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.
“Sadly, babies continue to be hospitalized and die because of EdenSoy and other brands of soy milk.”
Er, no. They continue to be hospitalized and die because of the incredible ignorance of their parents. How could anyone possibly blame Eden Foods for that?
In addition, just because “you didn’t write the article” doesn’t mean that you are exempt from the responsibility of spreading such an incoherent, illogical hypothesis.
Furthermore, as a devout Catholic (who doesn’t “get offended all the time- just when confronted with insufferably arrogant fallen away Catholics who try to speak for all Catholics), I ask that you please refrain from claiming Catholic cred when posting offensive anti-Catholic rhetoric. Being “raised Catholic” doesn’t mean squat if you are not a practicing Catholic in Communion with Rome. Ask Nancy Pelosi and Andrew Cuomo.
Very pleased to see the majority of comments here demonstrate that most readers can clearly see that this article makes no sense. I have generally had a lot of respect for the author, Dr. Kaayla Daniels, because she has much wisdom to share regarding real food and nutrition. But this article will cause me to read her information much more carefully in the future, with much more discernment. And I will be sure to buy more Eden products in the future, because I want to be sure they will be able to continue to finance their legal battle. Eden Foods supported our right to label GMO ingredients in our food, whereas companies such as Muir Glen did not – that is a much bigger issue for me than the fact that they sell soy products.
Yeah, good point. The fact that they supported the GM labeling is a good reason to support and not boycott. They sell soy. So what? It’s labeled, right? They’re not trying to hide anything.
I read this post hoping to find some good information on the effects of soy on fertility that I could share with a family member who is experiencing infertility. Instead I found a bigoted attack on my religion and a completely illogical argument based on ignorance. Needless to say, I am very disappointed. Please stick to the issues as they relate to food and health, and keep your uneducated opinions about other people’s religious convictions to yourself. Thanks.
Your readers may be interested in these associated articles from the Weston A. Price Foundation “Rethinking Reproductive Health” Written by Katie Singer, Friday, 11 November 2005 02:21:
http://www.westonaprice.org/womens-health/rethinking-reproductive-health
“Wise Choices, Healthy Bodies: Diet for the Prevention of Women’s Diseases” Written by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD , Sunday, 31 December 2000 02:35:
http://www.westonaprice.org/womens-health/wise-choices-healthy-bodies
Fertility Awareness, Food, and Night-Lighting, Written by Katie Singer, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 02:27:
http://www.westonaprice.org/womens-health/fertility-awareness-food-and-night-lighting
Pax et bonum
A bit much.
I see your points, and if this is the case, then he will win his lawsuit correct? And I would think he would also then be against vaccinations, considering some of these are said to be made with aborted fetuses. It’s a slippery slope though. What can a Jehovah Witness CEO refuse to cover? I suppose as long as these companies are notifying their potential employees before they hire them, then those potential employees can choose to work elsewhere, knowing that the religious beliefs of their employer would affect their coverage, even though it is not a religious institution. However, what the article points out is the fact that this is a company selling soy products, which are said to affect fertility. P.S. I am not a fan of birth control for the same reasons I am not a fan of soy, because of the hormone disruption and potential links to cancer, which I think is part of the irony being pointed out in the article. I also know people are often against birth control because of their religious beliefs, and I totally understand this as well.
I don’t see the slippery slope. Birth control is what the name implies, control of birth, not a product that in some way supports health.
How can your beliefs be immaterial to this post?? It is your blog, in which you FILL with your judgement of others choices, I happen to “like” it because it WAS providing interesting readings. Now I think something is up. Not wanting to supply the means for an action that fundamentally goes against your beliefs is so very different than providing a voluntary product for consumers to make their own judgement on with free will. Eden foods is providing the safest form of soy for its consumers, who want soy, outside of fermented. People subscribe to different schools of thought on soy. He is trying to provide what he subscribes to as a healthy alternative while being forced to pay for someone else’s subscription to the notion that birth control is a healthy alternative to unwanted pregnancies. Everyone has their right to deem their opinion of safe and healthy. What continues to boggle my mind is that you and the guest blog chose to go after Eden for standing against something that I would hope you would be against. What about our run off water from these pharmaceutical pills?? At the VERY least?!?!
Sarah, given that you’ve spoken strongly against hormonal birth control in the past I’m suprised that you would allow your blog to be used as a platform for boycotting a company that doesn’t want to provide this drug to its employees… https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/how-the-pill-can-harm-your-future-childs-health/
I’ve never thought of freedom of speech or freedom of religion as a “right-wing ideological agenda,” but perhaps we’ve moved so far from freedom that they are now considered so. I am not Catholic, but I do believe Catholics should be able to practice their religion freely in this country. I don’t eat soy (when I can avoid it), but I do believe others should be able to consume it if they want. I don’t, however, think we should blame a corporation for parents’ stupidity when it leads to the death of their child…I believe the parents are responsible. I don’t believe the government should be able to legislate every little thing. And the last time I checked, most birth control was really, really inexpensive…why is it so hard for people to afford it if the government doesn’t force health insurers to provide it? They can afford to go to the movies, a fast food restaurant, to buy soap, etc. Birth control doesn’t cost any more than that.
I want to buy Eden Food products just to support the owner’s right to practice his religion freely. To me, my inalienable Constitutional rights trump my dislike of soy.
The backlash to this post is not due to a perceived attack on personal beliefs. It is due to the belief that your guest blogger is comparing apples to oranges and grasping at straws to find corporate hypocrisy here. Despite enjoying your blogger posts and tutorials, your continued defense of this post in the face of the responses makes me question your judgment. It seems as if you would consider any company that opposes the HHS mandate, or takes any moral stand on an issue, while also selling junk food (as you define it, of course), a hypocrite. This guest post is ridiculous, your readers appear to agree wholeheartedly, and I’m considering revoking my Facebook “like”.