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  • Clinical Study: Soybean products and reduction of breast cancer risk

    Soybean foods are rich in precursors of the isoflavone daidzein and genistein, which are heterocyclic phenols similar in structure to oestrogens, and it has been hypothesised that a high dietary intake of soybean products might reduce breast cancer risk by interfering with the action of endogenous oestradiol. The results are in line with the inverse association between intake of soybean products and breast cancer risk suggested from ecological/cross-sectional studies and also from analytical investigations. Thus, case-control studies have found that soybean food intake was associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer among premenopausal Singapore women, and both pre- and postmenopausal Asian-American women, although a Chinese case-control study failed to detect any protective effects of soybean food. Cohort studies among Japanese, Japanese-American and Caucasian-American women have also provided some evidence that soybean products may reduce the risk of breast cancer... A recent cohort study based on public health center in Japan found frequent miso soup and isoflavone consumption to be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer and the protective effect was stronger in postmenopausal women. However, the FFQ applied included only two items for soybean-ingredient foods (i.e. miso soup and soyfoods), making it impossible to investigate differences in effects among types of soybean-ingredient foods. (excerpted from http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v93/n1/full/6602659a.html)

  • Soybean, A Good Provider

    “... Soybean is my husband because it gives me money to take care of my problems, to pay my children’s school fees, and hospital bills. I plant soybean to have money. Sometimes I can harvest up to 10 bags or more. Then I sell some and keep some for my daughter who is in the college at Yandev. When she comes home we sell some bags and she uses the money to buy her books and pay her school fees. She will get a good husband in town because men nowadays don’t want to marry illiterate women… I have also bought many other things that most people would like to have… You see why I said soybean is my husband. I can’t stop it for anything else. How can you leave your husband...” Quote from a female farmer in Abetse Village, Benue State, Nigeria

  • Giant Soybeans for Furniture/Briquettes

    Thomas E. Devine, a geneticist who is with the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory, in Beltsville, Maryland, took some of the giant soybean plants (some 7 feet tall) he bred to Justin Barone, a chemical engineer at the ARS Environmental Management and Byproduct Utilization Laboratory, also in Beltsville. Barone performed a heat-measurement test on a piece of stalk. The stalk took as long to heat up as a piece of pine 2x4 board did. This suggests that cellulose fibers from giant soybean stalks may be strong enough to be made into substitute wood products, such as particleboard, Barone says. The woody biomass of the stalks could also be made into briquettes for combustion to provide energy. (www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov06/soybean1106.htm)

Soybeans Vs. Malnutrition

Posted on July 29, 2008 by jspadre

The following YouTube video could very well have been about malnutrition, especially among women of child-bearing age and children, in the Philippines and how the cultivation and consumption of soybean products would alleviate the situation.

Immediately after watching the video, one cannot help but wonder why there is little initiative to expand the growing of soybeans beyond using it primarily as feed for livestock. 

Even at that, the underfunded Livestock Development Council (a measly $209,355 appropriation for the current year) under the Department of Agriculture, developed a three-year roadmap to increase the hectarage planted to soybeans from less than 1,000 hectares in 2003 to about 30,000 hectares at the end of the target period (whatever happened to it?).  The 30,000 hectare goal, if attained, would still be too small a goal considering the growing population of the Philippines.

Truth is we presently have to import soybean products. The following soybean domestic production and import data are from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics:

Year Production MT Imports MT
1990 3,499 24,036
1991 2,284 63,247
1992 1,809 51,893
1993 2,133 61,567
1994 2,361 135,523
1995 2,983 86,877
1996 1,818 137,785
1997 1,615 111,052
1998 1,048 148,241
1999 1,041 262,594
2000 953 249,185
2001 897 315,165
2002 991 257,101
2003 974 289,127
2004 978 284,139
2005 988 147,503
2006 1,101 108,033

Anyway, watch the video once more and draw some comparisons and conclusions.  Perhaps with your input, we could dramatically change the situation.

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  • Soy, the “Wonder Bean”

    Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill) is an important source of high quality but inexpensive dietary protein and oil. It has an average protein content of 40% (twice the protein from meat) and oil content of 20%. The oil produced from soybean is highly digestible and contains no cholesterol. Soybean cake, a by-product from the oil production is used as a high-protein animal feed. Soybean also improves soil fertility by adding nitrogen from the atmosphere to the soil, and this is especially beneficial when soybean is cultivated in rotation with other crops. Aside from food for human and livestock consumption, products derived from soybeans range from body care products, candles, cleaners, composite materials, crayons, diesel additives, fabric conditioner, flooring, hair conditioners, hair styling aids, hand cleaners, paint removers, pens, polish, shampoos, solvents, tables/furnitures, waxes, etc.

  • We Import Soybean and They Grow Theirs

    According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, in 2007, the Philippines imported 1,322.54 metric tons of soybean oil/cake meal (livestock feed for beef, swine, poultry, even fish) valued at $392.02 million. The bulk of that, 912.01 MT, or 69% came from Argentina, and 303.56 MT, or 23% came from the United States. The rest came from India, Taiwan, China and others. Of course, this is just a fraction of our overall soybean imports. And while we are importing soybean, a few countries have taken a serious interest in soybean farming. Examples are Nigeria because of its growing population, Afghanistan because of malnutrition of the young and child-bearing women in particular, and Paraguay and Uruguay because of their desire for economic expansion and pressure from neighboring Brazil and Argentina, the two foremost soybean producers from South America. Fact is, these countries have greatly benefited from this so-called "wonder crop". "Soybean has been a godsend for Nigeria," says Professor Dele Fakorede, an agricultural expert based at Nigeria's Obafemi Awolowo University. "Our farmers are earning good money, our small industries are prospering, and our children and young mothers are benefiting from a locally-made, protein-rich food."

  • Often, Poverty and Malnutrition Go Together

    Adequate food and proper nutrition are basic requirements for economic development, since an underfed nation is an underproductive nation. Poverty and malnutrition often afflict the same beleaguered groups of people. Sometimes, rates of malnutrition are used as indicators of poverty. Studies reveal that more income leads to better nutrition over time. Inadequate protein in diet appears to be the greatest nutritional problem facing Nigerians today. This is because most sources of animal protein are expensive and only few people can afford enough of them in the diet. Also sharp increase in prices of animal products is now making an average Nigerian conscious of the fact that the grain legumes may provide a cheaper source of protein. -- Excerpted from "Socio-economic Determinants of Consumption of SoybeanProducts in Nigeria: A Case Study of Oyo State, Nigeria" by J. Gbemiga Adewale

  • Curb Population Growth?

    The following item, "SOY AND LOW SPERM COUNT", appeared in the September 2008 issue of Parenting OC Magazine: "Men who want to have children might want to watch their consumption of soy-based products, according to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health. Researchers found that men who ate a half serving a day of soy-based foods had a significantly lower sperm count than those in the study who did not. Soy contains a plant-based form of estrogen known as isoflavones that is thought to interfere with male fertility." Seriously, this might just be the right prescription to slow down the high population growth of the Philippines and allow the country to catch up with food production and such other amenities to improve the general socio-economic condition. On the other hand, I probably would be a bit skeptical about this, considering that China produces a lot of soybeans and consumes relatively high quantities of soybean products (soymilk, tofu, soy sauce, etc.) on a daily basis and yet its government has to mandate that a family could only have one child. Go figure.
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