Comment I received....

A few weeks ago, I received a comment about my article on the dangers of un-fermented soy products. The comment reads,

I came here after reading your article on soy on the Natural News website. I found your article interesting as I - like many others I expect - had read much about the health benefits of soy. So I decided to read more and follow the source links at the bottom of the article.

That led me to the 'Soy Online Service' which you have extensively used for references in this Blogger post and in your Natural News article. What I saw there worried me. 'Soy Online Service' describes itself as: "a small group of private citizens with a mission to inform the public of the truth about soy". Looking around their website, there is no information on who this group of "private citizens" are or what their qualifications are. They denigrate soy with references to "independent research" but don't provide any source references and don't publish any research reports on their site.

Their "testimonials" attacking soy seem to be too well written to be true (they look like they are professionally written), and there seems to be an underlying theme through many of them about how bad soy tastes (that seems strange because to me soy has a fairly bland taste).

I am therefore wondering, just wondering, given that website is based in New Zealand, whether we are all being hoodwinked not by a group of "private citizens" but by a group of "dairy farmers".

I am not challenging your observations on soy, because I haven't researched the issue enough myself, but I am concerned that you are basing your articles on what appears to be quite unsubstantiated sources.

There is so much 'information' and 'counter-information' about natural health (you know, one day there's an article about how bad coffee is for you, the next day there's another one that says quite the opposite) that I have learned to be skeptical from both sides, but there does seem to be far more independent research published supporting the health benefits of soy against research that says the opposite (and I am excluding research financed by the soy industry).

One thing that I do know is that everyone's bodies react to different foods and substances in different ways. Even some healthy foods can't be tolerated by some people, so it does not surprise me that you may have had problems with soy. But I am wondering whether what you read on the 'Soy Online Service' was simply what you wanted to hear. It's easy to be convinced in that frame of mind.

Me . . . I'm much more of a skeptic about anything I read on the Internet - especially a website where people are not prepared to identify themselves or their experience.

I would just like to say that I think that you are right to be skeptical and worried about where this information is coming from--it is a sign that you are an invested reader and do not blindly take information at face value. I find it interesting that you find limited sourcing for their articles. This is going to be a matter I will have to look in to in the future.

I thank you for your honest criticism, and I would just like to assure you that my conclusions about soy were not solely reached from this one website: I have been gathering information, both personal and scientific, from varying sources over the years. I used soy online service just as kind of a reference to which a lot of the things I had read about were found.

Thank you again!