Columbus-based Will McNair is director of soy foods and oil and global team development for the U.S. Soybean Export Council.
When I was growing up, I had a friend whose family celebrated Thanksgiving with a baked tofurkey. When I told my mom about it, she made merciless fun of the idea.
But while she assumed a tofurkey wouldn’t taste very good, my mother had no concern about the nutritional value of soy-based tofu. She assumed it, and other soy foods, were probably good for you.
And they are.
Food Standards of Australia and New Zealand in April declared that soy protein, as part of a balanced diet, contributes to heart health and healthy cholesterol levels. This comes as no surprise, as other countries have reached the same conclusion.
This includes Canada, Japan and the U.S., where the Federal Drug Administration has asserted since 1999 that consuming 25 grams per day of soy protein reduces the risk of heart disease.
We know soy
However, thanks to ever-changing health fads and online misinformation, it’s easy to get confused. For those who are concerned about the health of their families, but don’t have the time for debates about food ingredients, it can be scary.
My advice is to block out the noise and go back to what we know.
We know that the food grown by Ohio farmers – vegetables, fruit, corn and beans – are good for you and an essential part of a healthy diet.
If you spend enough time on the internet, you’ll find self-styled health experts peddling myths about soy and other plant-based foods intended to frighten you into changing your diet. While such baseless hypotheses might make for clickable content, they are a poor substitute for facts and common sense.
Take soybeans, for example. Ohio’s No. 1 crop, soy is a component of healthy foods that Americans have been eating for 250 years.
East Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea have been including soybeans as a prominent part of their diets for millennia, and the people in those countries have some of the longest life spans in the world.
At a time when food prices have skyrocketed, soy remains one of the most affordable healthy sources of protein, but it’s affordability is far from its only virtue. Bodybuilders and other successful athletes rely on soy as a muscle-building protein.
Arnold knows the truth
In fact, in one of his most recent fitness newsletters, Arnold Schwarzenegger, founder of the Arnold Classic bodybuilding expo, vouched for soy as “a complete protein.” He wrote, “If you’ve been avoiding soy because someone told you it’s a poor muscle-building protein, the evidence says otherwise.”
Soy isn’t just good for your muscles; it’s also good for your skin.
Recent studies in the U.S. and Asia have confirmed that the consumption of a variety of soy-based foods helps to reduce wrinkles and increase skin elasticity and hydration. This phenomenon has caught the attention of Korea’s skincare market, which is encouraging consumers to eat soy foods, while also including soy in their skincare products.
So there is no question that soy is healthy. What has come as something of a revelation to me is how much I enjoy it.
Over the years, I have become more aware of the soy ingredients such as soy sauce and soybean oil that were already part of my diet, while also becoming more intentional about consuming it for both health and taste.
As for my mom, she still makes fun of tofu – but she enjoys eating it, so long as I don’t tell her what it is.
Columbus-based Will McNair is director of soy foods and oil and global team development for the U.S. Soybean Export Council and is an executive committee member of the Soy Nutrition Institute.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: My mom may laugh at tofurkey, but she and Arnold know truth about soy | Opinion
Reporting by Will McNair, Guest Columnist / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
