There's a hill in the back yard outside my house where a lot of rabbits, squirrels and quail come to eat the various foods I distribute from time to time. I sometimes put vegetable scraps, fruit pulp, nut pulp or even old packaged foods on the hill for the benefit of these animals, and it's very interesting to watch them and find out what they eat and how quickly they eat it. I've observed these animals eating just about everything I put out there -- beans, pasta, crackers, nuts, seeds, crumbs, lots of fruits and vegetables -- but there's one thing they absolutely refuse to eat. I recently put out a bag of dried, textured
vegetable protein (TVP) chunks made from
soy. It turns out that none of the
animals will touch this stuff. It's almost like they'd rather die of
starvation than eat TVP.
This is very interesting, because animals will eat just about any kind of food you can imagine, and if the birds or rabbits don't eat it, the ants usually carry it away. But this stuff just sat out there for two solid days, which I've never seen before. Usually things disappear within a matter of hours, but this textured vegetable protein appears to be non-food from the perspective of animals.
I have a great deal of trust in nature. Animals have good survival skills. They know what's good for them, what they should eat and what they should try to avoid, and they are definitely avoiding this TVP, so it's really making me wonder: What's wrong with this so-called food?
I've researched the opinions of quite a few health experts on textured vegetable protein. Dr. Russell Blaylock urges me to avoid all processed soy products. He says that many of them have free glutamate, or MSG, in them, and I've definitely observed that to be true. For example, most of the vegetarian beef jerky products, or the textured vegetable protein products, contain yeast extract, MSG or some other kind of chemical taste-enhancer.
I've also received literally hundreds of emails from readers asking my opinion on soy and whether I'm aware of some of the nutritional dangers of relying too much on soy. To date, my position has always been if you're going to eat soy, fermented soy -- like miso or properly processed tofu -- is best, but non-fermented soy is probably something not to be used in very large doses.
In the past, I have eaten quite a bit of soy, including soy protein, but my favorite protein source at this point is actually rice protein, because I think it's a cleaner protein. Occasionally I will use high-quality whey protein, but I continue to notice that it's not as "clean" a protein source as rice protein. I'm definitely not going to be buying TVP chunks any more. If the rabbits won't eat them, that's scary. Rabbits will eat practically anything, including cacti, old fruit, dried lettuce, and vegetable scraps. But they won't eat textured vegetable protein, at least not in my back yard.
Yet look at all the processed soy protein found in protein bars, cereals and frozen pizza. It's even used in burgers at fast food chains. Why are we all eating what rabbits refuse to eat? Could it be that desert rabbits know something we don't? Maybe they know that textured vegetable protein isn't really food.
It's something to seriously consider. If starving animals, whose very survival depends on finding enough calories in a harsh environment, won't eat this textured vegetable protein, then maybe we should take a closer look at why.
After three days, by the way, the TVP finally disappeared. Apparently some animal was so close to starvation that it decided to eat the TVP as a last resort. I hope the little guy is ok.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In mid 2010, Adams produced NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video sharing website offering user-generated videos on nutrition, green living, fitness and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also a noted technology pioneer and founded a software company in 1993 that developed the HTML email newsletter software currently powering the NaturalNews subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
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