So I had to laugh yesterday when two sites I like — Elastic Waist and Mark’s Daily Apple — had two totally opposite posts on soy!!
Elastic Waist: “It’s no doubt that soy is super tasty and uber good for you…”
Mark’s: “So we find soy in its current circumstances, dissected by the health media, floundering, searching for a center long ago obscured, grasping for its authentic, legitimate role in nutritional balance.”
I generally heart EW, but I had the feeling her Conde Nast boss handed her a leaflet from the Soy Growers Association and “requested” she go to town on it. The post has that half-hearted, “do I really need to write this?”vibe. C-O-N-spiracy, I tell you! (Anyone else remember In Living Color?)
Meanwhile Mark’s is his usual plain sense, soup-to-nuts look at the facts vs. the hype. He reaches much the same conclusion on soy that I have in the last few months of its media misadventures: Avoid the most processed, broken-down varieties, and enjoy it in moderation.
Mark has been on a roll this week: He also has a great skeptic’s exploration of fiber — find out what fiber and heroin have in common!
And, of course, he joined others in reporting the annoying news that caffeinated coffee may mean a fourfold increase in the likelihood of a miscarried pregnancy. By the time I get pregnant, women are going to be restricted to a diet of air, pills, and boiled root vegetables, I swear.
OK, I won’t make you dig for the fiber-heroin connection: Both require higher and higher doses over time to achieve the same effect.
Have a good day!
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Monica Reinagel // Jan 23, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Dear Sara,
I’m with you (and Mark) on the issue of soy but had to comment on your “C-O-N-spiracy” theory. Although I don’t know the folks at Elastic Waist personally, I write for another site (nutritiondata.com) owned by Conde Nast and I have NEVER been “requested” to write anything in the way that you’re suggesting. My personal experience at Conde Nast has been that editorial decisions are left to the editorial staff–period.
Thanks for turning me on to the Daily Apple–definitely another one to add to the reader. (Oh yeah, and Flying Trapeze is finally up on our blog roll as of today! )
Keep up the great work!
2 Sara // Jan 23, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Hi Monica! My blog roll is sorely out of date and needs fixing, esp with your site! Everybody, visit Monica’s site!
I want to make clear to all readers that I was joking about a thrilling soy conspiracy at Conde Nast - although I’m sure there’s a lobbying group for soy, I made up the Soy Growers Association.
That said, the business of magazines *is* hawking products, with the full complicity of their writers and editorial staffs! You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist (or magazine hater) to see that. :-)
Added note: I guess my real point, if I have to admit to it, is that EW, usually on top of everything, seems oddly unaware of the current buzz on soy.
3 Elastic Waist // Jan 24, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Sometimes we, like everybody else, have trouble making sense of conflicting studies. In some senses genetically unmodified soy is good for you (it is a complete protein) and something a nutritionist recently recommended to us, and in other studies people point out its link with breast cancer. But you’re right, soy is getting a lot of bad buzz lately. That much we do know.
4 Mark’s Daily Apple » Blog Archive » Processed Soy and Meat Alternatives // Mar 14, 2008 at 8:35 pm
[…] The Flying Trapeze: More Soy vs. Soy […]
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