Ever since reading an article in Men's Health, which was about the dangers inherent with soy, I've been wondering just how bad soy could be. Driven by my desire to know just exactly, what the fuck could go wrong, I did some research. You see, soy is a common food of the Knights of Belka(salute!), so news of soy being well, actually harmful, sent the air raid sirens roaring.

The article I had read said that soy could contribute to the following:

Erectile dysfunction
Decreased sperm count up to 30% or more
Man boobs
Increased sensitivity and the likelihood of being a bitch-ass

So as you can see, soy potentially has us by the balls, and it's squeezing, HARD.

Now further research speculates that fermented beans may actually be alright. I found an interesting post while the air raid sirens were roaring. This was posted by venix of CalorieCount:

Soy's been eaten for thousands of years, actually, but pretty much only in a fermented state. Non-fermented soy is high in phytoestrogens which can definitely mess with hormones in both men and women.

Women's reactions to phytoestrogens range from the benign, e.g. stimulated breast growth, to the malignant, e.g. more troublesome periods and increased incidence of ovarian and breast cancer. As for men, there aren't a lot of studies on the effects of phytoestrogens yet, but early evidence is showing a correlation between decreased sperm count and increased exposure to environmental estrogens.

Basically, unfermented soy is not a suitable food for regular consumption. Fermented soy products:

natto
miso
tempeh
traditional soy sauce

Non-fermented soy products:

soy milk
tofu
modern soy sauce (which is actually mostly wheat!)
soy oil
additives to thousands of commercial shelf products

Notice that the non-fermented products are modern inventions and only consumed in huge amounts recently. Also, guess who leads the world in soy consumption: The US. Guess which country has the highest incidences of breast cancer and osteoporosis, despite all the fuss over getting calcium from your milk or soy milk: The US. Hmm.

So then I thought to myself, "well that fucking soy lechitin seems to be in every god damn thing these days...", which led me to an article from Weston A. Price:

Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as "soybean lecithin." Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.

So the jist of the article is that we are literally eating soy shit. God damn it. Everything from cookies, panties, most brands of Soy milk(I shit you not I saw it on the box), Rice milk(god damn it WHY?!!!), Almond milk(NOOOOOOO!!!!!!), bread, an all sorts of other foods readily available contain lechitin. The only way out is to buy rare brands of foods without it(oh and I've looked, there isn't much). Oh, and you guessed it, the brands that do lack lechitin(like this box of rice milk I found but didn't buy), cost a lot. Why? It's because organic food, being the antithesis of processed, commercialized goods, has become a very profitable business. Yes the Belkan Knights squint with skeptical eyes at entities who make a business out of necessities.

Why is this such a big deal? Soy tastes damn good. I love fried tofu in stir fried dishes. Soy milk has very creamy texture and nice froth. In a cappuccino it's great. We utterly detest how soy lechitin has invaded tasteful products that we enjoy. I guess that it's time to reform 8492 sqn and pillage Yuktobania AGAIN for good eats, and if they don't have them, well we'll see if Osea has soy lechitin-free products on the cheap.