Imagine being a mother of a newborn child and being told that your child is lactose intolerant.

The doctor says to take the child off of your breast milk and regular formula because he or she is "lactose intolerant" or that your breast milk is causing your child distress. That pediatrician recommends putting your baby on soy formula.

So, the good mother that you are, you do as your doctor recommends. You notice your baby seems to be in distress. He or she is vomiting, has diarrhea, or is colicky and cranky.

You're probably told "This is normal for babies" (it isn't). You continue to feed your child soy formulas.

From infant to toddler, he or she seems to be more laden with allergies than most children. The dark circles under their eyes and troubling G.I. issues persist.

When your child is ten or eleven years old, you find out he has thyroid cancer. This news on top of the challenge of their learning disabilities sends you, as the parent(s) right over the edge.

Why does this happen to a child? Is it in the foods we're feeding our children? Most holistic wellness practitioners believe so.

The majority of allopathic and naturopathic physicians enthusiastically recommend soy as a viable protein alternative and TV commercials sing healthy songs about SoyJoy food bars.

A gullible confused, dull and sick society blithely believes the blatant lies about the historical healthiness of these soy products. The soy industry stands to lose billions if Americans understand the harm's way they have put themselves in.

Why is soy so bad if everyone, including the omnipotent Oprah, claims it's so good?

Unfermented soy formulas and soy products are loaded with xenoestrogens. The phytic acid in them makes these formulas (and unfermented soy foods) impossible for children (and adults) to digest, and creates distressful G.I. symptoms. This disbiosis keeps the nutrients from good food to be digested when it is eaten.

Why are xenoestrogens present in soy beans? The soy plant uses these compounds as its own pest control. If you're a bug and eat a soy plant, you just got dosed with up huge load of estrogen-like compounds.

Male or female insect, you are now handily sterilized and your family lineage is effectively shut down. No more kids!

A single glass of soy milk contains the equivalent of five birth control pills in xenoestrogens. Can you imagine what that is doing to a child's endocrine system during that child's developing years?

Not only are the soy formulas loaded with xenoestrogens and phytic acid, they usually contain the artificial sweetener sucralose.

How on earth is this all helping a child become healthy, vital adult?

Dianne Gregg writes about her own life-threatening nightmare with soy in her book "The Hidden Dangers of Soy". It's loaded with stories and testimonials from people who've experienced their slide into mysterious illnesses and subsequent recovery once they stopped ingesting soy products.

My own encounters with soy aren't as dire as Dianne's, but the effect soy had on me was none-the-less distressful. When I entered menopause, I took soy isolfavones to help reduce my miserable menopausal night sweats and to combat the belly I was building.

The night sweats didn't stop and the meno-pot magnified. I burped all the time and had alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea.

My moods swung wildly all day, all evening and into my sleep. I cut back on my meat and fat intake and ate more carbohydrates, upping my soy supplements.

Big mistake. I was physically and mentally miserable and I kept getting fatter.

My doctor wanted to give me Prilosec for the burping, take a stool softener for my constipated days, an anti-depressant for my irritable and unpredictable mood swings, Lunesta to help me sleep and HRT for my increasing menopausal symptoms.

Thank goodness I found Paul Chek, the Weston A. Price Foundation, the Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation and David Getoff! The realization that I was poisoning myself with soy and excessive carbohydrate consumption was a lightning fast eye-opening and totally life changing moment.

Plunging into the pharmaceutical pill-popping, post-50 lifestyle didn't sound at all appealing to me.

I was (and still am) also incredibly outraged by media driven propaganda the soy industry and the FDA endorse.

My mission, since that light bulb moment, is to help people wade through the incredible amount of equally incredibly confusing information bombarding us daily.

Not only that, the drugs we're taking to keep us "healthy" actually keep us dulled, fatigued and require more drugs to combat the symptoms brought on by the drugs we're already taking!

Read Dianne's book. Her passion and her mission mirror mine exactly.

We speak from experience and are committed to our work of opening minds to regain the vitality that is all our birthright. Go to my own Web site for some great articles and videos that are fun and informative. Read your labels carefully; our packaged food is literally swimming in soy and soy by-products.

The WAPF and PPNF Web sites are loaded with deeply referenced articles written by critically thinking PhDs, MDs, RDs, LDs and Certified Nutritionists who aren't fooled by the billions-of-bucks backed rhetoric the FDA, Big Food and Big Pharma pump out.

Personally I believe the latter three are the true Axis of Evil; they sincerely hope you think we're all a bunch of quacks.
Sick, fat, miserable Americans are good business for Big Food, Pharma and the FDA.

I happily thumb my nose at the FDA and commercials on TV. At 53, I'm fit, fierce, feisty and prescription free and so are my clients.

And if not prescription free, my clients find they can reduce or eliminate many if not all their meds. They also learn to eat plenty of really good, wholesome food that's good for them.

Get off the soy loaded with all its hidden dangers. Your body will reward you handsomely and you'll keep lots of money in your pockets where it belongs instead of in the coiffures of Big Food, Pharma and the FDA.

DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in this column are for information only and not intended to replace your current medical protocols. Always consult your health practitioner before undertaking any dietary changes or exercise programs.

Nancy is a CHEK Institute Holistic Lifestyle and Exercise coach and an ACE certified, IDEA awarded Master personal fitness trainer. She helps clients find optimal health and fitness through practical nutrition, holistic conditioning and lifestyle coaching out of her home in SeaTac. For more information contact Nancy at 206-852-4768 or visit her Web site at www.nancyjerominski.com