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According to Dr Daniel, edamame, which are boiled green vegetable soybeans, are safe to eat – occasionally – since the soybeans are harvested young before developing mature levels of antinutrients and toxins. But she is concerned that many people today are “noshing on edamame like it’s popcorn.” Tofu is made by soaking and slow boiling soybeans, then curdling the resulting mash. Outside of monasteries, where a lowered sex drive cause by eating large amount of soy was desirable, tofu has always been eaten in very small amounts in Japan. It is a distant choice after favored animal proteins like pork and seafood. Tofu has been studied here in the United State, and Dr Daniel writes of one that found that “men and women who eat two or more servings of tofu per week in midlife are more likely to experience cognitive decline, senile dementia, and brain atrophy later in life than those who eat little or none”.

Excerpted from pages 91-92 of ‘Death by Supermarket’ by Nancy Deville