Soy – the Good, the Bad and the Poisonous
The Cornucopia Institute has a scorecard on some of the best-known soy products.
And you may be surprised to learn that the ubiquitous Silk doesn’t even make it onto the bottom of their list. The company that makes it, Dean Foods, declined to share any information about where they get their soybeans and how they treat them.
According to Cornucopia:
Since Dean Foods acquired WhiteWave, its founder, Steve Demos, has left the company, along with almost all of the pioneering management — those who believed in “green” values. According to Demos, the company is now all about “green, with the dead presidents on it.”
Others with low ratings include Westsoy/SoyDream, Vitasoy, Trader Joe’s, and Pacific Natural Foods.
Top ratings go to Eden Foods and five other companies. According to Cornucopia:
Eden® Foods rates very highly because, in addition to sourcing only USA-grown soybeans for their soymilk, they test every incoming load of soybeans for GEO (genetically engineered organisms) contamination and use only pure food ingredients for flavoring (using real vanilla extract instead of natural flavors).
The full list includes 64 brands, so check it out for the ones you buy and wand to know more about, and the ones you might want to think about switching to.
Among the other better-knowns that score very badly are O Organics, Kirkland and Boca Burgers. Some of the major producers are “health food charlatans.”
And among the four- or five-star brands are Vermont Soy, Tofurky, Wildwood, Rhapsody, Tofu Shop and Small Planet.
The scorecard takes into account where the soybeans come from (China not good), how they’re processed (sometimes with toxic chemicals), how open with information the companies are, and whether they test for genetically modified beans and reject them.
Be aware, also, that large quantities of the junk kind of soy are produced in what were once the great forests of the world and are contributing to the melt-down of the planet.
In Natural News, which contributed to the research project, Mike Adams describes some of the major producers, including Dean Foods, Hain Celestial Group and Pacific Natural Foods, as “health food charlatans who intentionally deceive consumers about the integrity of their foods.”
Companies like Dean Foods (Silk) process the life out of their soy milk (in my view), while companies like Eden Foods manufacture real soy products that have tremendous health benefits! (Such as helping to prevent prostate cancer.)
Adams says there’s simply no comparison between good soy and bad soy. The best soy milk he’s tasted, which he’s currently sampling in Ecuador, “is made in our own kitchen by soaking (sprouting), grinding, straining and cooking non-GMO soybeans into a traditional, zero-sugar soy milk beverage. Our soy tofu is made in town by a local resident who specializes in REAL tofu. It’s the real deal.”
The soy products I consume are real superfoods … If you eat soy products the same way I eat soy products, you’re getting good superfood into your diet. But if you purchase and consume junk soy products backed by powerful food conglomerates that are really only interested in profits instead of integrity, you’re probably just consuming processed junk food with “soy” in the product name.
If, like me, you’re not currently in Ecuador and/or aren’t up for all the sprouting and grinding, just check out the survey and read the labels. That should be easy enough.
Cornucopia has scorecards on other foods, too. They’re not all vegan, so you’ll find eggs and dairy among their research. But if you’re still doing dairy etc., at least this will help you avoid the worst of it.