Soy: benefits and harms

Soy is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the popular legume family. The fruits of this unique plant contain more than 30% protein, which has the best combination of amino acids. Soy is rich in medicinal and nutritious substances.

Soy is an annual herbaceous crop belonging to the legume family. China is considered her homeland. Like many legumes, soy is a source of valuable vegetable protein and other beneficial substances. Its use in the food industry in many countries has made it possible to produce a wide range of products: cheese, milk, chocolate, cottage cheese and meat from soybeans. But not everything is so simple – the discussions of doctors and nutritionists about the benefits and harms of soy have not subsided so far.

Soy is an excellent garnish and base for vegetable stews and soups. Boiled soy is used to make delicious chops and cutlets. Healthy soy sauce can be a great substitute for salt. Natural soy products contain soluble fiber that the human body needs. Soy meat is a great addition to pasta and cereals. Dry soy cream is designed to give soups a specific taste.

Benefits of soy

Soy helps to remove radionuclides and salts of heavy metals from the body. Therefore, it is actively included in the diet in regions with unfavorable environmental conditions or with an increased radioactive background. This is a desirable product in the menu of patients suffering from diabetes, as soy affects the production of insulin by the pancreas, improves its functioning.

Composition and calorie content

The protein contained in soy is easily absorbed by the body, contains a balanced set of amino acids, and the total calorie content is 364 kcal.

Other important connections:

• Phytosterols — 161 mg (292,7% of RDI)

• Purine — 93 mg (73,3% of RDI)

• Oxalic acid — 56 mg (14% of RDI)

A large amount of complete protein contained in soy (about 35%, this is more than in meat and chicken) has made it a desirable element in the diet of vegetarians and bodybuilders.

Dietary enzymes, particularly phytic acid, which are abundant in soy, help break down and absorb protein. Lecithin and choline from soybeans speed up the metabolism, help reduce the level of “bad” cholesterol, restore the cells of the nervous system and brain. Such valuable properties give nutritionists reason to include soy products in the menu of patients with excess weight or with abnormal metabolism.

Benefits of Soy Isoflavones for Women

Isoflavonoids are substances of plant origin, the action of which is similar to the action of the female sex hormones estrogen. They act selectively – with a lack of estrogen, they replace it, and with excessive production, they gently lower hormonal activity. Soy isoflavonoids are a completely natural product, so this hormonal regulation does not cause side effects.

Benefits of soy for women:

• When using soy, the risk of developing hormone-dependent malignant tumors of the mammary glands is reduced, as excessive production of estrogen is reduced;

• The negative symptoms of menopause, which occur due to a lack of estrogen, are reduced – hot flashes, osteoporosis, and an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

• The lecithin contained in soy prevents fat from being deposited in the liver, fat cells are burned, and excess weight is lost.

Women during menopause can afford a daily intake of soy in the amount of 150-200 g per day.

What is useful germinated soy?

Soybean sprouts, like those of other grains and legumes, are extremely beneficial for health. They contain a large amount of valuable protein, the entire spectrum of vitamins known to man, enzymes and biologically active substances. The concentration of these valuable compounds as a result of germination increases several times compared to beans that have not undergone germination.

The calorie content of this product is minimal. When using sprouted soybeans, a complete cleansing of the intestines occurs, since the swollen beans and coarse fibers of the sprouts, passing through the digestive tract, absorb toxins and carcinogens. Sprouted soy has 30% more fiber than sprouted wheat.

Canned soybeans are not as healthy as homemade soybeans. To do this, it is soaked for 6 hours, then washed and covered with damp gauze, preventing drying. To do this, there should always be a small amount of water under the beans. Water is changed 1-2 times a day, washing soybeans. Sprouts appear on the 2nd day, and after 3-4 days it can be eaten.

In order not to get poisoned from an excessive amount of raw sprouts, they are blanched for a minute in boiling water. Such processing preserves all the beneficial properties of sprouts, allows you to add soybeans to salads, use as a food supplement.

The benefits of soybean oil

Soybean oil is an extremely useful product containing a large amount of vitamins, minerals and biologically active substances. It has been used in the countries of Indochina for about 6 millennia, and in Europe it became known only in the 20th century. Soybean oil is produced by pressing and extracting soybeans. It is refined and deodorized, giving consumer qualities.

Soybean oil has a straw-yellow color and a light pleasant aroma. It is used for the production of lecithin – a component of food, soap, drugs, dyes, fried in soybean oil, added to salads, baked goods. Calorie content of 100 g of this product is 889 kcal. It is considered the champion in the content of tocopherol and trace elements compared to olive and sunflower oil.

Useful properties of soybean oil:

• Vitamins and microelements contribute to the prevention of cancer, cardiovascular diseases;

• Choline, organic acids improve the functioning of the liver and heart muscle, regulate cholesterol levels in the blood;

• When using oil, the prevention of diseases of the digestive tract, the regulation of metabolism is carried out;

• The number of immune disorders is reduced.

For the manifestation of the beneficial properties of soybean oil, it is enough to use it 1-2 tbsp. l. per day. In addition to internal use, soybean oil is widely used in cosmetology to nourish the skin of the hands and face, slowing down its aging. The oil is able to smooth wrinkles, moisturize weathered and rough skin, and slow down the aging process.

Soybean oil should not be used if you are allergic to soy protein, during pregnancy, if you are at risk of migraine attacks, if you have kidney or liver failure.

The benefits and harms of soy lecithin

Soy lecithin contained in this product plays one of the main roles in the body. This substance is involved in the restoration of nervous tissue and brain cells. In addition, it is lecithin that is responsible for thinking, learning, motor activity and memory. It perfectly regulates the level of cholesterol in the blood and the metabolism of fats, allowing you to maintain the functions at a unique level of a young organism, that is, it helps to fight not only diseases, but also aging.

Soy lecithin in industry is a product that belongs to the group of emulsifiers used to mix substances with different physical and chemical properties (density, consistency, etc.). Soy lecithin is a food additive known in Russia under the code E322.

Industrial soy lecithin is found in the composition of bread, margarine and spread, chocolate, sausages, semi-finished products (cutlets, spring rolls), fast food, dairy products and baby food.

Composition of natural soy lecithin:

• choline,

• Phosphodiethylcholine,

• inositol,

• phosphate,

• linolenic acid,

• B vitamins.

Soy lecithin can be found in the form of a dietary supplement (biologically active food supplement), which is used for lipid metabolism disorders, heart and vascular diseases, memory disorders, pregnancy and liver diseases. If this additive is included in the composition of a cosmetic product, it combines elements of a cream or emulsion that are dissimilar in consistency, and also nourishes, moisturizes and smoothes the skin of the face and body.

Benefits of natural soy lecithin:

• Stimulates metabolism – destroys fats, relieves stress from liver cells, prevents obesity;

• Strengthens the heart muscle and cleanses blood vessels of cholesterol plaques – phospholipids in soy lecithin are involved in the formation of valuable amino acids that strengthen the myocardium;

• Helps the functioning of brain cells, the preservation and development of memory – with the development and growth of the child replenishes the composition of the brain matter, normally one third consisting of lecithin;

• Stimulates bile secretion – dissolving fats, lecithin makes bile liquid, deposits do not form on the walls of the bile ducts and bladder;

• Protects nerve fibers from stress by forming their myelin sheath;

• Weakens the craving for smoking – the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the composition of soy lecithin helps the brain receptors to wean from nicotine addiction.

Harm. Natural soy lecithin is practically harmless, the only possible harm is individual intolerance to the product. Lecithin, produced from modified soy (for industry), stimulates obesity, depression and memory impairment, disruption of the endocrine system.

What are the benefits of soy sauce?

Fans of Asian cuisine have long been familiar with soy sauce, which is used to prepare a huge number of dishes. Preparation of natural soy sauce takes about a year. It is made from boiled soybeans and roasted wheat grains, which then undergo an enzymatic fermentation process in special containers. A year later, the sauce is filtered and bottled.

Benefits of Soy Sauce:

• Improvement of blood circulation;

• Fight free radicals with antioxidants;

• Prevention of cardiovascular diseases;

• Increased content of amino acids;

• Low calorie, no cholesterol.

Unfortunately, the desire to make a profit leads soy sauce manufacturers to falsify their product. To speed up the fermentation process, pathogenic bacterial cultures are added to the sauce, which makes it possible to get something like a sauce in a month instead of a year. Even more harmful is a method such as boiling soybeans in hydrochloric acid and quenching this solution with alkali or diluting soy concentrate with plain water.

Using adulterated sauce is dangerous due to the content of carcinogens in it. Both regular and cheap sauces contain an excessive amount of salt, which leads to salt deposits.

Harm of soy

The negative qualities of soy products make it selective about its excessive consumption.

Negative properties of soy products:

• Soybean has a strimogenic effect, that is, the substances contained in products from it disrupt the functioning of the thyroid gland and other glands of the endocrine system, can cause thyroiditis, the formation of goiter.

• Excessive consumption of soy products causes hypertrophy of the pancreas, which leads to disruption of its functioning;

• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt the reproductive functions of the female body – a violation of the menstrual cycle in women, accelerated development in girls, creating a threat of miscarriage in pregnant women, impaired fetal development. In men, a large amount of soy estrogens leads to the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics and obesity according to the female type – a decrease in male sexual function, an increase in the mammary glands, and a slowdown in sexual development in boys. Therefore, it is not recommended to include soy products in the children’s diet.

• In the elderly, soy estrogens hasten the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

• Soy enzymes slow down the absorption of iodine, zinc, calcium and iron from food, so you should carefully balance your diet to replenish the missing trace elements;

• Oxalic acid in soy provokes the development of urolithiasis.

• Patients with gout should remember that soy is characterized by a high content of purines: 100 g – 73,3% of the daily requirement.

• In addition, soy is able to accumulate toxic trace elements of strontium (100 g – 10,3% of the daily norm) and barium (respectively – 8,0%).

Taking into account all the advantages and disadvantages of soy, we can draw several conclusions:

• Soy should be consumed in moderation;

• It should be excluded from the diet of children, young women, men, not used during pregnancy;

• For those who are diabetic or obese, soy is considered a dietary staple when consumed in moderation.

Healthy people can consume soy 2-3 times a week, 150-200 g per day. Then soybeans will benefit, become a source of irreplaceable protein.

Contraindications to the use of soy

Soy products should not be given to young children, as the isoflavones contained in them have a depressant effect on the nervous and endocrine system, causing thyroid disease. For adults who suffer from endocrinological diseases, soy dishes are also contraindicated. The high content of special hormone-like compounds makes the use of this plant extremely undesirable for expectant mothers.