Soy Allergies on the rise

Soy is one of the top allergens—substances that cause allergic reactions. In the 1980s, Stuart Berger, MD, labelled soy one of the seven top allergens—one of the "sinister seven". At the time, most experts listed soy around tenth or eleventh—bad enough, but way behind peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, shellfish, fin fish and wheat. Today, soy is widely accepted as one of the "big eight" that cause immediate hypersensitivity reactions.
Allergies are abnormal inflammatory responses of the immune system to dust, pollen, a food or some other substance. Those that involve an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE) occur immediately or within an hour. Reactions may include coughing, sneezing, runny nose, hives, diarrhoea, facial swelling, shortness of breath, a swollen tongue, difficulty swallowing, lowered blood pressure, excessive perspiration, fainting, anaphylactic shock or even death.
Delayed allergic responses to soy are less dramatic, but are even more common. These are caused by antibodies known as immunoglobulins A, G or M (IgA, IgG or IgM) and occur anywhere from two hours to days after the food is eaten. These have been linked to sleep disturbances, bedwetting, sinus and ear infections, crankiness, joint pain, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal woes and other mysterious symptoms.
Food "intolerances", "sensitivities" and "idiosyncrasies" to soy are commonly called "food allergies", but differ from true allergies in that they are not caused by immune system reactions but by little-understood or unknown metabolic mechanisms.7–9 Strictly speaking, gas and bloating—common reactions to soy and other beans—are not true allergic responses. However, they may serve as warnings of the possibility of a larger clinical picture involving allergen-related gastrointestinal damage.
PROFIT vs RISK The soybean industry knows that some people experience severe allergic reactions to its products. In a recent petition to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Protein Technologies International (PTI) identified "allergenicity" as one of the "most likely potential adverse effects associated with ingestion of large amounts of soy products". Yet PTI somehow concluded that "the data do not support that they would pose a substantial threat to the health of the US population". This statement is hardly reassuring to the many children and adults who suffer allergies to soy products. And it ignores a substantial body of evidence published during the 1990s showing that some of these people learn for the first time about their soy allergies after experiencing an unexpectedly severe or even life-threatening reaction. Severe reactions to soy are rare compared to reactions to peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish, but Swedish researchers recently concluded that "Soy has been underestimated as a cause of food anaphylaxis".
Just How Much Soy Did Asians Eat? In short, not that much, and contrary to what the industry may claim, soy has never been a staple in Asia. A study of the history of soy use in Asia shows that the poor used it during times of extreme food shortage, and only when the soybeans were carefully prepared (e.g. by lengthy fermentation) to destroy the soy toxins.
Soy is an important crop on American farms, and there is a strong soy lobby. The health claims of the soy industry have one purpose and one purpose alone - to sell more soy! But scientists have known for years that the isoflavones in soy products can depress thyroid function and cause goiters in otherwise healthy children and adults. Researchers at Cornell University Medical College said that children who got soy formula were more likely to develop thyroid disease and that twice as many diabetic children had received soy formula in infancy as compared to non-diabetic children. In fact, in other countries such as Switzerland, England, Australia and New Zealand, public health officials recommend highly restricted medically monitored use of soy for babies and for pregnant women.
Soy also contains a natural estrogen, which is why it is recommended to women at menopause. The president of the Maryland Nutritionists Association, Mary Enig, Ph.D. stated that "The amount of phytoestrogens that are in a days worth of soy infant formula equals five birth control pills." Dr. Enig believes that soy infant formula may be associated with early puberty in girls and slower physical growth in boys. Others say it may effect fertility and normal brain development.
Brain.com reports an ongoing study involving 3,734 elderly Japanese-Americanmen. That research has found that the men who ate the most tofu during mid-life had up to 2.4 times the risk of later developing Alzheimer's disease. Lead researcher Dr. Lon R. White said that men who ate tofu at least twice weekly showed brain aging about five years faster than those who seldom ate tofu. Soy has also been implicated in interference with the absorption of zinc, calcium, protein enzymes and amino acids.