Eden Foods bills itself as the “oldest natural and organic food company in America” and is best known for its EdenSoy line of organic soy milk.
Most of Eden’s products are organic and nearly all are vegan.
It’s a very familiar brand in health food stores and marketing studies have shown it to be a favorite of female and liberal customers.
These customers, to put it mildly, are not pleased with the news that Eden hired the Thomas More Law Center to file a lawsuit against Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and other government parties, associated with the Obama administration’s rule on contraception.
The lawsuit claims the contraception rule violates Eden Foods owner Michael Potter’s religious freedom under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by requiring him to provide his employees with medical coverage for contraception.
Potter believes contraception “almost always involves immoral and unnatural practices.”
Irin Carmon at Salon.com launched the story yesterday (April 11, 2013). Predictably enough, it has gone viral, with a massive outcry on Facebook and other social media.
In brief, protesters are not pleased by Eden’s pursuit of a right-wing ideological agenda and its espousal of Catholic church teachings on the evils of contraception. Thousands of people have already voiced their intent to stop buying Eden products, including Facebook commenter Cheryl DeMarco who summed up the issues particularly well. “Now that you’ve sued to avoid providing birth control coverage to your employees based on bogus science, I don’t trust you to provide me with clean food based on good science. I won’t be buying your products.”
As yet, the debaters have not pointed out the supreme irony of Eden Foods — one of the top manufacturers of soy milk — coming out against birth control. All soy milks — including organic soy milks — include high levels of the plant estrogens known as isoflavones. Over the past seven decades, scientists have linked isoflavones to reproductive problems in all animal tested, including the human animal. For women, soy contributes to anovulatory cycles and other symptoms indicative of infertility; for men, it causes adverse effects on the quality and quantity of sperm.
The illustration posted by Salon.com — and posted here — was surely not intended to be literal. But yes, this product can make birth control unnecessary!
Indeed, in the 1970s the World Health Organization funded a $5 million study through the University of Chicago and sent researchers out in the field in search of all-natural contraceptives. The idea was to find a safe and effective alternative to the high-dose birth control pills of that era. Researchers visited dozens of native cultures to discover which herbs and plants were being used to prevent pregnancy, examined hundreds of plants and analyzed their phytochemicals. Although they found many contraceptive plants — soy, prominently among them — they ultimately abandoned the project. Not because “natural” methods didn’t work, but because the side effects were similar to — and just as serious — as those of the birth control pill.
The obvious conclusion here is that customers who consume EdenSoy “soy milks” are unwittingly —and almost certainly unwillingly — swallowing liquid birth control. Lest any readers at this point think soy milk might a good “all natural” form of contraception, however, my advice is don’t count on it! Soy isoflavone content varies from carton to carton, and any contraceptive effects would depend as well on the amount and duration of consumption.
Eden Foods furthermore has a shabby track record in terms of supporting the health of babies. In 1990 the FDA investigated after a two-month old girl in California was hospitalized with severe malnutrition. Her parents had fed her EdenSoy brand soy milk instead of infant formula. Because of this and a similar incident in Arkansas involving the SoyMoo brand of soy milk, the FDA issued a warning on June 13, 1990, stating soy milk was “grossly lacking in the nutrients needed for infants.” The FDA asked — but unfortunately has never required — all manufacturers to put warning labels on soy milk so that they would not be used as formula substitutes.
Since these tragic incidents, most brands of soy milk — but not EdenSoy — include warning labels in tiny print on their packaging.
Sadly, babies continue to be hospitalized and die because of EdenSoy and other brands of soy milk. At least four couples have been found guilty of the deaths of their babies fed soy milk in lieu of soy infant formula. Many of these parents were health conscious, well-meaning vegans who truly thought they were doing a good thing for their babies by choosing organic soy milk instead of commercial soy formula. The myth that soy is a health food and Eden’s irresponsibility led to these tragic deaths.
How many more unnecessary and tragic cases of malnutrition and deaths will occur before Eden takes the right action? For me, the “right action” is clear: Boycott Eden Foods.
Sources
For more information about Eden’s lawsuit:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/11/organic_eden_foods_quiet_right_wing_agenda/
For more information about soy formula and the effect soy milk and other products containing soy vegetable protein on reproduction, The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food.
Eden Foods is excellent; I just won’t be buying any of their soy products. Simple.
There is some serious misinformation in this post. First, the reason to not pay for birth control was NOT based on bogus science, it was based on a particular religious conviction. Second, studies regarding the effect of soy on fertility have NOT produced anything conclusive regarding women or men; generally, studies have been based on limited numbers of participants or animal-based trials, or require further studies.
“In conclusion, we found an inverse association between consumption of soy foods and sperm concentration which was more pronounced at the higher end of the sperm concentration distribution and among overweight or obese men.”
http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/11/2584.full
“In summary, we find that women with a high intake of isoflavones have an increased risk of never becoming pregnant and being childless when they are at an age where they are at the end of their childbearing period (aged 41–50 years). Both sociological and biological explanations may be put forward to explain our findings. The stronger relationship in women who reported problems becoming pregnant is, in this context, interesting. However, we call for further studies, preferably prospective studies, to either refute or confirm our findings that isoflavones have a significant impact on childbearing.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24741329
Soy foods do not contain estrogen, although they do contain isoflavone phytochemicals that fall in the “phytoestrogen” or “plant” estrogen grouping. Clinical evidence indicates that soy foods do not feminize men, lower their testosterone levels or lower their sperm concentration. Soy foods may actually offer men specifically several health benefits. For example, evidence suggests soy foods may be protective against prostate cancer. [1]
Source: http://blogs.webmd.com/healthy-recipe-doctor/2011/03/four-soy-food-myths-exposed.html
Perhaps just as ironic is why Eden Foods would WANT their immoral and unnatural employees to reproduce. If it were me, I’d announce that coverage for contraceptives is included but only for the slimey fornicators and adulterers out there who we no longer want in the gene pool…LOL!
This is sooooo stupid.
Forget the “boycott” which is already stupid, but really, Eden Foods is responsible for infant deaths!?!?
Why is any company liable for stupid parents. Not even cow milk is a viable replacement for formula. Formula is stupid itself. Only breast milk is good for a baby, period.
And as someone who eats soy, i have had no problem adding to my family any time i have wanted.
This whole article is a ridiculous waste of time…
“Now that you’ve sued to avoid providing birth control coverage to your employees based on bogus science, I don’t trust you to provide me with clean food based on good science. I won’t be buying your products.”
Now that you’ve allowed a guest post based on bogus “logic”, ignorance about catholic teaching, disrespect for people’s religious convictions and ignorance about how (hormonal) birth control or IUDs work (while exaggerating the dangers of soy- yes, soy is not healthy, but somehow people in Asia manage to reproduce despite the soy…), I don’t trust you to provide me with information on clean food and healthy nutrition based on good science. I won’t be refering to your page anymore, and I will unlike it on facebook.
Extremely disappointed, a catholic (convert) from Germany
I used to buy Eden foods regularly but will never again. There are over 7 billion people in the world and the world can barely sustain them without resorting to bioengineering and non-organic farming practices on a large scale. Eden is indirectly contributing to the problem of overpopulation, which is a contributing factor for many environmental problems. Contraception is not a radical idea. There is something of mob hysteria in many of the above comments. Of course if your belief system is thousands of years behind the times, then birth control must be very threatening–what else can you do but rally behind your martyr? Meanwhile the population grows and all those mouths need feeding. It will not be Eden soy that goes into most of their mouths.
Oh, please. Babies aren’t dying because of soy milk, they are dying because of moronic parents and lack of breastmilk, not lack of formula! Your “facts” on soy are loosely upheld and don’t bother to differentiate between isolated soy protein and whole soy products. While I don’t agree with EdenSoy’s stance on birth control, I do support an American’s right to stand up for what he believes, especially if it is likely to cost him dearly. That’s called integrity.
You nourishing traditions folks who think cow milk is meant for humans need to get your screws tightened and wean yourselves! When babies are weaned from their mothers, it’s because they can eat SOLID FOOD, not because it’s time to switch to the milk of another species.