded by soy industry giant Protein
Technologies International, now Solae. However, this fall at the Chicago
symposium, Dr. Anderson conceded that most studies since 1995 have reported
"less impressive results."
With attendees concerned that neither soy protein nor soy isoflavones
cut it, industry scientists trotted out a new component of soy that
might possibly lower cholesterol--a soy globulin.
In addition, the AHA panel concluded that neither soy protein nor
soy isoflavones reduced hot flashes and that soy isoflavones do not
prevent breast, endometrial or prostate cancer. The AHA strongly recommended
that the public not take soy isoflavone supplements because neither
efficacy nor safety have been established.
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality also recently
struck a blow against the myth that soy prevents heart disease. In a
report issued in September, 2005, the agency concluded that much of
the research carried out on soy is "inconclusive," that soy
products appear to exert "a small benefit on LDL-cholesterol and
triglycerides" but that those effects are of "small clinical
effect in individuals." In addition, the agency determined that
studies on soy and menopause were inconsistent, contradictory, of poor
quality and too short duration.
Finally, a study performed by University of Colorado scientists published
in the January, 2006, issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation
indicates that soy foods could seriously harm patients afflicted with
cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that affects 1 in 500 Americans and
is the leading cause of death in young athletes. Time to warn athletes
and fitness buffs about the dangers of soy energy bars and protein shakes.
SOY NOT SO GOOD FOR FERTILITY EITHER
The January, 2006, issue of Biology of Reproduction reports
that genistein, a plant estrogen found in soybeans, can disrupt the
development of the ovaries of newborn female mice, causing reproductive
problems and infertility.
In the study, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS), gave injections of soy genistein to three different
groups of female mice during the first five days of their lives. They
found adverse effects at all levels, including doses comparable to levels
of genistein found in soy infant formulas given to human infants. Mice
treated with the highest dose became infertile and mice treated with
the lower doses were subfertile, meaning they had fewer pregnancies
and fewer pups per litter. Mice receiving the highest level of genistein
showed a high percentage of oocyte (egg cell) clustering, making fertilization
much less likely to occur.
"We knew that genistein was linked to reproductive problems later
in life but we wanted to find out when the damage occurred," said
Retha R. Newbold, a developmental endocrinologist at NIEHS. "The
study showed that genistein caused alterations to the ovaries during
early development, which is partly responsible for the reproductive
problems found in adult mice." A previous NIEHS study showed that
newborn mice given genistein grew up to experience irregular menstrual
cycles, erratic ovulation and other problems indicative of infertility.
"I don't think we can dismiss the possibility that these phytoestrogens
are having an effect on the human population," said Wendy Jefferson,
PhD, lead author of the study. NIEHS director Dr. David Schwartz added,
"Although we are not entirely certain about how these animal studies
on genistein translate to the human population, there is some reason
to be cautious."
In fact, there are many reasons to be cautious and this NIEHS study
should encourage the United States to follow the examples set by the
Israeli and French governments and issue warnings to discourage the
sale of soy formula.
About the Author
 Kaayla
T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, earned her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences and Anti-Aging
Therapies from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati and is board-certified
as a clinical nutritionist (CCN) by the International and American Association
of Clinical Nutritionists in Dallas. She is the author of The Whole Soy
Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food published in March
2005 by New Trends Publishing. She designs diet, supplement and lifestyle plans
for private clients and is a dynamic speaker and seminar leader who challenges
and entertains her audiences with leading-edge information on clinically proven
ways to prevent and reverse disease and attain optimum health and maximum longevity.
For more information, answers to frequently asked questions or to contact Dr.
Daniel, visit her two websites www.wholesoystory.com
and www.soyfreesolutions.com.
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