Health and Medical |
Drano Used in Processing Soybeans
There was a time when I believed that soy-meat for vegetarians was a great substitute for real meat. Soy has been promulgated as a source of "natural progesterone" for post-menopausal women. Soy oil is a common ingredient in thousands of food stuffs.
We've been duped into believing soy is a health-giving product because the Asiatic people use soy and are sooooo healthy. What we weren't told is that the Asiatics ferment the beans in order to eliminate the health hazards. Obviously not so in the good ol' U.S. of A., under the protective arm of the Federal Food & Drug Agency.
Now, according to a New York Times article, over 50% of the soybeans in the world are GM (Genetically Modified) to accept massive doses of the carcinogenic herbicide made by Monsanto - ROUND UP READY. The new product is called "Round Up Ready Soybeans". My suggestion: avoid Soybeans like the plague, because they're obviously as deadly. Their killer-effect simply takes longer and is undetectable because few know of the dangers.
Now YOU know, and can warn others. Read on.
Jackie -
7.04.07
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Drano Used in Processing Soybeans
How Soybeans are Processed
More at - http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/index24.html -
Soybeans are processed into oil, protein isolate, and protein concentrate. Extreme methods are employed because of the necessity for trying to get rid of the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors.
Unfortunately, all the enzymes, minerals, fiber, vitamins, and nutrients are also lost along the way. At each step towards the end products of soybean oil or soy protein, more of these natural nutrients are lost. The end products - commercial soybean oil and soy protein isolate - are totally artificial, devitalized commercial foods.
An excellent chart of the steps involved in oil processing is found on p.94 of Fats That Heal. The following few paragraphs summarize those steps.
Cooking
The first of these methods is high temperature cooking. The purpose is to try and get rid of some of the phytic acid. As we know, high temperatures above 118°F denature the natural enzymes of the bean. (Howell) Soybeans are first heated to temperatures up to 248° F! (Erasmus, p 95)
Without enzymes, any plant becomes a devitalized food, very difficult to digest in the human tract. In addition to interfering with breakdown of the food, enzyme depletion also interferes with mineral absorption as well as vitamin activity.
Remember that enzymes, vitamins, and minerals are three legs of the tripod of metabolic activity. That means cell and tissue function. Take away any one and the other two are stumped. Mineral activity was already a problem with soy, because of the phytic acid. Superheating and enzyme loss compound this deficiency.
In addition, a constant problem with oil processing is rancidity, which means oxidizing when exposed to air and light. Oxidation produces the dread trans-fatty acids and a boatload of free radicals.
There are two chemical terms: cis and trans, used to describe the shape of a fatty acid. Humans require natural fatty acids, which are in the cis form. Processing changes the cis forms to the unnatural trans configuration.
Trans fatty acids are manmade - something nature would never have dreamed up. Trans fatty acids cannot be broken down by human fat enzymes. They cool down to hard fat, just like bacon grease in that unwashed skillet left in the sink overnight. Imagine the implications in the arteries and in the intestines, to be eating foods that can't be broken down. Erasmus explains how superheated oils are 100x more reactive to oxygen (p. 95), thus becoming a potent vehicle for free radical introduction into the consumer's body. We have seen how free radicals are the direct cause of aging, heart disease, and cancer. That's why products containing trans fatty acids are actually illegal in Holland.
After the cooking, one of two paths is chosen for removing oil: pressing or solvent extraction.
Pressing
After cooking, the beans may be extruded through a press for maximum oil extraction. Shallow conventional wisdom says that as long as the oil is cold-pressed, everything is fine. This idea is false, as we shall see.
Erasmus explains why the term cold-pressed is meaningless. People think that cold-pressed insures that the nutrients will remain in the oil because heat wasn't involved in the processing. The first problem is that what they don't tell you is that the beans were already cooked at these superhigh temperatures before being put into the press. As long as no heat is added in the actual press, they can call it cold-pressed.
Huge oxidation already took place at the cooking step. Much worse than the heat, the main problem however is the free radical production from exposure to light and air during the pressing process. This is where rancidity and trans fatty acids come in. To have a true unrefined wholesome food-grade oil, it is critical that air and light be meticulously excluded throughout the pressing step. The oil must then be put immediately into amber bottles. A very small percentage of soybean oil is processed in this way.
Unrefined oils of any kind must come in amber or opaque bottles.
Solvent extraction
Besides pressing, an easier but more toxic method of oil extraction is the use of solvents. Several are used in the soybean oil processing.
The first solvent used on soybeans is an alkaline solution which will attempt to get rid of the trypsin inhibitors. (Fallon, p 3) Even though the solution is thoroughly rinsed out of the beans, a carcinogenic by-product results from the interaction of the soybeans with the alkaline soak: lysinealine, as we saw above.
Next, for oil to be extracted, an organic solvent - hexane is the standard chemical employed. (1997 Soy Stats) Like gasoline, hexane is a petroleum distillate! (Dorland's, p322) Temperatures of up to 149°F are applied. In the rinsing process, traces of this carcinogenic solvent are left behind in the finished products, both in the oil and in the protein isolate.
Degumming
The next step in the refining process is the removal of residual fiber, or gum, from the oil. Water, phosphoric acid, and heat (up to 140°F) are used. This is the same step in which lecithin is separated from the oil. The problem is that valuable trace minerals like calcium, copper, magnesium, and iron, as well as chlorophyll are all removed at this step. (Erasmus p96)
Lecithin is a common ingredient in foods and supplements. The majority of it is derived from soybeans during this step. Note all the preceding steps - some health supplement.
Drano
This one I didn't believe, but it's true. The next step is that the refined oil is mixed with sodium hydroxide - NaOH - which most of us know as Drano, at a temperature of 167° F. That's right - the exact same corrosive lye you pour down your drain when it's clogged. (Erasmus, p 96) The purpose of adding this corrosive is to remove any free fatty acids which may be 'contaminating' the 'pure' refined oil. Anyone for a Dranoburger?
Bleaching
By this stage the oil still retains some pigments, giving it a reddish brown appearance. Since that's not the desired 'pure' look that customers have been trained to expect, clay is added, heated to 230° F, then filtered out. This high heat again causes the formation of the toxic free radicals, called peroxides. In the presence of air or light, their formation is increased geometrically.
Deodorizing
Next the oil is steam-distilled at 518°F for 30 minutes, to destroy any natural aromatics from the dead, refined oil. Note the incredibly high temperature. At 302°F trans fatty acids begin forming. These weird, manmade molecules are mutagenic to human DNA - they can alter human DNA. Trans fatty acids exist nowhere else in nature - man has created them. As the temperature is raised higher, trans fatty acid production increases geometrically.
After deodorizing, the oil is absolutely tasteless, and cannot be distinguished from any other processed seed oil. The oil is now devoid of any vitamin, mineral, enzyme or nutrient content whatsoever. And even though it has undergone extreme high temperatures at several steps, as long as no external heat was added during the pressing step, the oil can still be sold as "cold-pressed"!
Sometimes mixtures of pressed oil and solvent-extracted oil are sold as "unrefined" oil. These types of labels are simply unregulated. (Erasmus) Reviewing this summary of processing steps, it is a wonder that processed soybean oil is allowed to be sold at all or to be made into margarine and cooking oil, let alone for claims to be made about its nutritional superiority. But this is still not the worst of it. The real bad news is
HYDROGENATION
As if no further biological indignity could be levied against the already lifeless processed oil, way back in the 1930s, the boys at Dupont figured out a way to harden the oil into a perfectly engineered non-food: margarine. Their only two criteria: spreadability and shelflife.
At least 80% of margarine made in the US comes from refined soybean oil. (Erasmus). Scientists found out that if they subjected the refined oil to yet another round of infernal temperatures - up to 410°F- and forced hydrogen gas in the presence of a metallic catalyst through the oil for five or six hours, the result was a substance possessing the desired spreadability, as well as a shelflife that can be described as 'From Now On.'
That's what hydrogenated means.
Margarine is another quantum level removed from anything resembling human food, and actually is closer to the category of plastics. Since all the Essential Fatty Acids (usable fats) have been destroyed, and all the enzymes are long gone, there is nothing left to 'go bad' - it can't spoil.
Guess what their favorite metal catalyst contains. Right - it's usually 50% aluminum. Neurological disorders, Alzheimer's, cancer . . .
There are two types of hydrogenation:
Partial
Complete
With partial hydrogenation, weird unpredictable 'intermediate compounds' are formed from the surviving fatty acids. These include the mutagenic (gene-altering) trans fatty acids. But scientists themselves don't even know what kinds of molecules are being created by the hydrogenation of fatty acids. They vary completely from batch to batch, and with different temperatures and catalysts. These molecules should be thought of as random toxic additives.
The only reason hydrogenation is legal is that it has been around for so long. When it was invented, the effects weren't well understood. Now decades later, with billions in lobbying money in place, a few details like cancer and Alzheimers aren't going to get in the way. Who controls which 'scientists' get published?
The commercial value of partial hydrogenation is that the density of the desired final product can be precisely controlled: semi-liquid, margarine, shortening, hard (for chocolate), or anything in between.
Here's a good way to think of hydrogenation. In the old days of potato chips, if you left the bag open all night, next day the chips would be limp and soggy. Today we have potato chips that are crispy to perfection. You can leave them out on the counter for days and they'll still be perfectly crisp. Sealed potato chips in those round, perfectly stacked tubes will last a year or more! This phenomenon has nothing to do with food or nutrition. It is a masterful feat of plastics engineering. The potato chip has been completely soaked in hydrogenated oil, protected from the external environment - kind of like dry mounting a photograph, or polymerizing a marlin you're going to hang over the fireplace. Once inside the stomach, the chips continue to do what they were designed to do: resist breakdown. The food value for humans is in the negative.
Hydrogenated foods then are toxic because they contain
· free radicals
· no enzymes
· no vitamins
· no minerals
· no nutrients
· no ability to be broken down or assimilated In the body, hydrogenated foods contribute to
- aging
- cancer
- tissue breakdown
- digestive disease
- clogged arteries
- arthritis
- Alzheimer's
- neurological diseases
MOLECULAR STABILITY - FOREVER IS A LONG TIME
The fiction that hydrogenated margarine is superior to butter can be seen for what it is: marketing hype - Madison Avenue on Ecstasy. And the reason is what - no cholesterol? Please! Of course margarine contains no cholesterol - it's closer to a plastic than to a food. That's why soybean oil is also used as a base for paint, varnish, and linoleum, as well as printer's ink! (Bernard)
Without artificial flavoring additives, margarine would taste like a formica desktop.
Humans don't need foods to be that stable. Our digestive systems have about 12 hours to metabolize what we eat. If breakdown doesn't happen during that time, very likely we'll be wearing the stable residues for a long, long time.
Start looking at labels. You'll see why they're printed in micro-fonts. When you see the word 'hydrogenated' think plastic. When you see the words "partially-hydrogenated" think plastic and free radicals.
It's not only margarine, salad oil, and cooking oil. Hydrogenated oil is a mega industry. What is the #1 oil in the food industry? Soy bean oil! Soybeans account for 82 percent of the edible consumption of fats and oils in the United States. (Soybeans Stats Reference Guide) And 60% of all foods on the shelves of America's supermarkets contain soy in some form or other. [end]