The folks at WAPF are always good for a laugh. If you're interested in vegan nutrition, you're bound to have come across this claim at some point:

"The most serious problem with soy may be its use in infant formulas. “The amount of phytoestrogens that are in a day's worth of soy infant formula equals 5 birth control pills," says Mike Fitzpatrick, a New Zealand toxicologist. Fitzpatrick and other scientists believe that infant exposure to high amounts of phytoestrogens is associated with early puberty in girls and retarded physical maturation in boys.
-westonaprice.org/health-topics/soy-and-the-brain/

What I find incredibly amusing about claims like this is that the people who love to throw out this "fact" are the same ones pushing milk.

Now let's just get one thing straight. Soya comes from a plant. Plants are not female mammals.

I'm gonna say that again.

Therefore, they do not produce oestrogen. They don't. They just don't.

Now let's think of an animal that does produce oestrogen. Hmm, let me think. Oh yeah! Cows! Cows produce oestrogen!

Now here is an extract from a very interesting article I came across the other day (emphases are my own):

There seems to be an awful lot of hate towards wholegrains from the online community. I believe most of this comes from fans of the Weston A Price Foundation (aka WAPF), an influential group who advocate a diet high in animal products (more of this later).

I hadn't heard of this group at the time when I first started reading these articles about how soya and wholegrains are really bad for you, will give you osteoporosis and bad teeth and kill you in any other number of ways. I was intrigued at first, as these sites, such as Mercola and Wellness Mama, seemed to be in accordance with what I believed about diet, i.e. natural, minimally processed, home-made, organic is best. So I was curious about this info.

One study that seemed to crop up a lot was this one (I am quoting from wellnessmama.com)

To prove this theory, the Drs. Mellanby did a study on children with existing cavities. The children were put into three groups:

1. Group One: Regular diet plus oatmeal (which is high in phytic acid)
2. Group Two: Regular diet plus vitamin D
3. Group Three: Diet low in phytic acid plus vitamin D.

And then this graph:

Now the first thing I have a problem with is: Continue reading →

I'm utterly addicted to these burgers, which I have now named Quin-Bean Burgers. I think I have been a bit low on protein on account of only having 2 meals per day (including breakfast). So I came up with this recipe to boost my protein a bit, inspired by lunchboxbunch's bean burger recipe. As I said, sweetcorn makes everything better.

Recipe uses metric cups (1 cup = 250ml), but you can be flexible with ingredients and quantities.

You can use sprouted quinoa in place of cooked, but you'll get a crunchier texture. Don't like sweetcorn? Then just leave it out, or use your favourite vegetables, sauteed or boiled, instead. If you don't have flax, you can use more flour or breadcrumbs as a binder.

I like to make double the quantity, using one tin of white beans and one tin of a different kind of bean, then freeze for later.

Ingredients:

• 1 x 400g tin of your favourite beans
• 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed
• 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast (optional, gives more flavour)
• 1 slice of wholemeal bread
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar (optional)
• 3 tbsp coldpressed rapeseed oil, or any veg oil
• 1/8 cup plain wholemeal flour
• seasonings of your choice (optional)
• 1/4 cup cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup frozen sweetcorn

Breadcrumb coating (optional)

• 2 slices of wholemeal bread (or equivalent in pre-prepared breadcrumbs)
• ~ 1/4 cup vegan milk OR water
• ~ 1/4 cup wholemeal flour
• seasoning (e.g. pepper, thyme, chilli, parsley)
• 1-2 tsp rapeseed oil