The Battle for Milk: Cows vs Soy

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by f_m

In Western countries, many of the soy foods are more processed, however, the Asian intake is not just "modest amounts of Fermented soy products" as you say. Where did you get that from anyway? Most of those posts have little basis and are inaccurate as they are generally based from anti-soy groups. I really get irritated when people propagate erroneous information like this (those articles are generally written by people who are writing about Asian soy consumption, but those people are not Asian and don't know anything about it).

snip

Try starting with Mary Vance Terrain's article "The Dark Side of Soy" in the UTNE Reader, July/Aug 2007. It'll come up with a gooogle search of "soy problems".

She may not be Asian, but she's personally been down the path of problems with soy in the American diet, as a vegetarian trying to eat healthy. Her research led her to understand the basic differences betweent the type of soy and soy products in the USA diet as compared to that of Asian consumption, as well as the differences in consumption.

When I look at the Miso in my refrigerator, it's a fermented soy product, as is just about every other Asian soy containing product I consume. As is the diets of friends from high school ... who were first born American generation of varied Asian backgrounds. I spent a lot of time in grades 6-12 as a frequent houseguest of Asian families for meals ... and we never had soy products such as are loaded into the USA food stream. I was the kid on the fishing boats in SoCal cleaning fish for the tourists ... bringing home the fisheads that the tourists didn't want, and also cutting sashimi for immediate consumption, back in the early 1960's. My scout troop was sponsored by a Chinese community church, and I was the only non-asian in the group for several years. To say that I spent a lot of time and travels for years with close friends of Asian descent would be an understatement ... I do believe that I got a better insight into their culture and customs than the average American whose contact with these folks would have been limited to dining out at the restaurants they owned.

Similarly, my friends who have spent their military service years, or bank careers in the Far East don't report having a lot of USA soy type products in their diets there. You won't see "hot dogs" made of almost entirely soy, nor other faux foods from soy.

[harborlady]

Originally Posted by ulnevrwalkalone

From an environmental standpoint which is the better product to consume??

Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars, UN report warns

Cows are a major cause of gas emissions so anything that reduces the need for cows would be a good thing right? Well thats what I thought until I read the following.

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/ng...rs_may2009.pdf

If producing all this soy is causing deforestation and loss of habitat and all the other problems listed which is the better option?

When possible please provide links if you are citing something

I like cows milk. Soy made me ill enough to discover I was allergic to it. I think human beings were meant to have a variable diet and the % of dairy products in the supermarket needs no alteration. Looking at a supermarket in terms of percentages it's incredible the sheer volume of processed foods dominating the market.

I'd prefer, before cows or soy make it on a list of priorities, the higher priority of quality nutrition be addressed regarding our food supply. FDA should take another look at the long term effects of processed food and rethink genetically modified/ engineered products to establish limits prior to human beings finding out the hard way. Why does seafood have so much mercury, and how can we remedy that so that a ban on seafood would never be justified? I hate seafood, but know how crucial it is not only in our diet but the whole food chain. Why wouldn't that be a higher priority? See my meaning?

The emissions concern could be dealt with by reclaiming methane in manure without bothering the cow. People thinking we ought to feed the cow beano or rid ourselves of the cow need a reality check. When the objective is to be proper stewards of nature and turn around heavy handed in the opposite direction, that is antithetical to nature. The mentality of waste not want not from our ancestors, native americans, and eskimos needs a come back big time.

Anecdotal of course, but I've noted an inordinate amount of people in their 50's with diabetes. I knew 5 people whose pets died of cancer. The cows didn't do it. Fish didn't do it. The dog obediently ate what he was fed. Humans did it. Sure, the person with diabetes was doing something not quite right. What was that thing? Ask medical science and they can't answer beyond a cloud of suggestions. Nothing against these orgs, but wouldn't it be great if the American cancer society and american diabetes society had no business anymore?

[pekemom]

I like cow's milk. Soy tastes bad to me although rice milk tastes okay.