Over the past several years, the natural foods industry has been called out on the vegan carpet for efficacy claims they made from Echinacea to honey, cancer curing teas to homeopathy to shark cartilage to Vitamin C. I am sure we would all like to believe we can heal ourselves naturally by eating and drinking organic foods and supplements. The problem is that many of the claims being made have origins in obscure, decades old reports and scientific studies of highly questionable origin. The claims do not stand up to scrutiny. They never did, and that’s the problem. The Strange World of Health Food Claims
Now, the latest and most troubling claims are coming back to haunt soy. The FDA is leading the fight to make the soy industry come clean about its product.
According to the FDA, “We are proposing a rule to revoke a health claim for soy protein and heart disease. For the first time, we have considered it necessary to propose a rule to revoke a health claim because numerous studies published since the claim was authorized in 1999 have presented inconsistent findings on the relationship between soy protein and heart disease.”
Striking at the Heart of Hearsay
No one is arguing that soy can be a great protein alternative to meat, and no one at the FDA argues that vegetarian diets can lower “bad” LDL cholesterol, just that soy has no special benefit to reduce the risk cardiovascular disease.
Naturally, the soy foods industry is not taking this decision without a serious fight. Hundreds of millions of dollars are riding on this. According to the site Livewell.com:
“An industry group for soy manufacturers disputed the FDA’s decision and pointed to 12 other countries, including Canada, that have approved health labeling claims making the link between soy protein and heart benefits. The group, Soyfoods Association of North America, said it would make its case to the FDA during the comment period.”
The problem comes around, as it almost always does with these disputes, to hearsay, insufficient evidence, poor research and perpetuation of myth.
Prior to 1999 it was thought that by adding 25 mg. of soy protein every day, cholesterol could be lowered. Much of this evidence was advanced by the health food industry. They had everything to gain from this line of reasoning, but did they have rock-solid scientific proof?
It was in 2008 that the American Heart Association stated that there was not enough evidence to claim a strong link between soy protein and the reduced risk of coronary heart disease. It should have sent up a huge red flag. It didn’t. The soy foods industry persisted.
As you might imagine, the FDA was inundated by petitions both pro- and con- over this issue. However, it is not a matter of squabbles just between red-meat advocates and soy advocates. For example, some natural food advocacy groups have recently requested the health claims be revoked. This might sound ethical and responsible, but it is not so simple. Many of these groups are pushing their own products such as other milk alternatives, oils and supplements. Therein lies a major long-standing ethical problem that says our unsubstantiated claims are good but soy is bad.
Like it or not, the FDA settled the issue by commenting:
“Our review of that evidence has led us to conclude that the relationship between soy protein and heart disease does not meet the rigorous standard for an FDA-authorized health claim.”
With the American Heart Association unchanged in its position and the FDA seeing no conclusive evidence, soy foods are in for a tough time of it to defend their position that soy foods prevent heart disease.
Natural foods advocates who support soy will stick to their guns, of course. The industry has long counted on the loyalty of its followers, even if the loyalty is somewhat blind. They will work around the statements publicly and privately, they will go down the path the industry has gone down for years. We all want to feel healthier, but it is important to also feel ethical. The Strange World of Health Food Claims
-YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
