The Soy Agenda

A bit more on the soy agenda.

Jim Rutz provided blogosphere with a rich diet of comic material with his articles here and here.

In his articles there is a pattern of selectively quoting material and using questionable sources next to authoritative ones.

Just a couple of examples.

In the most recent article, he quotes an FDA report saying that there was immediate controversy regarding the FDA guidelines regarding the beneficial health consequences of soy. While it is true that there was controversy, this is true of all such regulations. He failed to provide the context and history of dietary guidelines which came in the next sentence in the FDA report:

This [controversy] came as no surprise to Elizabeth A. Yetley, Ph.D., lead scientist for nutrition at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition . “Every dietary health claim that has ever been published has had controversy,” she says, “even the relationship of saturated fat to a healthy diet.”

Rutz later makes this statement: “…the FDA has encouraged Americans to eat 25 grams of soy protein a day as a way to prevent heart disease. This FDA health claim has doubled the consumption of soy protein in the U.S., yet was recently discredited when the American Heart Association changed its position on soy, now saying that soy does not lower cholesterol and does not prevent heart disease!”

It is true that the AHA did change its view on soy as prevention of heart disease. However, the organization did not advise people to avoid eating soy and even said “While the analysis of recent studies didn’t show any specific action of soy protein on heart risk factors, the authors said using soy protein products such as tofu, soy butter, soy nuts or some soy burgers could be beneficial. The reason is the high content of polyunsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals and a low content of saturated fat that could replace other high-fat proteins in the diet, the researchers noted. “Soy products may have benefits when replacing other foods such as hamburgers,” Sacks said. “Soy burgers have no cholesterol or saturated fat and have high amounts of fiber.”

So if the choice is a McDonald’s hamburger or a soy patty, go with the soy.