DEATH BY SOYBEAN (C)1999 Alan M. Schwartz From http://www.tofuji.com/: "Tofuji's Tofu turkey consists of 12 pounds of fresh Tofu molded into the form of a turkey and then freeze dried so that it will last through the holidays. When you receive the 'turkey,' simply place it in our patented rehydration bag and, in less than 12 hours, the tofu comes back to life." They went and food processed Boris Karloff! The only Tofuji US patent is a portable electronics fastener, US5,109,570. Of 82 Japanese patents to one or another Tofuji, we have JP10038234A "Thermal Decomposition and Incinerator Unit." The only Terran patent literature tofu bag is "Kikkoman tofu bag" in US4,936,456 about bags for medical device sterilization. Liars. "Identification of soybean dust as an epidemic asthma agent in urban areas by molecular marker and RAST analysis of aerosols," J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. 88(1) 124 (1991). Soy products are a multi-billion dollar industrial complex. According to the 27 October 1995 Wall Street Journal Archer Daniel Midlands, the world's major soybean processor, dropped $4.7 million for advertising on "Meet The Press" and $4.3 million on "Face The Nation." The mind boggles. Are our Beltway venal idiots also tofu wiener vegetarians? (Put none too gently, tofu is soybean milk coagulated with plaster of Paris, though Epsom salts will do in a pinch.) A vegetarian diet rich in soy products compromises iron status in students, J. Nutr. 125 212 (1995). The incidences of anemia and iron deficiency were 30% and 50% in female vegetarians, more than twice the percentages in omnivores. Phytic acid grabs divalent transition metals like iron and zinc against intestinal absorption. "Nutritional status and phytate: calcium:zinc dietary molar ratios of lacto-ovo-vegetarian Trappist monks: 10 years later" J. Am. Diet. Assoc. (88) 1562 (1988). Bummer. Soybeans pack protease inhibitors and lectins (diminished by cooking). Protease inhibitors induce pancreatic pathologies, lectins bind to intestinal epithelial cells' glycoprotein receptors to disrupt nutrient absorption. Heat-stable antinutrients include goitrogens, tannins, phytate, saponins, flatus-empowering oligosaccharides, and xenocryptophytoestrogens daidzein, genistein, and glycitein. "Implications of antinutritional components in soybean foods," Crit. Rev. Food. Sci. Nutr. 34(1) 31 (1994). Double bummer. If you are hot to sell countless lower class fools overpriced garbage you first seduce esteemed middle and upper classes by screaming "CANCER! HEART ATTACK! FAT TUMMY!" and shoot for a merit-based outcome. Soy products are counterfeited to echo real food - soy milk, soy baby formula, soy yogurt, soy ice cream, soy cheese, soy flour for baking, and textured soy protein as (high protein!) meat substitutes: low-fat, no cholesterol health foods hawked to upscale aging consumers paranoid about appalling Intensive Care deaths. What cannot be swallowed by educated people is gobbled up by crazed teenagers infatuated with wealthy Asian gurus babbling love (alms giving) and high colonic cleansing. Do herbivores need clever brains to successfully sneak up on leaves? Soy protein isolate remains after lipids are removed via pulverization and solvent extraction of soybeans to recover oil. The defatted meal is solubilized with aqueous alkali to separate fibrous matter, filtered, and protein precipitated with an acid wash (expelling carbohydrates). Resulting curds are neutralized with alkali and spray dried. Soy isolate is margarine industry industrial waste. Textured vegetable protein is high-temperature denatured and extruded soy protein isolate. Note that "Hamburger Helper" costs more weight for weight than good hamburger. What about true believers' counter-arguments? "Tofu is made from soybeans which are the fattiest and most yin of all beans. To make tofu soybeans are cooked up with three to four times their volume of water for two or three hours until they mush. Squeezed through cheesecloth to retain fibrous elements, the more yin fleshy part being squeezed out... Tofu has an expanding, dissipating, and ballooning effect in the intestines. Being more yin and containing a lot of protein it is a great growth promoter for cancer cells." Place your bets, take your chances. Soy products are a dietary staple in the Far East, one of very few potentially abundant sources of protein in that traditionally overpopulated badly farmed real estate. We all know how tall and brawny Asians physically intimidated European adventurers and all Westerners since. I do R&D in British Columbia where 45 kg 5- foot tall Oriental immigrant parents are outputting 85 kg 6-foot plus hockey playing kids - who eat meat: McDonalds, the Colonel, hot dogs (meat and meat byproducts), and steak. The University of Victoria Commons cafeteria panders to little White boys and girls with Chicken Fried Tofu and (drum roll, June 1999 dinner entree) Cajun Tofu. I put the Tofuji URL in their suggestion box, turkey for the turkeys. Is anybody up for a tofu haggis?