The Nutritional Institute

I’ve been busy reading Robyn O’Brien’s book called The Unhealthy Truth, which is mostly about the increasing rate of allergies amongst our children, and as I’ve sifted through her well researched information, I have been horrified at the dangers that lurk in our foods, and really feel that we need to get this information out there. One of the foods she focuses on is genetically modified soya (or ‘soy’ in American English). Now, if you pick up a box of biscuits, a slab of chocolate, or pretty much anything processed, you will find the ingredient ‘soya’ or ‘soy’ somewhere among the list of mostly unpronounceable words. Or perhaps you have turned to soya protein bars or shakes, or tried to convert to being a vegetarian somewhere along the line and bought a stack load of ‘mock’ sausages or burgers. Or you may even fed your baby soya formula… The information you’re about to read next might be bone chilling….

To make things easier, let’s understand what genetically modified (GM) soya is first? It is a soya bean that has had its DNA altered by the insertion of a protein that comes from a different organism. This has been done to increase yields in the hope to prevent the soya from being destroyed by insects or diseases. O’ Brian asks the apt question whether the immune system is able to read or recognise these now foreign proteins. Her question unfortunately can’t be answered because there are insufficient studies performed on humans and insinuates, so currently we’re all part of an involuntary science experiment. Discoveries are slowly being made, mostly with negative results. There have been some animal studies and the conclusions are frightening.

In May 2003, in the American Soybean Association bulletin titled ‘Correcting the Myths’, they boasted the benefits of soya as a livestock feed for animals with more than one stomach. They acknowledged that soya was not digestible in animals that have only one stomach such as the pig (and what about us?). The study explained that the soya doesn’t get digested in the stomach, but instead ferments in the intestines, resulting in gases being produced as it putrefies, making them feel full but inhibiting weight gain as they are discouraged from eating. The study explained that the conventional soya bean contained too much of the carbohydrate stachyose, which interferes with the pigs digestion. So to assist with the fattening process, the soya bean industry engineered a new type of soya bean with ‘easily digested sugar sucrose’. This means that the pigs get to eat high sugary soya, enticing them to eat more frequently and more volume, meaning that they should and therefore grow faster. O’Brian states that if this happens to pigs, why wouldn’t it happen to us? In her words; “Won’t we keep eating and gain weight, too?” Again she has not found the answer to this question due to insufficient human studies, but speculates that soya’s role may be contributing to our obesity epidemic.

For food manufacturers, soya is extremely useful in processed foods because it gives the food the consistency and shelf life it needs to be distributed accordingly. According to www.gmo-compass.org, soy can be found in up to 20,000–30,000 products on the market today; either directly as an ingredient or indirectly as a stabiliser, emulsifier, additive and so forth. More examples of foods containing soya are: cereals, chips, crackers, cakes, muffins, ready-made meals, margarine, etc. O’Brian also found (through her research) that GM soya was found to have 27 per cent higher amounts of the trypsin inhibitor, which is a major soya allergen. Studies show that soya became one of the top eight allergens in the United States at the same time that genetically modified soya was made available to the market. Then in 1998, when GM soya was introduced into the UK, the rate of soya allergies rose by 50 per cent. This can hardly be a coincidence…

According to Wikipedia; “In 2014, 90.7 million hectares of GM soya were planted worldwide, 82 per cent of the total soya cultivation area.” This suggests that there is very little non-genetically modified soya or organic soya available for purchase. These are staggering statistics that can affect each and every one of us if we’re not reading labels or miss a ‘hidden’ word for soya. What about the Asian’s who consume a high soya diet? According to Fallon and Enig, there are other factors that negate the negative effects of soya, such as their cooking techniques, fermentation, plus the consumption of soya with meat or fish, which counteract some of the side effects of soya. But we are not consuming soya the way the Asian’s are…

Monsanto is the company mostly responsible for the genetic engineering of foods, designed on the premise that seeds need to be hardy and resistant to bugs and disease. Very little, if any, research has been done on the consequences of genetic remodelling, particularly in humans. The animal studies have shown the detriments, but these seem to be discarded or ignored.  With an attitude of ‘the public will always believe a simple lie rather than a complex truth’, means we need to take action now, gain back the control of our foods, avoid processed foods like the plague, keep cooking from scratch, read labels and continue supporting non-genetically modified produce!!