Whitley confirms a suspicion I have held for a long time, namely that it’s the quality of our daily bread and the ingredients it is made of that is the source of the problem. What we think is good food is in fact a highly processed, highly industrialised convenience product, which in the long term does us a lot more harm than good.

Below is a list (taken from the book) of the typical ingredients your normal supermarket/bakery loaf of bread contains, without you even knowing about it. Some of these things don’t even have to be mentioned on the packaging by law. It’s the most common type of bread on the market. Whitley wrote about the UK market, but I am willing to bet it’s not much different here in the Netherlands. Why? because the technological process that makes this type of bread possible is cheap, saves much labour, makes light and fluffy bread and keeps it ‘fresh’ forever. If you’re buying a sandwich in the office cafeteria, getting it in a petrol station or a ‘Hema on the go’, eating it at a catered dinner, having it with your burger or buying it cheap from the supermarket or bakery, the likelihood is this is the bread we’re talking about. No wonder it makes so many people sick.

At this point you might all say ‘hang on a minute’, MY baker uses real flour and no preservatives and bakes the bread fresh every night’ etc. etc. Maybe. But did you really check? did you actually speak with your baker to see what he puts in your bread, each and every bit of it? how much sugar and yeast he uses? if he actually bakes your particular bread fresh, or maybe gets it as a bake-off and just finishes it off in the bakery? Please go ask, inquire and demand the absolute best, whole-wheat bread – if you’re going to eat it. Better still, make it yourself. And even then, even then the likelihood is that at least some of you will do better off wheat (tarwe), so bake with another type of grain. “Bread Matters” is full of ideas.

Ingredients in commercial bread

•  flour (mostly highly refined, stripped of nutrients)
• water
• salt (usually high amounts, now manufacturers are under pressure to cut levels down)
• yeast (excessive use)
• fat (processed, hydrogenated, poor quality; not necessary to make bread, but give volume and softness so are liberally added)
• flour treatment agents (E300) – to increase volume
• bleach (bleek) – to make the flour whiter
• reducing agent (E920) – to create more stretchy dough, especially in French baguettes and burger buns
• soya flour – has a bleaching effect, increases volume and softness
• emulsifiers (E471, E472e, E481, E422, E322) – to increase volume, softness and give a long shelf life
• preservatives (E282, E260) – for prolonged shelf life
• enzymes – for longer shelf life, better crust, dough strength and elasticity; preserving bread softness for longer, making the dough easier to process; to increase volume

Nice, eh?

More chemicals than bread you might say, and you’d be totally right.

If you wonder what’s wrong with chemicals (after all they are ‘scientifically approved’), consider that 50, even 20 years ago there were legally approved chemicals used in food that have since been banned. Chemical safety guarantees have a short scientific shelf life…

Very lastly, consider this. To make bread at home all you really need, says Whitley, are the first 3 ingredients: flour, water and salt. You don’t even need yeast if you made sourdough bread. That’s the way bread has been made for eons, until manufacturers started playing around with the wheat, the dough and the whole bread making and baking process, roughly 60 years ago – and more intensely since the 1960s. Now look at the statistics of gluten allergies, intolerances and a myriad of new illnesses and symptoms that have sprung into existence since the 1960s (a whole range of behavioural and learning disabilities, for instance) and ask yourself: since bread is the staff of life of so many in the West, could it possibly, just possibly be that there is some kind of link there?

Sweet

• nakd bar
• small handful (40g) of your favourite (raw) nuts: almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts
• small handful (40g) seed mix, such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pine nuts (in some supermarkets you can find a ready-made seed mix for salad in just the right amount)
• piece of fruit – banana, apple, nectarine, orange; or 1/2 cup of smaller fruit,  such as berries, cherries or grapes
• 150ml organic, live (biogarde) yoghurt
• yoghurt as above, mixed with fruit or good quality muesli
• fresh coconut pieces (available in supermarkets)
• 3-4 pieces dried fruit, such as apricots or prunes

Savoury

• a cup of miso soup (look for instant sachets in supermarkets and health food stores)
• 1/2 – 1 ripe avocado
• hard boiled egg with 2 celery sticks
• snack vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, peppers, celery)
• a cup of clear soup, made with organic bouillon powder (‘Vetara’ is a good brand, available in health food stores) with 2 tablespoons oatmeal mixed in
• 30-40g goat’s cheese or Gouda
• 10 olives

I learned my own personal lesson when I decided to join the first ever Group Detox I ran for my clients. As you might imagine, as a nutritionist who seriously walks her talk my sugar consumption was already very minimal (non existent by average standards). Still, I wanted to see what it would be like to go cold turkey on even minimal amounts of sugar. Boy was I in for a lesson. I could not believe how indifferent I became to sugar’s temptations by cutting it out altogether. That admittedly rare urge (certain moments of the month?) to indulge in sugary treats, the self discipline required to stop myself from having that daily 9pm chocolate moment, the anticipating thought of the dessert rather than the meal in our next restaurant visit – all of these have disappeared. I felt lighter, cleaner and, most importantly, less dependent. And that was with me having minute quantities of the stuff.

So how do you minimise sugar? (because cutting it completely out for life is probably not sustainable for 99.99% of us). Well, there are no quick fixes for that. You have to become a knowledgeable consumer who reads Nutrition Facts Labels, limits processed and packaged foods, and begins to make – and eat – most of your own food at home. For many it will be a lifestyle transition, so start slow and change where change comes easy. If you make one small change every week, within a few months, you’ll have made significant progress. Here are some tips to help you along the way.

1. Don’t drink your calories. Replace sweetened coffees and teas, fruit juices, lemonade, milky drinks, sports drinks etc. with water. Add lemon, lime or mint to jazz it up if you like.
2. Consume as little packaged food as possible. Sugar is always added to packaged foods: consumers have grown to expect the much-loved sweet flavour, so manufacturers give it to them galore. Even “low-sugar” versions of packaged foods are heavily sweetened with sugars and artificial sweeteners. Don’t believe me? Check the ingredients lists of your weekly shopping next time you go to the supermarket. Stick with foods in their most natural forms – foods that have a maximum of five ingredients, none of which is sugar in any form. Now how will that change your weekly shopping?
3. Eat more ‘real food’ - vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains, fish, and lean proteins. These foods are nutritious, tasty, and don’t have additives (read the labels just to make sure). Instead of buying pre-sweetened foods, buy plain versions and add your own flavourings with fresh herbs, citrus, spices, fruit, etc.
4. Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Many sugar addicts, worried about calories, regularly under-eat. The thing is, under-eating usually leads at some point to out-of-control over-eating. It’s best to plan and consume smaller, more frequent meals and snacks throughout the day to stabilize your blood sugar levels. Choose from the above list of high-nutrient foods, and make time to eat. Even 5 minutes is better than shoving something in a hazed rush.
5. Snack smart. Nuts, seeds or a piece of fruit are good snack options as opposed to cookies, sweetened coffee or a chocolate bar. Or try a savoury, protein-rich snack if you’re especially prone to sugar sensitivity: a hard boiled egg; celery sticks with a bit of cottage or cream cheese; or half a ripe avocado.
6. Buy plain dairy – yoghurt, milk products, and unsweetened dairy alternatives. Yogurt and milk drinks (considered healthy by most) are some of the sweetest products on the market – many commercial yoghurts, especially those directed at children, contain 2-3 times the added sugar of a serving of ice cream! Buy the plain or unsweetened versions of these, and if you wish, sweeten it yourself with chopped fruit, dried fruit, or even a little drizzle of honey or maple syrup (still sugar, but it will be much less than pre-sweetened).
7. Make sauces and salad dressings from scratch. These products are some of the most sugared in the market, with sugar more often than not ranking number one or two on the list of ingredient. It’s not hard or time consuming to make your own at home, and most of them will happily live in your fridge for a few weeks at a time. Find a good recipe for 3-4 basic sauces you regularly use (salad vinaigrette, stir-fry sauce, pesto) and prepare your own creations.
8. Eat out not too often. Eating out frequently is a health-killing habit. Sad but true. Restaurant food tastes good for a reason – they add huge amounts of fat, salt, and sugar – amounts you’d never feel comfortable adding at home. Cooking methods are also often the kind you wouldn’t use at home, like deep frying. So the more you shop for your food and eat at home, the more control you have over what goes into your mouth.
9. Eat a sweet treat once a week. It’s hard to give up sugar altogether, and no one should live in total deprivation. So allow yourself a small portion of your favourite indulgence once a week, assuming you can stop at one portion. Plan your treat ahead of time, so you “spend” it on something you truly love.
10. Brush your teeth thoroughly after dinner. This is not a tactic that will get to the root cause of your sugar cravings, but it is a way of getting out of the habit of late night sweet eating, which is such a common phenomenon. You’re less likely to snack on sweets when you know you have to clean your teeth all over again.

• Fruit – the size of a large apple; or ½ cup fresh fruit; or ¼ cup dried fruit.
• Vegetables – your clenched fist is a good rule of thumb. It’s equivalent to a generous ½ cup cooked or raw vegetables; or 1 cup salad greens.
• Grains – 1 slice bread; or ½ cup cooked pasta, rice or another grain.
• Potato – a light-bulb size (the old ones, not the energy saving…)
• Nuts – ¼ cup, about 2-3 flat tablespoons
• Beans and lentils – ½ cup cooked
• Fish – a cheque book (or an acceptgiro form without the slip on the side, for the Dutch amongst us). About 120g cooked.
• Cheese – a small matchbox
• Meat – a pack of playing cards

It’s a good idea to err in the direction of smaller portions. Research shows that the longest living people on earth eat on average 1,800 calories per day. That’s 15% less than the recommended daily calorie intake for women (2,000 kCal) and a whopping 40% (!) less than the recommended daily calorie intake for men (2,500 kCal). In short, eat less = live longer.

Vegetables are the mainstay of a healthy diet. While much of the nutrition research is contradictory, to say the least (‘coffee is good for you’; ‘no, coffee is bad for your heart’; ‘milk counts as part of your liquid intake’; ‘no, it doesn’t), the one thing all researchers agree on is that veggies are where you’ll find all the vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, phyto-estrogens, anti-cancer components etc. necessary for our health. You won’t find any study claiming that vegetables are seriously bad for you!

Surprising then that vegetables tend to be the group of foods least eaten by most of the population. Prior to a consultation I always read my clients’ food journal, where they specify their daily food intake over a few days. Rare is the client for whom vegetables top the list of daily foods, or even come anywhere near the bottom third. What a gap between what’d good for us and what we actually eat every day all day!

If this gap is due to the perception that vegetables are boring and tasteless, then the following tips will help you move away from this antiquated notion, coming from the days when veg was cooked in water till death, then dumped on the plate, colour- and life-less. Eat your veg raw or cook it till just done, not a second more. Then use one of the ideas below – or a few of them together – to jazz up your plate of goodness.

1. Herbs - fresh chopped herbs pack so much flavour, they’ll immediately liven up any dish, and they pair beautifully with their close relatives, the veggies of this world. Use any that you like. Fresh is best though some herbs retain their flavour well also when dried (e.g. thyme, marjoram, rosemary), if not too old. Choose from basil, parsley, coriander, mint, dill, chervil, chives, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage, tarragon or thyme – or their many varieties. Grow them in your garden or in pots on the windowsill for immediate availability all year round.
2. Spices – Simply adding a new spice to a basic dish changes its look, feel and taste completely. Curry powder, ground cumin, ground coriander and chilli flakes are among the spices which can lift a common dish to a brand new level. Ras-el-hanouth (Moroccan spice mixture) is especially good at doing just this.
3. Citrus peel – grated citrus peel looks elegant (if shaved on top) and tastes terrific in almost anything. Lemon and orange zest livens up all veggies, although lime is the king of citrus peels, transporting you to Asia with the first whiff. Use a high quality grater (I love my Microplane) and preferably grate organic citrus fruit, as they’re not waxed. Wax isn’t such a great flavouring agent…
4. Soy Sauce - soy sauce is a natural flavour enhancer, which means it adds that extra mouthfeel to the foods it’s added to. A little goes a long way, as soy sauce is high on the salty scale. Only ever choose high quality soy sauce, like organic Tamari (wheat-free soy sauce) or Shoyu, which are fermented much longer than the commercial varieties and are therefore halthier and has much deeper flavour. Of the commercial varieties Kikkoman is best. Sweet soy sauce (ketsjap manis) is another good one to have on hand.
5. Nuts – the healthy fats in nuts add a touch of richness and palate flavour. Nuts come in a variety of colours and flavours, and are crunchy, which jazzes up the texture of any dish. Use raw nuts; serve them chopped or sliced rather than whole (this way just a few nuts go a long way); and sprinkle a few extra on top, for good looks.
6. Seeds - the truth about nuts (see above) is also the truth about seeds, except use your seeds whole, or you’ll be spending days chopping them. Think pumpkin, sunflower, linseed (flax), pine nuts, sesame (white and black) and – for a superb and less usual touch – poppy seeds. Seeds are a power-house of health!
7. Garlic and ginger - these two flavouring agents are a match made in heaven. As the Asians know well, they’ll give a kick to any old dish. Grate some raw garlic and ginger on top of your veggie dish and moisten with a bit of fab tasting olive oil. If this is too sharp for you, slice or chop them very finely and fry quickly in a bit of oil, butter or ghee (30 seconds – 1 minute to avoid burning), then pour over your veg. Superb.
8. Oils - slippery issue, as so many people try to avoid oils when attempting to lose weight. Well, we all need good quality oils and fats, even those of us trying to lose weight. So limit the quantities (1/2 tablespoon of raw, organic, unheated oil for those on a diet; more generously for those who are not) and go for the best quality you can. I use organic oils exclusively – with such an important thing to health as fat there’s every point in investing money in the best possible products. Choose from extra virgin olive oil, hazelnut, walnut (fantastic), pumpkin seed, argan and sesame for lovely flavours. Naturally flavoured olive oil, e.g. with basil or lemon flavour, is also a great one to keep on hand. Roasted sesame oil, though not especially healthy is a fantastic aromatic, and a couple of drops are enough to give your dish an irresistible aroma.
9. Vinegars – usually I am not a fan of extra acidic vinegars, but some of them brighten veggies very nicely. A seriously good balsamic vinegar (the longer it has been cured, the better) is one example, as is white balsamic vinegar. Raspberry vinegar is also lovely – go for a high quality bottle, not a cheap and nasty one.
10. Cheese – make little go a long way. 25g per person of finely chopped, crumbled or shaved real parmesan or goat’s feta are enough to lift up a veg plate from boring to utterly delicious. Any good cheese would do the same, these two are simply easier to digest. Go for organic cheese anytime.

The bread obsession has gradually come to an end as I discovered how much lighter and more energising a breadless style of eating was. But this is a story for a different posting. Until I convert the rest of the world to eating less bread, here is at least a list of ideas to tempt you away from the ham and cheese dead-end in your sandwich (especially if you live in Holland, as I do).

To get maximum goodness out of your sandwich choose wholemeal bread rich with seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, linseed). Vary your bread intake: try spelt, rye or mixed grain bread. Buy organic, and skip bread with a list of ingredients you can’t pronounce or understand.

As a base for your sandwich, where needed, use butter, mustard, organic mayonnaise or extra virgin olive oil.

1. Houmous (chickpea pate) and grated carrot
2. Tapenade (green or black olive pate) with sliced tomato, green onions and alfalfa sprouts.
3. Sun-dried tomato paste, slices of cucumber and tomato, chives
4. Fresh pesto sauce (never out of a long shelf life jar, it’s disgusting!) with slices of hard-boiled egg and tomato
5. Avocado – net, with some lemon juice, salt and pepper
6. Generous amount of rocket, then slices of avocado and hard-boiled egg; use mustard instead of butter.
7. Avocado and banana (you’ll be amazed how delicious these two are together)
8. Hazelnut paste (like peanut butter, only made with hazelnuts) with lots of shredded lettuce.
9. Cashew nut or almond paste (like peanut butter, but made with cashew nuts/almonds) – on its own, or with plenty of crunchy lettuce.
10. Tahini (sesame seed paste) with watercress and slices of cucumber (in certain supermarkets and at Middle Eastern grocers you can get tahini made into spread with lemon juice and garlic. Try it: delicious and very high in calcium).
11. Smoked mackerel with pickled cucumber (with as few E-numbers as you can find).
12. Herb omelette (made with plenty of chopped parsley and coriander) topped with a generous amount of chives and leek sprouts (or any other sprouts you can find)
13. Fried, marinated tofu slices with spring onion, shredded carrot and cress.
14. Smoked tofu slices with rocket and alfalfa sprouts

And after two weeks without cheese or ham in sight, a small allowance…

15. Slices of cooked beetroot (not ready cooked, it’s nasty) with rocket and a smearing of soft goat’s cheese.

Bon appétit!

The sweeteners listed below are more natural alternatives to white sugar. They contain not only calories, but also small amounts of vitamins and minerals. More importantly, however, they are absorbed more slowly than white sugar into the blood stream, provide longer lasting energy to the body and avoid the “sugar rush” with its inevitable energy highs and lows. Natural sweeteners may be better than white sugar, but they should still be enjoyed in moderation – for the sake of your teeth, and your health in general.

You’ll find the biggest selection of natural sweeteners in a health food store.

My advice: try out 1-2 new sweeteners that you like the sound of. Use where you would normally use honey, for example. This way you might discover new flavours that you like, and thus expand your culinary horizon.

Agave syrup (nectar)

Agave syrup is made from the juice of the spiky agave cactus that grows throughout the US southwest and in Mexico. The cactus nectar is like honey and is harvested similar to maple syrup from a maple trees. It is high in fructose and is 1.4 times sweeter than sugar. Agave nectar has a low glycemic index which means it doesn’t stimulate insulin like most sweeteners, or cause a “sugar rush.”

Amasake

Amasake is a traditional Japanese product made by fermenting sweet brown rice into a thick liquid. It is a creamy, quickly digested beverage used by athletes after a workout or as a sweetener in cooking or baking.

Barley malt

Barley malt is a complex carbohydrate sweetener made from barley that has been soaked, sprouted and cooked until the starches in the grain are broken down and converted into maltose. Barley malt is dark and thick like molasses and has a strong malt-like taste.

Brown rice syrup

Brown rice syrup is made from rice that has been soaked, sprouted and cooked with a cereal enzyme that breaks the starches into maltose. Rice syrup has a light, delicate flavor, looks similar to honey and is about 20% less sweet than sugar. It’s especially good in Asian dishes.

Date sugar

Date sugar consists of dried and ground dates. It contains the same nutrient value as dried dates. The taste and appearance is similar to sugar, but it’s less sweet.

Date syrup

Date syrup (also known as ‘silan’ and ‘dibs’) is made from the juice extracted from fresh dates. It is dark in colour and thick. The quality of the syrup changes considerably depending on the type of date used.

Fruit juice concentrates

Fruit juice concentrates (stroop) are made by cooking down apple, grape, pear and other fruit juices to produce a sweeter and much more concentrated product.

Honey

Honey is made from plant nectar (sucrose) by the honeybee. The source of the nectar determines the color, flavor, and texture of honey. Alfalfa and clover honey are the most common types, but blackberry, heather, and acacia honeys are also popular. Honey is sold in liquid or crystallized form, and is available raw or pasteurized. Commercial honey is heated to 150 to 160°F (65.5 to 71°C) to prevent crystallization and yeast formation. “Organic” or “raw” honey has not been heat-treated. About 40% of the sugar in honey is fructose.

Maple syrup

Maple syrup is made from the boiled sap of sugar maple trees, primarily in the Northeastern United States and Canada. It takes forty litres of sap (from nine trees) to make one litre of syrup, that’s how concentrated the sap is. The taste and color vary depending on the temperature at which the sap was boiled, and how long the sap was cooked.

Molasses

Molasses is the by-product of sugar, derived from sugar cane or sugar beet when it is processed into sugar granules. It’s loaded with vitamins, minerals and trace elements, including iron, vitamin B6, potassium, calcium and magnesium. It has a strong flavour, said to be liked by those with iron deficiency.

Stevia

Stevia is derived from a South American shrub (Stevia rebaudiana). A good quality leaf is estimated to be 300 times sweeter than cane sugar, or sucrose. Also known as “honey leaf”, stevia is not absorbed through the digestive tract, and is therefore non-caloric. It is not widely available.

According to Chinese medicine long term imbalance of the large intestines (colon) will eventually show up on the skin. Indeed, certain foods are known to aggravate the condition while others may reduce the inflammation. Individuals vary so certain foods may affect some more than others. The lists below are a general guideline to help you figure out possible offenders in your diet.

Avoid

Foods which cause excess heat in the body
Blood vessel dilators

• Very hot (Cº) foods or beverages
• spicy foods
• fatty food
• alcohol
• coffee
• black tea
• vinegar
• hot (peppery) spices, seasonings, sauces and marinades
• Chilli – all types (even black pepper can have an effect)
• Tomatoes
• citrus fruits and its juices
• bananas
• red plums
• raisins
• figs
• old (aged) cheese
• chocolate

Common flushing foods

• sugar
• refined food (white bread, white pasta)
• liver
• soy sauce
• yeast extract
• aubergine
• avocado
• spinach
• lima beans, white haricot beans, peas
• yoghurt
• sour cream
• vanilla

Other potential culprits

• lobster
• prawns
• artificial sweeteners
• preservatives
• food colorings
• MSG (E621).
• Aspartame and NutraSweet (artificial sugar alternatives)

Note: refined foods (white sugar, white flour foods [bread, pasta]) and fat can be strong contributors to rosacea.

Eat

Cooling foods, detoxing foods, correct fats

• WATER – cool or ice cold, 2.5 litres a day
• Cherries
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Linseed oil – 1-2 tablespoons a day
• Fatty fish (salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel, halibut) – 4-5 times a week
• Food at body or room temperature
• Whole grains
• Seeds
• Nuts
• Fresh vegetables
• Fresh fruit
• Tofu
• Seaweed – all types
• (apple cider vinegar, if no reaction) – 1 tablespoon a day mixed with water

1. Eat soy the Asian Way, as tofu, miso, tempeh, edamame, bean sprouts and soy sauce. The latter two are familiar to many and can easily be incorporated into the diet. Edamame (boiled young soy beans in the pod) are becoming popular so are easier to find, especially in Asian food stores, as well as being quick to prepare and delicious.
2. Eat small amounts regularly. Fifty grams tofu per person, a mug or two of miso soup, a small handful of edamames or bean sprouts or a regular sprinkling of soy sauce every day, and you’re there.
3. Use tofu as a healthy meat alternative. Combined with rice, tofu is as nutritious as meat and far healthier. Find 2-3 good tofu recipes and make a couple of veggie dinners per week.
4. Buy only organic soy. Soy is one of the most genetically modified crops on earth, and the most pesticide-contaminated. Its unchecked cultivation also contributes heavily to soil erosion and global warming. Organic soy is grown with ecological consideration and is never genetically modified.
5. Minimise processed soy foods. Highly processed foods, including those marketed as healthy, should not be high on the agenda of anyone interested in healthy eating. Soy-based products (e.g. veggie burgers and sausages, TVP, soy milks, drinks and yoghurts) are no exception. If you use soy products as an alternative to dairy, do so on an occasional rather than regular basis.
6. Avoid soy derivatives, such as soy protein isolate, hydrolysed soy protein and soy-based powders and shakes. Lecithin is the only soy derivative with real nutritional and therapeutic value.
7. Avoid soy supplements, such as concentrated soy isoflavones or phytoestrogens (commonly sold as menopause symptom relievers). They do not achieve the same effect as whole soy foods, and may even cause unfavourable hormonal reactions.
8. Avoid soy if you have known thyroid problems or a known allergy to soy, or if you feel unwell after eating soy.
9. Have babies? Don’t give them soy formula as an alternative to dairy formula. It is not a balanced substitute to mother’s milk and should not be relied on to provide a growing baby’s needs. From 6 months onwards you can feed babies a bit of plain silken tofu (a softer, smoother variety). Self-feeding young children can be served small cubes of plain tofu (25g per day) for good protein.

It all started in the East…

Soy beans have been an important part of the Asian diet for millennia. Interest in soy in the West began some 30 years ago, when one scientific study after another linked the Asians’ penchant for soy with more favourable health statistics compared with ours. Overall Asians enjoy better heart health, much lower cancer rates, far fewer menopausal symptoms (there is, for instance, no word in Japanese for ‘hot flushes’) and much lower osteoporosis rates.

 If soy beans have negative effects, nine times out of ten it’s down to incorrect and unbalanced consumption rather than an inherent defect in the soy bean itself. 

This epidemiological evidence spurred years of further research, which has shown the soy bean to be a rich source of (plant) protein, unsaturated fat, fibre, iron, calcium and folic acid. Better still, it contains no cholesterol yet plenty of antioxidants and estrogen-like substances (called ‘phytoestrogens’). Once Western science had established what the Asians have known for ever, the scene was set to declare the soy bean a ‘super food’, all the more so as it was cheap and easy to grow, harvest and process.

And what happened when it moved to the West

In an unfortunately typical Western reaction – “soy is good, right? so let’s have as much of it as we can” – all things soy suddenly became precious foods to be consumed as often and as much as we possibly could. Overnight supermarket shelves heaved with soy milk, soy cheese, soy yoghurt, soy ice cream, veggie burgers, veggie sausages, soy formula, TVP, soy snacks, soy margarine… you get the gist. Not to mention soy becoming a hidden ingredient in many refined and pre-packaged foods, courtesy of the food industry: soy oil, soy powder, soy flour, soy fibre, soy isoflavones and soy protein isolate, to mention but a few examples. Unless you read the small print of ingredients lists, you may not even be aware that you and your family consume soy regularly, if unintentionally, on top of your deliberate soy choices. Thus, within one generation we have moved from eating little or no soy to eating it en masse, and in many ways the poor soy bean never even knew existed.

Throughout this soy bonanza no one cared to check exactly how or how frequently soy was consumed in the East, where in a real-life, millennia-long practical trial in humans it has proven to be so very useful. ‘Soy is soy, isn’t it?’ so goes the thinking. So long as it is soy, it must be good. Well, not quite.

The difference between East and West

A quick look to our East shows that in Asian countries soy is eaten in a few limited ways, in small quantities and on a regular basis. It is also eaten as an important part of a diet which has a much lower proportion of animal food (dairy, meat) than ours. It is typically consumed as tofu, miso, natto, tempeh, edamame, soybean sprouts or soy sauce – that’s it. It is never eaten in the forms we know it in the West, at least not in the traditional Asian diets (today’s well-to-do Asians aspire to eat like Westerners, believing burgers and fries to be superior to their own foods). Soy may well be consumed at every Asian meal – miso for breakfast, tofu for lunch and soy sprouts with the evening meal – but always in small amounts (10 grams a day on average in Japan). Little, often, in a few limited ways and in the context of a largely plant-based diet – that’s when soy is beneficial. Asians, for whom soy has been so valuable for millenia, never pour soy milk on their breakfast cereal, munch a veggie burger or tuck into soy ice cream. These are pure Western mutations, by and large developed to provide apparently healthy alternatives to much-loved-yet-not-so-healthy dairy and meat favourites. Unfortunately, as is the nature of mutations, they are rarely advantageous.

Don’t blame the bean

When the excessive consumption of highly processed soy foods (including the supposedly healthy soy milk, infant formula and yoghurt) started showing signs of an experiment gone awry, the culprit was quickly found – the nasty Soy Bean, of course! Not our disproportionate consumption or our bastardization of a good nutrient. We have always been better at blaming others than owning up to our responsibility. The truth is, if soy beans have negative effects, nine times out of ten it’s down to incorrect and unbalanced consumption rather than an inherent defect in the soy bean itself.

Eat it the right way

The good news is soy has been and remains a useful and healthful nutrient worthy of any good diet and far more nutritious than many of the foods we eat on a daily basis. Consumed properly, it is an excellent source of nutrients. There’s no need to give up on it entirely, just to know how to eat it the right way.

Find out Vardit’s advice on the best way to eat soy