Articles by Kristen Michaelis CNC

You remember how dangerous soy is, don’t you? Well, not long ago, inmates in the Illinois state prison system actually filed a lawsuit against the state protesting their high soy diet — which they contend has been systematically destroying their health.

According to the Weston A Price foundation, which is financially backing the lawsuit, “Beginning in January 2003, inmates began receiving a diet largely based on processed soy protein with very little meat. In most meals, small amounts of meat or meat by-products are mixed with 60-70 percent soy protein; fake soy cheese has replaced real cheese; and soy flour or soy protein is now added to most prison baked goods.” Since the diet began, inmates have complained of a “deliberate indifference” to “serious health problems caused by so much soy,” including chronic constipation alternating with diarrhea, vomiting, sharp pains, passing out, heart palpitations, rashes, acne, insomnia, panic attacks, depression and hypothyroidism.

Filing lawsuits is the only recourse allowed to inmates to address poor treatment, and yet the plaintiffs in this case are being subjected to life-threatening retaliation by prison guards and officials.