Use of soya in foods causes cancers – UNZA Research fellow

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GOVERNMENT must suspend the use of soya in foods because it causes cancers and homosexual tendencies, a research fellow at the University of Zambia has said. Martin Sampa says the authorities must evoke the precautionary principle as his research has shown that the country’s security and health profile are at risk partly due to the use of soya in foods.
Mr Sampa said this in his submission to the Parliamentary Committee on health, community development and social welfare.
Soya has been largely touted as a wonder food which can fight malnutrition.
“The security of our nation is at risk because we have allowed our foods to be tampered with,” he said.
“We are very vulnerable to biological warfare as a nation because soya is now being added to mealie-meal, bread and all other foods we are consuming.”
But Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU) president Jervis Zimba described the findings as “crazy” and burst into laughter.
Mr Zimba, however, said the ZNFU will be interested to study Mr Sampa’s findings before coming up with a comprehensive position.
Mr Sampa said Government must use the precautionary principle until thorough and conclusive studies are conducted.
The researcher caused laughter among members of Parliament when he said there is silent warfare of genocide on Zambia.
“Food is a matter of national security and this is why the Zambia State Security and Intelligence and the Zambia Bureau of Standards must actively get involved and find out why some milling companies are adding soya to our mealie-meal,” he said.
Mr Sampa said contrary to beliefs that soya is part of a healthy diet, the plant is actually listed in the family of poisonous plants.
He said studies have shown that soya is linked to the breast and cervical cancers.
Mr Sampa further said in boys, soya causes homosexual tendencies while in girls, it makes them attain puberty as early as six years old.
He said soya also causes low sperm count in men as it alters the DNA and it causes women to grow beards.
He said the high disease burden the nation is facing is due to soya found in large quantities of foods Zambians eat.
“Given the effects of soya, a policy review at the highest level of the continued inclusion of this ‘toxic’ food in the Zambian diet is urgently required,” he said.
Mr Sampa said the quantities of soya being consumed in Zambia is more than 10 times higher than in Asian diets while some countries like Israel, Germany, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the USA regulate the use of soya.
The precautionary principle allows policy-makers to make discretionary decisions in situations where there is the possibility of harm from taking a particular course or making a certain decision when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking.
This principle implies that there is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk.
And committee chairperson Brian Chituwo promised to follow up the issue further.
“You have given us another dimension on the causes of cancers in Zambia. We will probe further,” Dr Chituwo said.
Soya is found in most off-shelf foods such as mealie-meal, biscuits, soups, margarines, cooking oils and bread

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