Soy Protein Isolate is Not Really Food

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this very statement:  My grandmother at soy every day and lived to be 105!

At nearly every lecture I’ve given, there’s always one person who, when they learn about the toxic properties of soy and why they’re not healthy, even beyond the fact that they’re not Paleo, cries out in disbelief that this couldn’t possibly be the case, as their grandmother ate soy every day and lived to the ripe of age of 105.

Or something like that.

Here’s the deal.

Chances are pretty high that the soy that grandma ate was not soy protein isolate, was not GMO (as 96% of the soy we have in the US is) and was not consumed in the copious amounts that far too many people ingest.

Grandma was probably eating edamame out of her own garden.

Still not Paleo, but far, far less offensive than Soy Protein Isolate.

According to the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department, “Soy protein isolates have been known and produced for industrial purposes, mainly as adhesives for the paper coating industry, well before World War II. ISP’s for food use, however, have been developed only in the early fifties.“

Nice to know that eating it is a handy, additional use, aside from being a good type of glue.

Another interesting fact on the isolate is that at the start of WWII, it was discovered that “when a hydrolysate of isolated soy protein was fed into a water stream, the mixture was converted into a foam by means of an aerating nozzle. The soy protein foam was used to smother oil and gasoline fires aboard ships, and was particularly useful on aircraft carriers”,  according to Wikipedia.

Add to all this the fact that we, in the US, have the bad habit of thinking that if a little bit is good, a lot must be great, so lots and lots of soy (refined and highly processed, no less) must be a good idea, right?

So, so wrong.

Cut the soy.  All of it.  Even the edamame (it’s still a legume, packed with anti nutrients and helpful in causing leaky gut…)

Stop consuming bars, milks, shakes and who knows what else with this junk in it.   Don’t be surprised if you notice a huge improvement in how you feel…even if you didn’t realize you weren’t feeling all that great until you started feeling fantastic in comparison!