Hi! So I was surfing around either here or some other raw food site quite a few months ago, and I read that Tofu and soy are actually not very good for us, or specifically women in general. I am trying to research this more just to see if it really is. And if it is so bad then why do so many people rely on it for their nutrition. I do not like tofu...this is just a point of curiosity for me. Any input would be great!

Thank you

I think it's healthy in moderation, that is, if you're going to eat cooked food and comparing it to an omnivorous diet.

I've heard that Tofu is not optimal. Still, health is often more about what you are NOT eating. And if fermented bean curd is helping you to avoid red meat (or whatever YOU think is crap)....then it's a 'health' food. Note: Unless you are an empiricist that believes that what is bad for one is bad for ALL. Ha! ha! Is it the kale that is 'making' you healthy....or the fact that it allows you to NOT eat crap? LOL.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Tofu is often made with calcium sulfate, so the end product is usually very high in calcium which is why a lot of people eat it. It's also high in protein and soy itself contains all the essential amino acids.

I don't think the organic healthily-prepared soy/tofu foods are especially bad for us. The news channels and papers are always seizing every opportunity to slag off soya, but I think this is a scare tactic due to the rise in veganism and vegetarianism because of environmental and health issues.

Because soy has to be cooked to get rid of a particular enzyme, it will never be 'raw' anyway. So if you're into raw, you wouldn't ever be eating soy.

Raw aside, I think small amounts of organic tofu (unprocessed beyond the initial heating) are fine, IMO.

Mushrooms are a good raw replacement for tofu

Eating it 24/7 would cause problems in the future - like you can become allergic to soy if you eat it too much. It's a good idea to get variety, i think it's safe to say.

Here's an overlooked point for the soy debate.

Just stop and think... if you choose to be vegan... And if the goal is to make a conscious choice when you CAN...

You wouldn't run into a forest with chainsaws and cut down trees and drive animals out of their homes just to feed yourself... a plant-based/vegan diet. I mean, if you're looking to eat a lot of soy, you probably stopped eating meat, right? For ethical reasons? Widen the scope of vision to consider the ethics (or total lack thereof) fueling the production of meat/dairy alternatives.

(*And we also already have these problems with agriculture in general, but this is why organic/sustainable/bioregional farming practices and permaculture are a great. IMO, it's also good to stop incurring any more damage if we possibly can. Work with what we already have done and have left, and stop making the same mistakes.)

HUGE TRACTS OF RAINFOREST are being destroyed to mono-crop soy. Granted, a lot of it goes to feed cattle, but there's Big Business for soy. Soy is the most marketable thing for any people with interest in the environment--tofu burgers, soy candles, I just saw some flyers from Ontario's veggie food fair with "soy printed ink."

Soy is everywhere, but it's coming at the expense of the "lungs of the Earth." So, it's quite a contradictory thing.

Anyway... the last thing I can say, if you want to eat soy, is, make sure you know where it's coming from.

If it helps you *transition* away from meat, it's a good thing, but ultimately, I would strive to get away from it. The rainforests are *specifically targeted* for large amounts of soy, and nothing, nothing, nothing good can come for anyone if we lend a hand to destroying those forests.

Just something else to think about when you think about soy...

It's my understanding that the rainforest destruction is for GM soy, NOT the organic soy that is used for most tofu, tempeh, and soymilks (which are NOT alternatives and have been around for many years).

There is a lady named Mary Enig, a scientist of some sort. I forget what she specializes in. Lipids researcher, I think. She has written some really scathing things about soy. All soy products except those that have been precipitated for a long time. She's all over the internet. I read a bunch of things that she's written when I lived in Thailand and was researching cocounut oil. She's been very busy writing stuff about coconut oil too. If I remember correctly she said that the soy association people condemned tropical oils so they could push soy oil. There are other people who are on the condemn soy bandwagon. After reading that stuff I changed my opinion about soy. Love tofu but hardly ever eat it. I don't always eat raw or always eat vegan.



This way is not compatible with Zen practice. This way IS Zen practice. - Dr. Doug Graham

Nothing whatsoever should be attached to. - Buddha

The real question to ask ourselves is do we need the high levels of protein found in soy? For people raised on beef, soy makes a nice transitional food to move away from a high protein animal products diet to a high protein plant based diet. But we don't really need that much protein in our diet, and excess protein in the diet leads to osteoporosis and kidney disease.

When it comes to subsidizing animal products, does the human consumption of soy lead to more soy being grown for animal feed?

This may be exactly the case for grains. In a recent talk by Doug Graham, he said that 90% of the grain grown is fed to animals, 10% is fed to humans. But when it comes to grain revenues, 90% of the revenues comes from humans, 10% comes from animal feed. This means the few dollars a person pays for a pound of grains gets an animal farmer 100 pounds of grains.

Or another way to look at it is that sales of grains to humans subsidizes the animal industry by allowing the grains to be sold at 1/100 of their costs as animal feed.

This is what Doug said, I don't know if it is true, and it doesn't take into account government farm subsidies.

When it comes to land management, the growing of grains or soy cuts down trees. Growing fruit contributes to increasing trees.