Here is the 7-step "FRANKENBEAN" process of making SOY OIL, and how we get the other by-products:
1) Cooking
The first of these methods is high temperature cooking. The purpose is to try and get rid of the phytic acid in the soybean. Phytic acid de-mineralizes bone, which is one reason why animals don't eat soy in the wild. Temperatures above 118 degrees F denature the natural enzymes of the bean. Soybeans are first heated to temperatures up to 248 degrees F! Without enzymes, any plant becomes a devitalized food, very difficult to digest in the human tract. In addition to interfering with breakdown of the food, enzyme depletion also interferes with mineral absorption as well as vitamin activity.
2) Pressing
After cooking, the beans are extruded through a press for maximum oil extraction. The term cold-pressed is meaningless. People think that cold-pressed insures that the nutrients will remain in the oil because heat wasn't involved in the processing. What they don't tell you is that the beans were already cooked at these super-high temperatures before being put into the press. As long as no heat is added in the actual press, they can call it "cold-pressed."
3) Solvent Extraction
A more toxic method of oil extraction is the use of chemical solvents. Several are used in the soybean oil processing. The first solvent used on soybeans is an alkaline solution which will attempt to get rid of the trypsin inhibitors. Trypsin is an essential enzyme important to the breakdown of proteins. Even though the solution is thoroughly rinsed out of the beans, a carcinogenic by-product results from the interaction of the soybeans with the alkaline soak: lysinealine, which is found in abundance in soy-based baby formulae.
For oil to be extracted, an organic solvent - hexane - is the standard chemical employed. Like gasoline, hexane is a petroleum distillate. Temperatures of up to 149 degrees F are applied. Traces of this carcinogenic solvent are left behind in the finished products, both in the oil and in the protein isolate.
4) Degumming
The next step in the refining process is the removal of residual fiber, or gum, from the oil. Water, phosphoric acid, and heat (up to 140 degrees F) are used. This is the same step in which lecithin is separated from the oil. All the valuable trace minerals like calcium, copper, magnesium, and iron, as well as chlorophyll are all removed at this step. Soy Lecithin is a common ingredient in so-called health foods and supplements. The majority of it is derived from soybeans during this step. Note all the preceding steps - some health supplement!!
5) Sodium Hydroxide Bath
The next step is that the refined oil is mixed with sodium hydroxide - NaOH (lye) - which most of us know as Drano, at a temperature of 167 degrees F. That's right - the exact same corrosive lye you pour down your drain when it's clogged. The purpose of adding this corrosive is to remove any free fatty acids which may be 'contaminating' the 'pure' refined oil.
6) Bleaching
By this stage the oil still retains some pigments, giving it a reddish brown appearance. Since that's not the desired 'pure' look that customers have been trained to expect, clay is added, heated to 230 degrees F, then filtered out. This high heat again causes the formation of the toxic free radicals, called peroxides.
7) Deodorizing
Next the oil is steam-distilled at 518 degrees F for 30 minutes, to destroy any natural aromatics from the dead, refined oil. Note the incredibly high temperature!!! At "only" 302 degrees F trans fatty acids begin forming. These weird, man-made molecules are mutagenic to human DNA - they can alter human DNA. Trans fatty acids exist nowhere else in nature - man has created them. As the temperature is raised higher, trans fatty acid production increases geometrically.
After deodorizing, the oil is absolutely tasteless, and cannot be distinguished from any other processed seed oil. The oil is now COMPLETELY devoid of any vitamin, mineral, enzyme or nutrient content whatsoever. And even though it has undergone extreme high temperatures at several steps, as long as no external heat was added during the pressing step, the oil can still be sold as "cold-pressed"!
Sometimes mixtures of pressed oil and solvent-extracted oil are sold as "unrefined" oil. These types of labels are simply unregulated and vary according to the whim of the oil processors.
Reviewing this summary of processing steps, it is a wonder that processed soybean oil is allowed to be sold at all or to be made into margarine and cooking oil, let alone for claims to be made about its nutritional superiority.
PS: Oh, then there's the pesky business of chemical giant MONSANTO and their extra-special GMO Frankenstein Monster: Roundup Ready Soybeans, where they cleverly splice a laboratory built DNA into the bean plant's DNA sequence to resist the effects of their very own chemical Herbicide/Insecticide called "Roundup" ....simply delicious!
PPS: To make matters worse, in just under 10 years, these DNA sequences have found their way into nearly all the soybean seed stocks world-wide. As geneticists say, "Once released, never recalled."
If you never want to sleep again, go here for more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/mysterydna081601.cfm
So ....any soy in my diet? SOY-tainly NOT!
