Ali from Milly&Pip pointed me in the direction of the deluded TV chef Phil Vickery who told TV viewers that soya is healthy!! He also mentioned that additives are good for us and has a wife that underwent weight-loss surgery whilst promoting so called health foods on TV (brown cardboard diet snacks). 

Vickery isn't a health or nutrition expert, he doesn't study the effects of nutrients upon the body. He just reads the marketing and believes it. He's no more guilty than other consumers, sadly though he's on TV and people don't question his words.

The food industry spent a lot of cash promoting the health values of soya. According to those with profit margins in mind, it reduces cholesterol (despite that not being a good thing), help deal with the menopause (we shouldn't be suffering the menopause anyway, and many many other purported benefits.  

Professor Neil McClure agrees that soya is problematic, he is one of the countries experts with regard to fertility. He states that he has "seen enough evidence from these studies to advise a change in his diet to minimise soya."

Despite what most people think, they are probably consuming soya unknowingly. Whilst the image of soya in most peoples minds relates to fake meat products and the like. Its far more easy to miss the consumption that goes on unnoticed. Soya is the unnoticed invisible ingredient that we all miss (well I don't but most do). Its in pretty much everything your supermarket sells you, from breakfast cereals to chicken nuggets. Soya bulks out and binds many processed foods. Sausages, lasagna, burgers all frequently contain soya which as well as being cheap also gives them the ability to state the products a high protein levels (despite it being unnatural and low quality). 

Soya milk is is a marketers dream, with the rise of lactose intolerance its been easy to push soya as an alternative. I've met no end of people over the years happily drinking it unaware that it mimics oestrogen and causes hormonal disruption (just what we need). Remember soya milk isn't a milk, it's bean juice with flavoring and a huge marketing campaign to convince us of its fresh wholesome goodness.

Conventional meat is increasingly coming from animals reared on soya based diets. If your eating store bought meat theirs no doubt your consuming soya.

Whose responsible for this huge increase in soya? No other than the the evil Monsanto. They market a product, we take them at face value and let them get away with it. To make the seemingly bad situation even worse, they push their Roundup Ready Genetically Modified Soya. The list of chemicals sprayed on the plants is shocking so as well as getting hormonal damage, your also getting toxic overload from a cocktail of nasty substances. Monsanto produce a bean that is less labour intensive than the standard bean. So a cheap product just got cheaper and profit got maximized.

Why are companies such as Monsanto interested in a little soya bean? Why do they want the world to use their patented bean? Yes its profit that they want, but its even more sinister than they usual profit hunting. Just like pharmacuticals, soya is traded on the floors of the stock markets. Share price is important so those with commercial interest in soya will do whatever they can to maintain its reputation as a health food. When the industry lobbied government and applied pressure (£££) our Food Standards Agency decided to recommend its health benefits to the nation. Remember no proof of its benefits was shown, just pressure applied.

• During pregnancy soya has been indicated as a risk factor for abnormal brain and reproductive tract development. - How many soya infant formulas have you seen.
• To have a negative effect on the thyroid. Down regulating the metabolism. 
• To be carcinogenic (cancer risk). Particularly breast cancers, but also prostrate, stomach, colorectal and lung.

Plant oestrogens, (phytoestrogens) have a biological effect on humans, effecting the immune system, central nervous system, thyroid gland and cardiovascular system.

Professor Frank Woods one of our country top states that, "If my daughter ever asked me advice on whether she should feed her baby on soya formula, I would say no, unless her doctor had specifically advised her to do so".

People often claim (in particular the Soya Protein Association) that soya has been eaten for thousands by the Asian community,'  Britain's Soya Protein Association.  The Chinese do consume small amounts of soya (much less than sneaks into our food) but they also use fermentation destroys many of the dangerous chemicals in soya. Do we do that in our food processing factories? You bet we don't, we rely on chemicals as fermentation is slow and costly.

So, Phil Vickery the health expert maybe hasn't studied all the facts, he's just got conned by marketing yet again. Don't feel sorry for him though, don't forget his wife was once doing the marketing.