SoyMilk Crossroads

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a controversy arose over antibiotics in milk. An independent study found significant levels of antibiotics in a large number of random samples. Since then, milk has only gotten less healthy.

Hormones

In the mid-1990s, the FDA approved the use of a synthetic hormone for use on milk-producing cows. The hormone, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) is designed to invoke increased production of milk - up to 25% more - in lactating cows.
 

The ingestion of this hormone by humans has been linked to a significant increase in incidences of breast and prostate cancer in humans. How would humans ingest bovine growth hormone? It makes its way into supermarkets in jugs and cartons of milk.

Antibiotics

Growth hormone isn’t the only thing making its way into your body through milk and other dairy products. As a result of being kept in a near-constant state of lactation, many cows develop sores on their udders. They are treated with antibiotics - the same antibiotics that caused a scandal in the early 90s.

Long-Term Effects are Unknown

No studies have been conducted on the effects of long-term human exposure to these chemicals. Could they be to blame for the increased diagnoses of ADD and autism we’ve see over the last decade? Could they be causing early puberty in children? A lot of people believe so. Until we know what these substances are doing to our bodies, it makes sense to avoid dairy altogether.

Other Milks

Making other milks is an obvious choice.  With a soymilk maker you can make fresh nut, seed, and rice milks as well as soy milk.  By making your own, you know and control exactly what’s in the milk your family is drinking.

The protein value of a food depends on two factors:

• Quantity - how much protein is in the food.  This is expressed as a percentage of the total weight of the food.
• Quality - is the percentage of protein in a food that can be utilized by the body.  This is expressed in a protein score called Net Protein Utilization. (NPU)

Quantity of Protein

The chart shows the top 20 protein food sources.  It can be seen that the highest percentages of protein are found in plant rather than animal foods.  In fact, soy foods hold 10 of the 20 slots, including the top five.

The NPU Chart

The NPU is a biological value or protein score given to foods that refers to the percent of protein that the human body can use.
 

It’s based largely on the food’s ability to digest and how it’s amino acids match the pattern required by the body.
 

 On this chart you can see that chicken and tofu have the exact same protein value.

How to Use the Charts Together 

By combining these two charts you can calculate the usable protein of various foods.  Here’s an example.  The daily protein requirement for an adult male is around 43 grams. 
 

Regular Tofu contains 8% protein, 65% of that is considered usable by our bodies.  Let’s do the math.  One 8-ounce (227 gram) serving of tofu gives us 227 x .08 x .65 = 11.8 grams of usable protein.  That’s more than 27% of the daily requirement.
 

If you do the math, you find that the same amount of usable protein can be supplied by 3 ounces of steak or 5.5 ounces of hamburger.  The cost is much higher, of course.

Quality of Protein

The charts allow you to calculate the usable protein, but that in itself is an extremely small picture about the actually value of the these foods.  It is a common misconception that the food value of meat is superior to plant.  Protein is protein.  But what we put our bodies through to get that protein is another whole story.
 

 Americans presently obtain about 70% of all their protein from animal foods.  Because of that, the standard American diet contains one of the world’s highest proportions of saturated fats and cholesterol.  Cholesterol medication is a booming industry in our country.

Unique Quality of Tofu

Tofu is very unique among high protein foods.  It is low in calories and saturated fats and completely free of cholesterol.  It’s also an excellent source of calcium.  Tofu is also a good source for other minerals such as iron, phosphororus, potassium, sodium, B vitamins, choline and fat-souble vitamin E.

The health community recognizes the importance of fiber-rich foods.  Studies have shown three dangerous trends in the dietary patterns of most of the industrialized nations.

Less Fiber Food Eaten

The intake of dietary fiber is only about 20% of what it was a century ago.  As nations become more industrialized and wealthier there is a rise in the consumption of sugar, meat, fats, and dairy products (none of these contain fiber).  At the same time, there is a decrease in the use of grains and vegetables.

Refined Grains

The largest proportion of the grains consumed are in the processed or refined form.  These grains have been stripped of their outer layers which is where the fiber-rich nutrition is located.  The results of this practice are seen in such things as white bread, pasta and rice.

Increased Toxic Substances

With the increase in industry, the average person also has a steadily increasing intake of toxic substances.  This comes from both food additives and the environment.

Okara - High in Fiber and Protein

Okara is what nutritionists call “dietary plant fiber” which is essential for every well-balanced diet.  It provides a bulk or roughage necessary for cleaning out the body.  It also absorbs toxins, including environmental pollutants, and helps speed their passage out of the body.
 

When you make homemade soymilk, okara is the bean pulp by-product that is left.  It contains about 17% of the protein of the original soybeans, the rest going into the soymilk.  By utilizing okara in a variety of recipes you are adding health-giving fiber and protein to your diet.

In almost every nutrient, Soymilk is richer than dairy milk.  The one exception is calcium.  Even though the calcium in cow’s milk is difficult to digest because cow’s milk is for cows after all, that one ingredient makes some folks hang onto dairy milk.

Sesame to the Rescue!

Sesame seed is the world’s richest source of calcium.  It contains over six times as much calcium by weight as dairy milk.  Soy and sesame have complementary proteins.  When the two are combined they result in an abundance of high quality protein.
 

This Sesame Soymilk Recipe will give you and your children a high quality calcium and protein drink, which is essential for growing children.

• 1 Cup soymilk (warm)
• 1 to 1-1/2 tsps honey or natural sugar
• 1-1/2 to 2 Tsp tahini or sesame butter
• Dash of salt

Combine ingredients and mix well in a blender and enjoy.

Do your kids seem to always be sick? Stuffy or runny noses, sore throats, and earaches are common among kids, but if it’s happening to your kids much more than other kids, maybe it’s not a virus at fault.

Look at the Family Diet

Diets that contain a lot of dairy products may be putting families at risk. Numerous studies have shown that dairy products cause a host of health problems: excess phlegm, runny noses, constipation, chronic earaches, asthma, and bronchitis, to name a few. Conditions which many parents consider to be “just part of being a kid” are actually preventable by just eliminating dairy from the diet.

The Science Behind the Sickness

Why do our bodies react they way they do to dairy? One theory is that our immune systems are fooled into thinking that our bodies are under attack. The introduction of a foreign animal’s protein into our systems causes our immune systems to react protectively by producing extra phlegm. In other words, the body knows that cow milk doesn’t belong there. It rejects the milk and signals the nasal and throat membranes to produce all of the mucus necessary to get rid of the foreign substance.

The Healthier Option

There are so many good reasons for switching from dairy to soy. Your family’s health is probably the best reason of them all. It’s not difficult to avoid - or at least reduce - the common health problems of childhood when you make the healthy switch to soy.

Over the years, the numerous health benefits of soymilk have been published.  Aside from the fact that it is a great calcium and protein source alternative for those who are lactose-intolerant, it also provides a great deal of other health benefits to your body.

Here’s a quick look into the health benefits of soymilk:

• It can help reduce the risks of prostate cancer.
• It can help reduce the negative effects of menopause.
• It can help lower your cholesterol level.
• Soymilk is a great alternative for those who have milk allergies.

Watch the Carbs

You can include diabetes in the above list – because recent studies show that soymilk actually helps with this ailment.  If you are diabetic, you have to keep close watch of the carbohydrate content of the foods that you are eating.  When you compare soymilk to non-fat milk, the latter contains more carbs. 
 

Regular drinking of soymilk has been shown to improve the blood glucose level of those who are suffering from diabetes.  If you have any concerns, of course, talk to your physician.  More doctors are recommending soy everyday.
 

Then when you’re ready for a new adventure start making your own soymilk.  It’s fresher, contains only the sweeteners and flavors you want to add, and costs so much less than the store bought.

By now, you’ve read plenty of information about how great soy is for your health. But did you know that soy may also be great for the millions of people living in hunger all around the world?

Fast-Growing Food

Soybeans are a fast-growing food that can often be grown as a double crop in the same season as another crop in the same field, such as wheat. This means that the owner of the field can double their output and their income. For impoverished areas, this can bring much-needed additional income or food that goes directly from the field to feed the farmer’s family.

Nutritionally Dense

Soybeans take little energy to grow but pack a powerful nutritional punch. They contain fiber, protein, and unsaturated fatty acids. The nutrition that humans gain from eating soybeans is greater than the nutrition we would gain from eating the animals raised on the same amount of land. However, family farm animals can be fed with a soybean crop, and it is an efficient and affordable food for them.

Versatile Crop

The sheer number of products that can be made from soybeans means that there is always a market for farmers to sell their crop. It can be processed into a multitude of food products for humans, used as animal feed, made into fiber, and used in such varied products as cosmetics, fuel, ink, and stain removers.

Gentle on the Earth

A crop full of soybeans does not produce the methane gas and waste products that would be produced by raising animals on the same amount of land. The solid waste from farm cows and pigs can eventually make its way into our water supply, which is very bad news.

A Wise Choice

For many reasons, soybeans are a wise choice for farmers in impoverished areas. While soy may not exactly save the world, it can go a long way toward reducing world hunger and improving the living situations of farmers and their families around the world.

For nearly two decades, scientists have suspected that a link exists between soy and cancer prevention. Thousands of studies have been conducted to find out what effects, if any, the consumption of soy has on the incidence of cancer.

It’s the Isoflavones

So far, the results have been promising. It appears that isoflavones provide an anti-carcinogenic effect, and soy foods are the best source of isoflavones in the human diet.

Phytoestrogens and Cancer

Isoflavones are a type of phytoestrogens, compounds that are similar to estrogen. Phytoestrogens bind with the receptors that are normally used by estrogen, blocking some of the effects of estrogen. This action can reduce some of the ill effects of estrogen in both men and women.

Cancer-Blocking or Not, Soy is Great for Your Health

The result of this estrogen blocking may be the inhibition of certain cancers. Although the potential link between soy and cancer prevention is promising, it requires a lot of additional research. Regardless of whether soy proves to be cancer prohibitive in the end, it does carry other proven health benefits. So until science decides whether soy can prevent or inhibit cancer, we can continue to enjoy a multitude of delicious soy products and experience improved health.

If you are avoiding dairy products for health reasons or for strict religious or ethical reasons, identifying and avoiding hidden sources of dairy becomes a very big issue. While some dairy products are easy to spot (like milk, cheese, and butter), others are a bit more cryptic.

Not What They Seem

Anyone who is serious about avoiding dairy should invest in a pocket guide that lists the most common hidden dairy ingredients. Having this information with you when you shop will help you choose the products that are safe for you to eat. Here is just a short list of the most common ingredients that sound innocent enough, but actually contain dairy.

• Artificial Butter Flavor
• Casein/Caseinates
• Hydrolysates
• Lactalbumin
• Lactulose

When in Doubt, Go to the Source

If you run across an ingredient that you’re not sure about and don’t want to take a chance, you can always call the manufacturer of the item. Most companies are happy to communicate with consumers about what’s in their products.
 

With new packaging conventions calling for companies to list common allergens on product labels, we may someday be able to identify dairy-containing products with just a glance. Until then, staying away from dairy requires a little bit of effort on your part.

If you’re like most people, you’re probably worried that removing dairy from your diet will cause a severe calcium deficiency.

Dairy Industry Works Hard

For the last sixty years or so, the dairy industry has worked very hard to make us believe that milk products are the only good source of calcium. We tend to think that if we cut out dairy we’ll be putting ourselves at risk of osteoporosis and general bone density loss.

Here’s the Good News

Good news: soy foods can actually help your body maintain and even rebuild bone density. Studies are currently being carried out which suggest that soy may be useful in treating osteoporosis.
 

Whole soybeans are naturally high in calcium, as is tempeh. Tofu, especially tofu which is coagulated with calcium sulfate, is another great way to get some calcium in your diet. Calcium from soy products is absorbed just as well as calcium from dairy foods.
 

It’s important for all of us to maintain our bone health - especially women, and especially as we age. Soy foods can help to hold back the effects of time and minimize your bone density loss to keep you healthy and strong.