Toxic Meals

Are Children Next Targets for Toxic Meals?

Washington, DC July 13, 2009: Citing serious health conditions due to high levels of soy, inmates in the Illinois prison system are suing for a permanent injunction against the substitution of soy for meat in prison meals.
The soy-based prison diet began when Rod Blagojevich was elected governor of Illinois in 2002. Beginning in January 2003, inmates began receiving a diet largely based on processed soy protein with very little meat. In most meals, small amounts of meat or meat by-products are mixed with 60-70 percent soy protein; fake soy cheese has replaced real cheese; and soy flour or soy protein is now added to most prison baked goods. Blagojevich received substantial campaign contributions from Archer Daniels Midland, the main supplier of soy products to the Illinois prisons.
Soy is touted as a way to save money and to provide a diet lower in calories and saturated fat. However, soybeans contain plant estrogens and other toxins and anti-nutrients that make soy products unacceptable as a source of nutrition except in very small amounts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists over 200 studies showing toxicity of soy in its Poisonous Plant Database (http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~djw/pltx.cgi?QUERY=soy). Although the FDA allowed a soy-prevents-heart disease health claim in 1999, the agency is considering revoking that claim in the face of evidence that soy does not lower cholesterol and does not prevent heart disease.
According to Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, the organization began receiving letters from Illinois inmates in early 2008. The prisoners described deliberate indifference to a myriad of serious health problems caused by the large amounts of soy in the diet. Complaints include chronic and painful constipation alternating with debilitating diarrhea, vomiting after eating, sharp pains in the digestive tract after consuming soy, passing out, heart palpitations, rashes, acne, insomnia, panic attacks, depression and symptoms of hypothyroidism, such as low body temperature (feeling cold all the time), brain fog, fatigue, weight gain, frequent infections and enlarged thyroid gland.
The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit education foundation that warns the public about the dangers of modern soy foods.
"The suffering of these men is intense and medical care is palliative at best," says Fallon. "Many suffer overt thyroid problems and some have had sections of their digestive tract removed, but requests by prisoners for a soy-free diet are, with few exceptions, denied. The men are basically told, 'If you don't like the food, don't eat it.' That means that unless they can afford to purchase commissary food, they must eat the soy food or starve."
Next Target, Children?

"Unless we can succeed in obtaining a permanent injunction against the serving of soy in prisons," says Fallon, "we can expect to see more and more soy in institutional meals. Children are the next targets." Fallon cites an Illinois school district pilot lunch program that is using textured soy protein instead of meat in popular dishes such as chili, spaghetti sauce, lasagna and imitation chicken nuggets.
"Soy foods and soy milk contain plant estrogens that cause endocrine disruption as well as components that block the uptake of protein and the utilization important vitamins and minerals," says nutritionist Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food. "Consumed in large amounts, soy foods can lead to serious reproductive and thyroid problems as well as malnutrition. Soy is totally unacceptable as a major food source, especially for growing children. The Israeli Health Ministry in 2005 warned its citizens that children should not eat soy foods or drink soy milk more than once per day or more than 3 times per week. It also advised adult men to exercise caution because of adverse effects on fertility."
"Soy contains plant estrogens and other factors that may contribute to infertility problems for these school children later in life" says Fallon. "To regularly feed food products full of anti-fertility agents to young children and young men is unconscionable."

www.westonaprice.org