{"id":6524,"key":"Soybeans","title":"Soybeans","latest":{"id":1257816,"timestamp":"2026-07-27T17:55:34Z"},"content_model":"wikitext","license":{"url":"https://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Copyrights","title":"CC-BY-SA-4.0"},"source":"[[File:Glycine max 15-p.bot-glyci.max-034.jpg|thumb]]\n\nThe soybean, soy bean, or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.\nSoybeans are a high-[[protein]] food crop. They are an annual and are typically grown as a monoculture on industrial farms.\n\n== Agriculture ==\n\nGrowing areas of land used for soy to feed cattle is leading to the destruction of Amazon rainforest.\n\n== Soy as food ==\n\nSoybeans can be consumed in many ways.\nFoods made from soybeans can be divided into unfermented and fermented foods. Unfermented foods include – tofu, soymilk, edamame, soy nuts and sprouts, while fermented soy products include – miso, tempeh, natto and soy sauce.\n\nSome soy products are sources of calcium and iron – such as tofu or tempeh (made with a calcium coagulant) and calcium-fortified soy drinks.\n\n== Health effects ==\n\nSoy is a staple of the diet of the longest-lived people in the world, the Japanese, including the longest-lived Japanese people, those from Okinawa. While soy alone is does not deserve all the credit for this, it does appear to offer a number of health benefits.\n\nCriticism of soy has become popular in recent years, blaming it for cancer and many other health problems. The evidence, however, is mixed. Moderate amounts of soy appear to be healthy - larger amounts ''may'' have certain health implications, but these are not clear at this stage.<ref>See [[wikipedia:Soybean #Health benefits]], [[wikipedia:Soybean #Health risks]] and [http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/soya.asp Soy Sorry] - Snopes.com</ref>\n\nAmong critics of soy, fermented soy products are often regarded as healthier as components of concern the soybeans such as phytoestrogens are at least partially broken down.\n\n=== Uses ===\n\nSoybeans have many uses as food, including:\n\n* [[Livestock]] feed\n* Tofu\n* Edamame (cooked young soybeans in the pod)\n* Okara\n* Soy milk\n* [[Vegetable oil]]\n\nFermented soy food products include:\n\n* Soy sauce\n* Tamari\n* Miso\n* Tempe - pressed soybean cake from [[Indonesia]].\n\n== Non-food uses ==\n\nSoybean oil can be used to make [[bioplastic]] and other forms of biodegradable packaging.\n\n== Notes and references ==\n\n<references />\n\n== See also ==\n\n* [[Legumes]]\n* [[Traditional Field Crops 12#Soybeans|Traditional Field Crops (Peace Corps, 1981, 283 p.), Appendix H]]\n\n== External links ==\n\n{{Page data\n| license = CC-BY-SA-3.0\n| description = Discover the versatility of soybeans, their nutritional benefits, various uses in food and non-food products, and their impact on health and the environment.\n}}\n\n[[Category:Agriculture]]\n[[Category:Food crops]]\n[[Category:Vegetable oils]]"}