Growers and Grocers

For more than a decade now, soy beans have been touted as a miracle food. Soy reduces the risk of heart disease, breast and prostate cancer, is known to ease symptoms of menopause, prevents digestive disorders and problems of lactose intolerance and milk allergies, is beneficial to diabetic diets and may help prevent osteoporosis among other things. Soy contains no cholesterol and no saturated fat and so would cause no ill effects to the human body.

Drinking soy milk is one of the easiest ways to incorporate the bean into one’s diet. It is, therefore, not surprising that there is a steady rise in consumption of soy milk. This, in turn, has encouraged businessmen and entrepreneurs alike to jump onto the health bandwagon by offering flavored soy milk to provide variety and palatability, especially for non-traditional soy milk drinkers.

However, in the rush to improve taste, many companies tend to add too much sugar and start using too many artificial flavorings to keep costs low and profits high. I have tasted one too many watered-down versions of soy milk that claim to be “fortified” and “good for the health”, yet one glance at the nutrition information shows high sugar levels and low nutritional contents.

According to Gloria Tsang, RD of healthcastle.com, the FDA ruled that to claim the heart health benefits of soy, a serving of a soy food must contain:
- 6.25g or more soy protein
- less than 3g of fat
- less than 1g of saturated fat
- less than 20mg of cholesterol

Read the labels. Find out what you’re really drinking. In partaking of the health benefits of soy, be wary of the artificially-enhanced and overly-sweetened ones. Know that gourmet-flavored soy milk does not always mean healthy. Better yet, get it fresh and natural from your neighborhood Asian grocer or organic health shop.