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Soy Lecithin Unfairly Characterized As An Allergen

There certainly are a lot of challenges facing the dietary supplement
industry these days. The industry has its own set of self-induced
problems delivering products that don't match label claims. A visit to
www.ConsumerLab.com provides continued evidence of this.

Then there are the challenges posed from outside the industry. The
production of pseudoscience, to scare the public away from dietary
supplements, is now a monthly occurrence. False science has been
created to say vitamin E increases the risk of heart failure, high-
dose vitamin C is worthless and could cause genetic mutations, vitamin
D could cause calcifications, beta carotene induces lung cancer in
smokers.

Then there is adverse event reporting, the proposed idea of mandating
every dietary supplement company keep records of every adverse event
reported by consumers. (This is going to be a field day for lawyers,
who will file suits, and under legal discovery, be able to mine all
the adverse event files of every supplement company to extort payments
from them, regardless of whether the supplements were the cause of
adverse events or not.)

Then there is CODEX, the authoritarian regulations that will soon
"harmonize" dietary supplements into pablum doses that do little to
prevent disease and certainly pose no threat to the pharmaceutical
industry.

But none of these yet pose the threat to dietary supplements as the
Food Allergy Labeling Consumer Protection Act of 2004. As of January
2006 all new dietary supplements that contain common allergens must be
labeled so that allergen-sensitive individuals, estimated at 2% of the
population, can avoid products that may trigger reactions. Because of
the threat of aflatoxin (a toxic mold), this includes "products that
contain nuts, or products made in factories where nuts were processed,
or any soy products"....stop right there --- this means products that
contain soy lecithin must be identified as an "allergen."

How does the public perceive this? One company added lecithin to a
dietary supplement and had to disclose it "contains soy." Hundreds of
consumers called to complain. Forget the fact they eat lecithin in
candy bars, baked goods and beverages every day, what is it doing in
their food supplement?!! Why, toxic soy is an allergen, so lecithin
must be too! Overlook the fact that lecithin is phosphatidylcholine,
which is found in every cell of the human body. Also, disregard
scientific studies which show that proteins in soy lecithin have
little ability to create antigens (allergy-provoking agents) even
among those who are allergic to soybeans. [Clinical Experimental
Allergy 28: 1559-64, 1998]

The soy bashers have been very active. According to a report in Nexus
magazine, soy is one of the top allergens (yes, along with fish, eggs,
milk, peanuts, wheat, you know, regular foods that are promoted in the
government Food Pyramid), and is one of the "sinister seven" foods
that can cause an immediate hypersensitivity reaction. Soy is not just
a food that sensitive individuals should be aware of, it has now been
misconstrued to cause life-threatening allergies in 98 percent of the
public that aren't allergy sensitive.

Widely quoted is a report from Sweden, that six allergy-sensitive
children died after eating soy foods. [Allergy 54: 261, 1999] These
deaths were reported over a 5-year period (1992-96). In the most
recent 7-year period, soy-related allergic deaths in Sweden have
dropped to just one-life threatening case (subject didn't die).
[Lakartidningen 102: 3465-68, 2005] Forget the facts, what the public
hears is that soy kills!

What people are told is that your kids could be eating a soy burger in
the school lunchroom, and their parents could visit their body in the
morgue an hour later. Here is what one child allergy resource on the
internet says: "Children with a true soy allergy can experience
potentially life-threatening conditions such as anaphylactic shock,
and those with soy allergies should avoid all foods that contain soy.
Should a child with soy allergies ingest soy, they'll need immediate
medical attention."

Furthermore, according to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer
Protection Act of 2004, "The burden shall be on any petitioner to
provide scientific evidence that such food ingredient does not cause
an allergenic response that poses a risk to human health." Soy
lecithin is guilty until proven innocent. According to a recent
survey, 38% of parents of allergy-sensitive children avoided products
with soy lecithin, just to be on the safe side. [Annals Allergy Asthma
Immunology 95: 426-28, 2005]

Folks, advocates and devotees of dietary supplements, makers of
lecithin products cannot bear the burden of answering endless phone
calls from nutriphobic consumers. Forget that more people die from
aspirin or acetaminophen, commonly used over-the-counter pain
relievers, or die from side reactions to drugs that doctors prescribe,
a major dietary supplement, lecithin, is now a major allergen, and a
child killer! Every precaution must be taken, with no regard to
expense, to protect that one allergy-sensitive child from dying.

Now, just published is a report showing life-threatening anaphylactic
reactions can occur from grapes and wine. [Allergy Asthma Proceedings
26: 53-58, 2005] Soon wine bottles will be labeled as potential
allergens. So will grape seed extract and resveratrol pills in food
supplements.

Not to worry about CODEX. It is nutriphobic consumers themselves who
will destroy the dietary supplement industry.

- Copyright 2006 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.

Who loves ya.
Tom

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