Soy Is Not A Health Food

Hello! Welcome to Beyond Soy!

At the end of October, the FDA published a statement saying they were considering removing their authorized health claim regarding soy protein and a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. If this does come to fruition (which isn’t a certainty), products in the US will no longer be able to make this claim on their packaging.

Currently, some products in the US have statements on their packaging to the effect of “contains soy which has been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease”. This statement has been allowed by the FDA (starting in 1999) due to the results of some scientific studies that showed that soy had a positive effect on heart health. Recent studies have cast doubt on this claim, causing the FDA to consider removing their allowance of this language.

Soy might not be identified as easily on product packaging - IMAGE VIA PIXABAY 

For someone with a soy intolerance or allergy, these changes are likely to have a minimal impact. This may reduce the prevalence of soy-based products, but it is unlikely to have a huge effect. Soy is generally considered to be an acceptable food as part of a well balanced diet (unless of course you have an intolerance, allergy, or sensitivity), so the availability of soy-based products probably won’t change much as a result of the update. 

This change might make soy a bit harder to spot on the front of the package, but it will still be listed on the ingredients list. As always, we recommend checking the full ingredient list before buying or eating a product. Ultimately, this is an interesting situation that likely won't have much of an impact on the number of products made with soy in the US.