Soy, Fiat Money, and Fake Science: A Recipe for Disaster

“Historically, soy was not an edible crop; it was used to fix nitrogen in the soil. The Chinese first figured out how to make it edible through its extensive fermentation in products like tempeh, natto, and soy sauce. Famines and poverty later forced Asian populations to eat more soybeans and soybean-based products. Modern-day soy products come from soybean lecithin. The squeamish may want to skip this, but here is how the Weston Price Foundation described the process by which this abomination is prepared: Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a “degumming” process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown. The hexane extraction process commonly used in soybean oil manufacture today yields less lecithin than the older ethanol-benzol process, but produces a more marketable lecithin with better color, reduced odor and less bitter flavor. Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as “soybean lecithin.” Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939. While there are many great uses for soy in industry, its use as food has largely been an unmitigated disaster, as the above article makes clear. But the overwhelming evidence attesting to the destructive nature of soy foods is no match for the motivated reasoning of special interest groups that have effectively captured government regulators. Government-approved dietary guidelines continue to push such toxic plant matter as a substitute for meat.”

“The Fiat Standard: Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization” Book by Saifedean Ammous