Dear lemmy, someone very close to my heart is starting to fall into conspiracy theories. It’s heartbreaking. Among other things, he has now told me that soy beans are not supposed to be consumed by human beings and is convinced that despite the literal centuries of human soy bean cultivation and consumption, we shouldn’t eat it or anything derived from it for this reason (ie tofu, soy sauce, etc…evidence that soy is present in other common foods doesn’t seem to register with him).

I don’t even know where he got this information from and can’t find a single source to back it up (even disingenuously). I’ve tried explaining to him that sure, in its original state it’s not edible, but undergoes processing (LIKE MANY OTHER FOODS) to become edible. And that this has gone on since at least the 11th century, so it’s not like Big Soy is trying to poison the little people.

He’s normally a very reasonable and intelligent person, and I don’t know how to reach him. I thought it might be helpful to show him where these myths have come from with hard data sources to prove it. He seems open to the possibility, so I don’t think he’s a lost cause yet!

Help?

  • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    i’m using the same source you are: https://ourworldindata.org/soy

    • approximate percent of soybean that is oil = 20.00
    • percent of soy fed directly to animals = 7.00
    • percent of soy fed to dairy = 1.4
    • percent of soy fed to beef = 0.5
    • percent of soy fed to pets = 0.5
    • percent of soy fed to aquaculture = 5.6
    • percent of soy fed to pig = 20.2
    • percent of soy fed to poultry = 37.0
    • percent of soy that becomes human food = 20.00
    • percent of soy that becomes oil for food = 13.2
    • percent of soy that becomes soy milk = 2.1
    • percent of soy that becomes tofu = 2.6
    • percent of soy that becomes tempeh etc = 2.2
    • percent of soy that is fed to animals = 76.0
    • percent of soy that is used industrially = 4.00
    • percent of soy that becomes biodiesel = 2.8
    • percent of soy that becomes lubricants = .03
    • percent of soy that has other industrial uses = .07
    • percent of soy not fed directly to animals = 93.00
    • if all soy not fed directly to livestock were pressed for oil = (approximate percent of soybean that is oil / 100) * percent of soy not fed directly to animals
    • soy eaten not as oil = percent of soy that becomes soy milk + percent of soy that becomes tofu + percent of soy that becomes tempeh etc
    • if all soy not eaten directly by livestock and not as non-oil food is pressed for oil = (percent of soy not fed directly to animals - soy eaten not as oil) * approximate percent of soybean that is oil / 100

    If we take 7% of all soy out because it’s fed directly to animals, and another 6.9% is eaten, but not as oil, and 20% of each of the remaining beans are made of oil, we find 17.22% is the maximum amount of oil we could get if all the soy beans not fed to animals or eaten by people are pressed for oil.

    It turns out that the chart shows 13.2% is oil for humans to eat, and 4.0% is used industrially (and these are all oil uses), totaling 17.2%,then basically all soy not eaten directly by animals or as various human foods is pressed for oil.

    source https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2021/02/Global-soy-production-to-end-use.png