Will The Hexane In Soy Burgers Kill You?
VeggieBurger Super Deluxe!In a word: No.
Next article!
Just kidding. But surely I can't be the only one who's getting heartily tired of fear-based news stories. I imagine a primitive time, before the news media learned that fear catches the attention. When they reported on, you know, NEWS ITEMS. Instead of just trying to scare the **** out of you at every turn.
The news item here is that a biased research group found trace amounts of a neurotoxin in soy products that didn't belong to their core constituency. Shock! Surprise!
First of all, I also wish that the news media would stop treating "research findings" from "research groups" that are just special interest press release companies as, you know, NEWS ITEMS. The research group here is the Cornucopia Institute, which supports local sustainable organic agriculture.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of local sustainable organic agriculture. But color me skeptical when the Cornucopia Institute releases "findings" that trace amounts of hexane can be detected in non-organic mass produced soy products.
Hexane sounds like a scary thing, does it not? And certainly neurotoxins are bad, mmmkay? But here's the thing: we're not really sure HOW bad hexane is for you, or what amount is dangerous. As Slate says, "No study has ever tested how much hexane a person can safely eat over the course of a lifetime, but rodent studies suggest that your Thanksgiving tofurkey isn't going to kill you."
Hexane's toxicity is mainly a concern to those who work in processing plants where it's floating around in the air in high concentrations. It's a little akin to the "popcorn lung" scandal from a while back.
If you work in a microwave popcorn processing facility, then you're at risk from the cumulative toxic effects of diacetyl. Or if you eat several bags of popcorn per day. In other words, you have to go really out of your way for diacetyl to be a problem, which is why I don't know anyone who's stopped eating microwave popcorn. It's pretty obvious that for most of us, the occasional bag of microwave popcorn isn't going to cause us to keel over dead. Frankly, we have bigger things to worry about.
Hexane turns out to be the same deal. OSHA has limits to the amount of hexane workers are allowed to inhale during a normal shift. But that doesn't mean it's dangerous to eat a PowerBar.
Unfortunately a lot of people aren't comfortable with seeing the world as it is, in shades of gray. They insist on things being black or white. Harmful or beneficial. Useful or WILL KILL YOU. Luckily, these people need only switch to organic soy products to stay safe.
This brings us back to our original point: the "research" released by the Cornucopia Institute has the direct effect of scaring people into buying the products that they support. Can we really trust their research? Really?
Buy organic if you want, if you can afford it, and when you can find it. (Organic is the same as or better than conventional in every respect save price and availability.) But don't let these panicky ninnies scare you off your GardenBurger.
Creative Commons-licensed image of a veggieburger, soy bacon, and cheese on a whole wheat Krispy Kreme doughnut courtesy of Flickr user akuban
