Health knowledge

The Funderburgs' four boys, my sisters, and I would construct forts in the hayloft in summer and go snowmobiling through the fields in winter. When I was old enough to wonder about such things, I asked Mr. Funderburg what it was that he grew on his farm. "Mostly soybeans," he told me.
When I was growing up in Chicago, my parents did what they could to enrich my urban experience by getting me out into nature from time to time. Twice a year, my family would head to nearby Rockford, Illinois, to spend some time with our friends the Funderburgs.
Since those carnivorous days in the 1970s, soy foods have gone from a niche product for the vegetarian-environmentalist crowd to a four-billion-dollar-a-year food industry. Soy is now on nearly every sushi bar menu (edamame) and is used as a vegetable oil, as a meat and dairy substitute, and as an inexpensive additive to increase the volume and improve the texture of many processed foods. The legume is so ubiquitous that it has found its way into everything from peanut butter to canned tuna. Many studies have shown the possible health benefits of eating soy, so most people consider it a "health food." After all, it's high in protein and has zero cholesterol—what could be wrong with that?