The Dangers of Soy!!! Doom to us all.....

I have decided to write this post after some consideration. The main reason I write this blog is to communicate with our friends and family about our life here, to let everyone see what we are up to and allow them to watch the children grow - or us, but thankfully we seem to have stopped, growing that is.

Any way, I always wonder when I write anything else weather any of it is of interest to any one, but in this case I think it is an important issue, recently brought to my attention by a friend and reinforced by my own reading and conversations with other people.

So here it is. Excuse the fact that I don't have any websites to reference you to, if you are really interested google "dangers of soy", "benefits of soy" and way them up for yourself. I owe my friend in Bungendore some debt for pointing this out to me and my friends at co-op for adding to her information.

I had switched our family to Soy Products after both D and I read about the added and naturally occuring hormones in cows milk, 59 natural hormones. I had been concerned about hormones in milk for some time. The switch went so well, overnight in fact. Then I found out that Soy contains many toxins and because the modern processing techniques are speedy the toxins are never removed. The age old Japanese methods of fermenting the soy for over a year denatures the toxins so they are no longer harmful.

Then I found out the most disturbing fact. Soy contains large amounts of phytoestrogens and these hormones when added to our bodies do nasty things (cancer, hyperthiroidism, infertility). If you happen to drink soy becasue for some reason you can't digest cows milk, or you are concerned about health effects of cows milk, or most importantly you are feeding soy milk to your children, both boys and girls, PLEASE do some research. I am not going to tell you to stop, becasue that would be arrogant but I am asking you to read about soy and the effects the phytoestrogens can have on the physical development of both our boys and girls and the risks the added hormones can have in relation to hormone related cancer. I can't afford to take the risk, my children have cancer on both sides of their family tree, the odds are already too high.

So what is the alternative? One thing I would like to borrow from my friend, there are so many dangers to our health and our environment at times the small changes we make don't seem to make a dent in the overall scheme of things. We need to change what we can, if we become aware that a practice is potentially harmful then we have a responsibility to make a change. All of us know for example that excessive exposure to the sun can cause us to develop skin tumors and perhaps fatal cancers. So we put sun screen and hats on ourselves and our children. We have a responsibility to our children and to ourselves, so we take it up, we act and we potentially save out own lives. I feel this way about other things, particularly what we put in our mouths.

High Fructose Corn Syrrup is in so much, well about 99%, of the processed foods on the supermarket shelves in the USA. It is one of the leading causes of obesity. It cleverly attaches itself at the cellular level bypassing the bodies natural defence against glucose and therefore is not removed...hence fat cells, fat people.

A certain carbonated soft drink that we know so well has been linked to MS like symptons, added hormones in milk have been linked to early menstruation and development and problems in young girls. In Australia there are no added hormones in milk, BUT if we are not vigilant, I am convinced that one day there will be, because cows produce more milk with added hormones and every one wants to earn more money for their day at work...it is inevitable.

Australian research identified Canola oil as a cause of Macular Degeneration - blindness. How much of it is in our food? and guess what? the NSW and Vic governments recently lifted the ban on GMO Canola. Does any one know what the effect of eating and cooking with GMO Canola will do? Probably not.

It is daunting and I can't control so many things, but there are some things I can, I can control what goes into our mouths. I know that one day I will die, so will we all but my goal is to live as healthful and energetic life as possible and give my children the best chance at avoiding cancer and illness as I can.

So having said all that, I do have an alternative to soy, A2 cows milk seems to be the best options if you want to stay with cows milk. Almond milk is nutritions and a great alternative, rice milk is ok and nutirtions. Almond and Rice milk canbe made at home too. We are trying a combination of cows milk (mainly D!!) and Almond and Rice milk. So far we all enjoy drinking Almond milk and having it on our cereals, so we'll see how we go. There is no A2 milk here, it is in some places in the US, I think you have a better chance of finding it in Australia that I do here.

I am not hysterical over this issue, I just wanted to share it with you, do with this information what ever you see fit.