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Enjoy Soy: Dr. Debunks Scaremonger Stories, Says Soy Beneficial For People And The Planet
Blog posted by Heather Moore

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If you avoid eating soy-based foods, including tofu, tempeh, edamame, veggie burgers, and soy milk because you've heard reports claiming that soy products are responsible for everything from "man-boobs" and cancer to deforestation you might be interested in the recent Guardian article urging people to ignore all the scaremonger stories and eat more soy.
It seems that most anti-soy stories can be traced back to Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF), a group that claims that saturated animal fat is essential for good health, animal fat intake and high cholesterol levels aren't connected to heart disease or cancer, vegetarians have lower life expectancy than meat-eaters, and other pro-meat propaganda that contradicts leading health experts, not to mention basic common sense.
One of WAPF's more ardent supporters, Dr. Stephen Byrnes, openly boasted about his high animal fat diet and robust health—until he died of a stroke at 42.
Much of what the WAPF says is anecdotal, untrue, or based on scientifically flawed animal experiments, points out Dr. Justine Butler, a health campaigner for the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation.
There is no scientific evidence showing that soy is harmful to humans, yet the groundless scare stories about soy continue. When Dr. Butler was interviewed for BBC Radio London, for example, the presenter asked her if soy foods were safe, then "fell about laughing saying he didn't want to grow man-boobs."
Now, I'm just guessing here, but I bet he wasn't equally concerned about developing gynecomastia—the clinical term for man-boobs or "moobs"—from eating meat and dairy products, even though many physicians believe that the conditions is caused by the estrogen-mimicking chemicals in these foods. (Factory-farmed animals are fed growth-promoting hormones that accumulate in fat tissue and are taken up by the estrogen receptor sites in the body. Hormone-treated cow’s milk, for instance, contains high levels of Insulin Growth Factor (IGF-1), which studies show can cause gynecomastia.)

In fact, many of the people who have asked me about soy in the past think nothing of chowing down on hamburgers and cheese pizza. Soy may not be a "miracle food," because there really is no such thing, but unlike meat, eggs, and dairy products, soy is cholesterol-free, low in saturated fat, and has cardiovascular benefits.

Researchers with the Cancer Center at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute have found evidence suggesting that eating soy can help ward off colon cancer, and soy is also known to prevent prostate and breast cancer. Research shows that women who eat soy, especially early in life, are 30 percent less likely to develop breast cancer, compared with women who eat little or no soy products. For women who’ve already been diagnosed with breast cancer, eating soy may actually help reduce their risk of a recurrence.

Research also shows that soy consumption can help prevent strokes, that menopausal women who eat soy may have fewer hot flashes, and that soy consumption can protect against osteoporosis. A study from Clinical and Experimental Allergy suggests that the antioxidants in soy may also benefit asthma sufferers.
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And for those who've heard that soy production destroys the Amazonian rain forest, Dr. Butler rightfully points out that the problem is not people eating soy; it's that 80% of the world's soy is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat and dairy products.

So, while there's no need to go overboard by drinking soy-infused water and the like, go ahead and enjoy soy. It's not only healthy and humane, it's versatile and delicious. As Dr. Butler concludes, both the rain forests and our health will benefit tremendously if more people switch from animal-based foods to a varied plant-based diet, including soy foods.

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Read more: health, vegan, vegetarian, environment, soy, real food

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA is a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation founded by Australian IAN KIERNAN in 1989. It works to foster relationships between the community, business and government to address the environmental issues of waste, water and climate change. 
Clean Up Australia is on the first Sunday of March every year, and encourages people to clean up their local areas. Any person can register a place they plan to clean up, on the Clean Up Australia website, and others can join them there. Activities on the day include removing large items such as car bodies from water ways.
Since its inception, Clean Up Australia has grown to include other projects and campaigns including Business Clean Up Day, Schools Clean Up Day, Clean Up the Alps, Clean Up the Kimberley and...
CLEAN UP THE WORLD
Clean Up the World Weekend was established in 1993 after Ian Kiernan approached the United Nations Environment Programme, with an idea to take his Clean Up concept global. Clean Up the World is held on the third weekend of September each year - more than 35 million people from over 120 countries participate.
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LINKS:
http://www.cleanup.org.au/ Sitemap Wikipedia on CleanUpAustralia Get Involved Clean Up Australia  Clean Up Our Climate Clean Up Mobile Phones Say NO to Plastic Bags FAQs Clean up the World 

The Warrumbungles, NSW

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EDUCATION - ENCOURAGEMENT - EXAMPLE
What I Owe Wilf Dews, Rhona and John Dorman
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These 3 E's are how wildlife protector Wilf Dews summed up his philosophy. Born in 1909 in Teralba on the shores of Lake Macquarie, NSW, Mr Dews was passionate about the Australian environment and about educating Australians about the importance of ecology. He was one of the founding members of the Newcastle Flora and Fauna Proctection Society, NSW, active in the 60s and 70s. As a 10 year old I was fortunate to tag along on fieldtrips with the Flora and Fauna Society. and to listen and learn from Wilf Dews, John Dorman, et al. It's satisfying to know that I was part of the effort that stopped a highway from ploughing through Newcastle's beautiful Blackbutt Reserve; that raised awareness of the importance of wetlands; that planted trees throughout the Hunter Valley; and investigated eroding creekbanks.
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My motivation for co-hosting in An Orchid In Australia
is to Educate, to Encourage, and to provide Example,
in honour of Wilf Dews' life work.

An Orchid In Australia

A Few Hunger Facts
(taken from the list at www.Bhookh.com -click daily to donate food, free) 
1. Hunger remains the No.1 cause of death in the world. Aids, Cancer etc. follow.
2. There are 820 million chronically hungry people in the world.
3. 1/3 of the world’s hungry live in India.
4. 836 million Indians survive on less than Rs.20 less than half-a-dollar a day.
5. 10 million people die every year of chronic hunger and hunger-related diseases. Only 8% are the victims of hunger caused by high-profile earthquakes, floods, droughts and wars.
6. 99% of the 1000 Adivasi households from 40 villages in the two states, who comprised the total sample, experienced chronic hunger (unable to get two square meals, or at least one square meal and one poor/partial meal, on even one day in the week prior to the survey). Almost as many, i.e. 24.1%, had lived in conditions of semi-starvation during the previous month.
7. Over 7000 Indians die of hunger every day.
8. Despite substantial improvement in health since independence and a growth rate of 8% in recent years, under-nutrition remains a silent emergency in India, with almost 50% of Indian children underweight and more than 70% of the women and children with serious nutritional deficiencies, such as anemia.
9. The 1998–99 Indian survey shows 57% of the children aged 0–3 years to be either severely or moderately stunted and/or underweight.
10. In 2006–2007, malnutrition contributed to 7million Indian children dying, nearly 2million under 1yo.
11. 30% of newborns are of low birth weight, 56% of married women are anaemic and 79% of children age 6-35 months are anaemic.
12. The number of hungry people in India is always more than the number of people below official poverty line (while around 37% of rural households were below the poverty line in 1993-94, 80% of households suffered malnutrition).
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Sources
-UN World Food Programme
-UN World Health Organization: Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition, 2006
-UN Food and Agriculture Organization: SOFI 2006 Report
-National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (India)
-National Family Health Survey 2005 – 06 (NFHS-3) (India)
-Centre for Environment and Food Security (India)
-Rural 21 (India)
-http://www.bhookh.com/hunger_facts.php