Now, here’s a prime example of how a little bit of information can be dangerous. Glycemic index and glycemic response are NOT the same thing. http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/short/28/7/1839 Use google or wikipedia to find out more about the differences.
Two posters have linked articles about the “glycemic index” of cereal grains (ridenslide and LarkspurCO). One shows a calculated glycemic index of cereal grains while the other shows the actual insulin response post-consumption. There is a difference.
This is why I hesitate to post nutrition-related topics because first of all, there is so much information and misinformation out there, and secondly, people are so passionate about their feed beliefs and programs that they often are not willing consider possibilities.
I don’t proclaim to know a lot about feeding horses, but I know a little and I am always looking for better. I am NOT saying that soy is the devil. 10 years ago corn was the devil. Then it was starch. Pretty soon I think fat may emerge as satan. It’s always going to be something.
What I do know is that soybeans have not remained the same, even if they have been used for decades. Farmers are using genetically engineered seeds, round-up ready beans and all kinds of other techniques monkeying with mother nature to enhance crop yield. Plus, you have to consider the state of the soybean when it goes into the feed. Is it heavily processed? Is it mostly whole or have parts been removed through that processing? My horses are all old, and we know that chronic and repeated exposure to something can create an allergy (like snake venom collectors who develop an allergy after decades of exposure, or those in the medical field who develop a psyllium allergy). Maybe my geriatric herd has just gotten to that point. The only way to diagnose would be to remove everything from the diet and start adding back in little by little. One of mine struggles to maintain weight so I’m not going that route.
There are a lot of vairiables that could be causing my horses’ (and other posters horses’) issues. I don’t really expect anything to happen when I remove soy from the diet. To have an expectation would be biasing my already empirical study. I control my pasture, hay, water, deworming program, and exercise and grooming program to the best of my ability already. I am still having some issues I’d like to resolve, and so I am going to adjust one of the few remaining variables which is under my control (i.e., removing soy). If it works, super, if not, well, on to the next thing.
I guess the point of this post is that I really hope this does get people thinking, but when you use google scholar, or read a study or get information, really try to digest what it is saying. Population studies of Japan are not to me because I have no Japanese ancestry, nor have I ever lived in Japan. There are so many variables there, a population study tells me nothing. Even when you read a study on equine nutrition, consider the variables there…did they use TBs or draft horses, what was the sample size, what were they actually studying? Just like in politics, you can put a spin on anything, and not all studies would past muster under scrutiny. Also, people often want to extrapolate more from the study than was actually proven.
