Dear lemmy, someone very close to my heart is starting to fall into conspiracy theories. It’s heartbreaking. Among other things, he has now told me that soy beans are not supposed to be consumed by human beings and is convinced that despite the literal centuries of human soy bean cultivation and consumption, we shouldn’t eat it or anything derived from it for this reason (ie tofu, soy sauce, etc…evidence that soy is present in other common foods doesn’t seem to register with him).
I don’t even know where he got this information from and can’t find a single source to back it up (even disingenuously). I’ve tried explaining to him that sure, in its original state it’s not edible, but undergoes processing (LIKE MANY OTHER FOODS) to become edible. And that this has gone on since at least the 11th century, so it’s not like Big Soy is trying to poison the little people.
He’s normally a very reasonable and intelligent person, and I don’t know how to reach him. I thought it might be helpful to show him where these myths have come from with hard data sources to prove it. He seems open to the possibility, so I don’t think he’s a lost cause yet!
Help?
Provided that he’s reasonable, I’d highlight that soy beans are just a type of legume (like beans, peanuts, lentils…), and thus claiming that one is inedible while all the others are edible seems outright silly. Then ask him to back up his claims. As he does, highlight the [predictably low] reputation of the sources that he shows.
This study might be useful - it concluded that there are no clinical concerns to feed soy even to children.
(If soy was actually inedible my whole region would be a desert. The default veg oil here is soy oil, and it reached a point where soy sauce made its way into traditional recipes like entrevero.)
To be fair, not all legumes are edible.
Yes but there’s usually a simple reason why, like some alkaloid in the seeds. No such thing for soy, people literally chew on fried and salted soybeans as a snack.
And even in the case of allegedly inedible legumes you can often consume other parts of the plant. For example kudzu is mostly edible, except the pods.
That is true, but my comment was in reference to your statement that “all the other” legumes are edible. That’s not a great argument considering that many wild ones are not.
I was focusing on the ones raised as crops.
Still, you’re right - and that’s actually a fair point.