The Ingredient List: Soy Lecithin

You hear from plenty of nutritionists and nutrition enthusiasts to read the ingredient labels on food and "don't buy anything with ingredients you can't pronounce or know what they are." Sounds easy. But the fact is that just about any food that goes through a decent amount of processing is going to contain ingredients we aren't quite familiar with. (On a side note, just about every food is "processed," what really matters is the degree of processing to get that final product. For example, frozen vegetables are processed in the sense that they are washed, cut and frozen. Bread is processed by combining ingredients, allowing the dough to rise and baking. Cheetos obviously go through a more complicated process to get their final form.)

To get to my point, while deciding between two snack bars today I was looking at the list of ingredients on each package and noticed that soy lecithin was an ingredient they both had in common. I am always up for learning something new, so here it is quick and dirty:

Dictionary definition of lecithin: "A substance widely distributed in animal tissues, egg yolk, and some higher plants, consisting of phospholipids linked to choline." (Note on choline: it's B vitamin that has been linked to brain development, reducing risk of heart disease and numerous other health benefits.)



Soy lecithin is extracted from soybean oil and is used as an "emulsifier, stabilizer, dispersing aid and as an incidental additive" in many foods. Examples include the nonstick properties of cooking sprays, helping in the distribution of ingredients in baked goods, increasing shelf stability, keeping the cocoa and cocoa butter in chocolate from separating and so on.  And obviously it is generally recognized as a safe food additive.

The main concerns with soy lecithin include pesticides and chemicals used on non-organic soybeans used in production, side effects from taking too much (only if you are taking it as a supplement; same goes for just about anything), presence of estrogen and sensitivities/allergies to soy.

Legit (so we hope) Resources:
The US FDA website