People have heard me say that I don’t feed my family soy products and I don’t feed my goats soybeans. So I am occasionally asked, “Why then do you use soybean oil in your soaps that your children use on their skin?” There are several reasons:
1. We use organic soybean oil. We do not feed the goats soybeans because most animal soy feed is now genetically modified (GMO). Organic soybean oil is derived from soybean fields that are non-GMO.
2. We want to give people with allergies a choice. We have many customers that have different allergies. We have customers allergic to soybean oil, sunflower oil, and even olive oil. So we decided to make different soaps that contain different oils so that people have an option. Our essential oil soaps and purity soaps contain sunflower oil. The organic castile and calendula soaps contain olive oil. And the fragrance oil soaps contain soybean oil.
3. The soybean phytoestrogens are destroyed by the saponification process. When I first started making soap, I spoke with a chemist I trusted about whether or not the phytoestrogens in soy would “survive” the saponification (soapmaking) process. While he did not test it, he was confident they would not survive. Phytoestrogens are why I prefer not to feed my family soy products.
4. We support American organic farmers. Growing organic soybeans here in the US is something we encourage and support.
So while we avoid GMO soybeans where possible, and we don’t eat organic soy because of the phytoestrogens, I feel that using organic soybean oil in my soap and on my children’s skin is a safe and healthy alternative.
For those of you who are allergic to soy or wish to avoid it altogether, all of our unscented and essential oil soaps as well as our liquid soap are soy free.
I hope that clarifies! Just let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for this information! A friend of mine was looking for a natural soap for her daughter who is highly allergic to soy among many other things. It’s nice to have an overview of why soy is used and which bars don’t contain it.
And that’s it – there are so many people allergic to everything out there. We try to provide alternatives so that everybody has something they can try! PJ
Its amazing how many things have Gmo s now days I try to stay away for them but seems so hard at times
That’s exactly it! I try to not make myself crazy over it. Where I can avoid it, I can. But if something is going to have GMO cornstarch in it as one of the trace ingredients, I don’t let that bother me. PJ
Does the soap making process destroy the bad stuff in soy even if its GMO?
I have some crisco oil I only used once and shortly after that last pie crust I made I realized I didn’t want to ever use it in food, I never tossed it and its still good but not for human consumption. I was just wondering if I made soap with it if the little bit of soy in it would be harmful because it is GMO. I was just wondering if whether or not the phytoestrogens in GMO soy would “survive” the saponification (soapmaking) process. I hate wasting, I was thinking it would be good for something! Maybe a survival soap. Or should I just toss the crisco.
Everybody will have a different opinion on that. My opinion is that if you are basically eating healthy and using healthy skin care, there is not enough phytoestrogens in that to cause you a problem. But I am basically a “thrifty” person and would hate to toss it. Some people are more “purist” than me (I don’t say that in a bad way) and would tell you to toss it. You’ll have to decide for yourself. PJ
Well… that’s a tough question because I don’t have a lab to verify it myself. My belief is that the saponification process destroys the phytoestrogens (GMO or not). But I don’t have any laboratory proof of that. PJ
I perceive some confusion here. The oil from soy beans, even if
the plant is genetically modified, e.g. to resist a weedkiller or pest,
is not itself modified. That is, the oil is a simple lipid, comprising
chains of fatty acids and glycerol. The oil is a simple product from the
plant, and the genetic aspect, i.e. the nuclear information in the
plant cells, is not passed into the oil. So GMO or not, a pure oil
should be free of genetic markers. Some confusion often creeps in
between the GMO aspect of plant development and the presence of
isoflavones in the oil and protein, i.e. the natural products found in all soya detivatives. Such vague descriptors
as “bad stuff” is media hype, not science based. The articles at
http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/040114p52.shtml and at http://freefromharm.org/health-nutrition/vegan-doctor-addresses-soy-myths-and-misinformation may go some way to
debunk the myths and reveal the carefully considered aspects of using
soya for both men and women.
Interesting information! Thanks for sharing. PJ
That is very interesting information and something I will further research. Thanks for sharing. PJ