If you’re reading nutrition labels and ingredient lists, you’ve probably come across “soy lecithin” more than a few times. It’s actually a very popular item, in the top 10 most used ingredients in processed foods.

But what exactly is it? What does it do? And most importantly, what are its health and nutrition characteristics?

What you need to know:

Lecithins are oily substances that occur naturally in plants (soybeans) and animals (egg yolks).

Soy lecithin (E322) is extracted from soybeans either mechanically or chemically. It’s actually a byproduct of the soybean’s oil.

Some people use it as a supplement, because it has a high value of the nutrient choline. Choline is good for heart health and brain development.

But that’s not the reason soy lecithin is used as an additive in foods. It possesses emulsification properties. This means it can keep a candy bar “together” by making sure that the cocoa and the cocoa butter don’t separate. It is also used in bakery items to keep the dough from sticking and to improve its ability to rise.

Since soybean are one of the cheapest crops in the US (thanks in part to federal subsidies to growers), it makes sense to use a cheap, natural soy derived emulsifier in food processing.

People with soy allergies needn’t worry about products containing soy lecithin, because it is derived from the soybean oil, whereas the allergy itself relates to the soy protein.

…

Learn 11 Short Acrylamide Facts (French Fries Foe)

Discover 11 Quick Facts about Phosphoric Acid (Yes, that Chemical in Coca Cola)

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

The Parent Dish recently covered various soy products, discussing the health pros and cons of each. Unfortunately, many conclusions are still very contradictory.

The five product categories and verdicts are:
1. Fermented Soy Products: Miso, Tempeh, and Soy Sauce – consume with no worries. (Our caveat: watch out for the sodium levels in these products)
2. Tofu – Eat in moderation.
3. Soy Milk - Undecided. Too many contradicting studies.
4. Soy Meats (textured soy protein) – Minimize use. Too processed.
5. Soy Isoflavone Supplements – Stay away.

For more details, check out the full piece.

Get Fooducated: RSS Subscription or Email Subscription

Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/fooducate

Help us test our new food comparison tool: alpha.fooducate.com

Edamame, Soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, cereal, bread, oils, etc… the descendants of the green soybean are found in thousands of supermarket items. For a relatively bitter, beany legume that until the 17th century was unkown in the western world, soy is a very prominent ingredient today. The reason, as bluntly stated by the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Since 1999, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a “heart healthy” labeling claim for certain soy-based foods, pantry staples like cereal and pasta have been “soy-ed up” and repackaged as health foods. Read the article…

So is soy as healthy as the health claims play it out to be? Read more…