I have gone nutrition crazy. I’m still measuring out food everyday and trying very hard to meet my 2500 calorie goal. In fact I’m trying to figure out lots of ways to pack as much nutrition into what I eat as possible. For example, instead of eating plain yogurt, last week I went out and found a store in Tokyo that sells toasted wheat germ. Afterwards I found an organic store in Choufu that sells wheat germ but I’m enjoying the toasted wheat germ I have right now. So I was adding in some pineapple with some toasted wheat germ. Yesterday we ate up all the remaining pineapple, so this morning I had yogurt with about a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of wheat germ. It was very good.
However, during my research I found some very conflicting information. It is very frustrating to try and figure out what is fact and what isn’t. For example, there are a lot of people in the world that drink milk. But there are some people out there in the world that say drinking milk isn’t healthy. But then on the other there are people that say that drinking soy milk is unhealthy. Then you go with an alternative like almond milk and people say that is unhealthy. So what am I supposed to do? Give up drinking altogether?
Then there are things like “meat is fatty and unhealthy.” Then on another page I read about the “dangers of soy foods.” Then I come across literature saying “don’t eat wheat based products.” I’m literally flabbergasted by all this contradictory information. However, since most of this information is on the internet, and I think a large portion of it may also be anecdotal, you can’t really believe it. But still it makes you wonder.
For example, one of the big things I wanted to try and do was limit our meat intake. I thought that it would be nicer to eat more beans and vegetable proteins. Except I start reading stuff about how soy beans when they aren’t very nutritious for you and can actually cause health problems. For example, soy beans have a chemical in them that is the exact same shape as estrogen. So when we eat it we are getting doses of estrogen in our systems. Some doctors believe that soy bean consumption may lead to breast cancer. And in men it can cause sterility. But I don’t really care about that. I care more about phytates.
Phytates are chemical compounds that lock up minerals in the seeds of plants. Once the plants start to grow they start to release an enzyme called phytase that breaks down the phytate. This then allows the plant to start using the minerals stored up. So you know that big bowl of oatmeal with raisins that I eat everyday for breakfast? Yeah, I’m probably not getting more than 25% of the vitamins and minerals that are locked up in the oatmeal. But I also eat yogurt and drink milk with my oatmeal. In my stomach the phtates present then bind to the calcium, iron, etc from the milk and yogurt. So I’m not really getting anything out of my food. This can however be fixed by soaking the oatmeal, wheat, or beans in an acid solution. For example, a cup of water and a tablespoon of lemon juice. This will allow time for the acid to break down the phytate releasing the minerals locked within. This method can also be used with beans.
Soy beans have the highest phytate content around. Basically you are getting nothing out of soy beans. Also I read some pretty scary stuff about soy products. Not just the stuff about cancer and what not. Like how during the process of making hydrogenated soy bean oil, there is a lot of leftover waste. So the soy bean industry decided to take this waste product and try to make it sellable. What they did was take the product and extract all the plant proteins out of it. This is called “Soy Protein Isolate” or SPI. The SPI is then used to make soy burgers, tofu dogs, and soy milk. So these products are basically being made with sterilized industrial waste. I’m not quite sure how to feel about this.
Simply soaking soy beans won’t cause a major portion of the phytates to break down. Instead the best way to do this is to ferment the beans. Japan and Indonesia has been doing this for years. By fermenting the bean with natural occurring bacterias the phytate breaks down and the bean becomes digestible. So foods like tempeh from Indonesia and natto, miso, and soy sauce from Japan are okay sources of soy protein. But since the estrogen compounds are still present we have to limit consumption of these products anyway.
I guess really I’m not supposed to eat or drink anything. But then I realized that I’ve lived till the age of 26 eating and drink this stuff. So really why should I stop now? If I’m really worried about getting sick and dying early then I should instead probably give up rock climbing which I’m much more likely to die from. That isn’t going to happen so instead I think I’ll just eat whatever I feel like. I think though I am going to try and limit soy based products. And drink low fat milk.
But apparently the fat in milk is responsible for…