(NaturalNews) The Cornucopia Institute (
www.cornucopia.org) has just released a new report about organic soy products that's sending shockwaves through the soy industry. By compiling information on the sourcing of soybeans, the use of toxic chemicals for soy protein extraction, and the use or avoidance of genetically modified soybeans, the Cornucopia Institute has created an
Organic Soy Scorecard that reveals which soy product companies are truly trustworthy vs. those that are not.
(NaturalNews contributed funding to this investigative reporting, specifically on the subject of the laboratory testing for hexane residues in
soy products. Thank you to all
NaturalNews readers and customers who allow us to earn the funds needed to support these important public safety research initiatives.)
The scorecard (
http://www.cornucopia.org/2009/05/soy-report-and-scorecard/) takes into account:
• Where the
soybeans are sourced from (many
companies use "organic" soybeans sourced from China!)
• How the soybeans are processed (some companies bathe soybeans in toxic
chemicals, then put the resulting extracts into infant formula!)
• How forthright the companies are in providing
information to investigators.
• Whether the company tests for and avoids
genetically modified soybeans.
... and other details.
You can read the full report on
www.Cornucopia.orgHere's who came out on top:
The soy companies scorecard
5-star rating• Eden Foods - 100% of their soybeans are grown in the U.S. and Canada.
•
Vermont Soy (Vermont) - 100% of soybeans also grown in U.S. and
Canada (mostly in Vermont). Low-heat pasteurization helps preserve soybean nutrients.
• Small Planet Tofu (Washington) - Buys solely from American
farmers.
• FarmSoy (Tennessee) - Real
tofu made from soybeans bought from American farmers.
• TwinOats (Virginia) - Buys soybeans from an
organic family farm in Virginia.
• Unisoya / Green Cuisine (Canada) - They grown their own organic soybeans on 400 acres.
4-star rating• Organic Valley
• Great Eastern Sun
• Fresh Tofu
• Wildwood
• Tofu Shop
3-star rating• Harris Teeter
2-star rating• Trader Joe's - refused to disclose sourcing information
1-star rating• Pacific Natural Foods - Buys soybeans from China and refused to disclose the name of the organic certifier in China. Refused to respond to questions about the certification of their "organic" soybeans. Cornucopia wonders whether Pacific Natural Foods is engaged in "a
marketing gimmick" when it claims its
products are "Certified to the Source." (Certified by who?)
• Vitasoy USA - Buys soybeans from China.
• Westsoy / SoyDream (both owned by Hain Celestial Group) - Refused to share sourcing information.
• Silk (
Dean Foods) - Refused to participate. Says the report:
Since Dean Foods acquired WhiteWave, its founder, Steve Demos, has left the company, along with almost all of the pioneering management -- those who believed in "green" values. According to Demos, the company is now all about "green, with the dead presidents on it."What to make of all this - the Health Ranger's opinion
Nothing in this report surprises me. In my opinion, these greenwashing, fake
food companies like Dean Foods, Hain Celestial Group and Pacific Natural Foods are
health food charlatans who intentionally deceive
consumers about the integrity of their
foods.
Armed with slick marketing campaigns, clever packaging and an abundance of corporate greed, these operators rip off the vocabulary and imagery of the natural
health industry in order to sell products that are little more than a mirage.
Dean Foods, in particular, is much like the Monsanto of the food
industry, in my opinion. Many of its products are made with
monosodium glutamate (MSG) and
sodium nitrite, a chemical linked with dietary-induced cancer. (
http://www.naturalnews.com/007024.html)
Hain Celestial Group is a "health"
food conglomerate that routinely uses
yeast extract in its foods (a form of hidden MSG). Its brands include Garden of Eatin', Health Valley, WestSoy, Earth's Best, Hain Pure Foods, Spectrum Naturals, Walnut Acres Organic, Imagine Foods, Rice Dream, Soy Dream, Ethnic Gourmet, Yves Veggie Cuisine, JASON, Avalon Organics, and Alba Botanica. I personally wouldn't buy anything from this conglomerate.
It's nice to know that
Eden Foods was awarded the highest rating in this Cornucopia Institute report. Eden Foods'
soy milk tastes like
real soy milk, unlike
Silk, which to me tastes like soy-flavored
sugar water.
So if you want real soy milk, go with Eden Foods soy products.
The low down on soy
I've noticed a tendency in the
natural health industry to lump all soy products into the same category. While soy was a high-demand item five years ago, today's best-informed
natural health consumers tend to avoid soy products for various reasons.
The truth is that
there's good soy and there's bad soy. It's much like the question of sugar. There's good sugar (raw sugar cane juice) and there's bad sugar (processed white table sugar). Same stuff, different process. So you get different outcomes and results.
Companies like Dean Foods (
Silk) process the life out of their soy milk (in my view), while companies like
Eden Foods manufacture
real soy products that have tremendous health benefits! (Such as helping to prevent prostate cancer.)
As with any other food item, you can't just lump all soy products into the same boat and say they're good or bad. You have to assess them on a case-by-case basis, which is of course what this
Soy Products Scorecard is all about.
Personally, I drink soy milk and eat
real tofu in Ecuador right now. That's because our soy milk is made in our own kitchen by soaking (sprouting), grinding, straining and cooking non-GMO soybeans into a traditional, zero-sugar soy milk beverage.
Our soy tofu is made in town by a local resident who specializes in REAL tofu. It's the real deal.
I don't eat processed, corporate-branded soy products.
Silk, in particular, is a complete joke, in my view.
The soy products I consume are real superfoods -- and they're made the same way in Asia, where soy is a routine part of the healthful diets consumed there. If you eat soy products the same way I eat soy products, you're getting good
superfood into your diet. But if you purchase and consume junk soy products backed by powerful food conglomerates that are really only interested in profits instead of integrity, you're probably just consuming processed junk food with "soy" in the product name.
Be careful where you put your trust in any food product.
"Natural" food companies will lie to you if they can get away with it, and most consumers are fooled by their slick promotional campaigns.
Please do your part to reward the honest, high-integrity soy companies like Eden Foods by giving them your
business. And don't you dare buy anything from Dean Foods or Hain. Do not reward their business practices with your hard-earned dollars.
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 is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. 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 veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
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Monday, May 18, 2009
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