Hey. Huh? Hey, up here, inside your head, oh you can't see me dummy, I'm the voice inside your
head. What? Nevermind, listen, you know what you're eating? Yea, a chocolate bar. No, do you know what you're actually eating?
Look at the ingredients list for me. What's the first ingredient? Chocolate. Okay, that's okay, what's next?
Sugar. Okay, added sugar, real healthy. What's next? Cocoa butter. Alright, that's actually pretty good,
some good nutrients there. Okay, What's next? Soy lecithin emulsifier. Yea, soy lecithin.
You know what that is? No. So what is soy lecithin? Actually the first question is, what is lecithin?
It's a mixture of phospholipids in oil, great, what's a phospholipid? Essentially a phospholipid is a
fat molecule that is able to dissolve in mixtures that contain both oil and water. So we're going to
look at how a phospholipid is able to bind water and oil together. We're going to go through this
in a very general sense. Let's start with a little deeper look into a phospholipid or fat molecule.
We start with a glycerol group, which acts like the backbone of the molecule. Attached to it is
a phosphate group and in lecithin, there is a choline group attached to the phosphate group.
Lastly we have two fatty acid chains that are attached to the glycerol group. Now let's take
a water drop and an oil drop. Normally they will not bind, however, when we throw our phospholipid
in, the phosphate group binds to the water drop, and the fatty acids bind to the oil drop. This process
is known as emulsification. And lecithin, is the great emulsifier. You'll find it in many processed
foods such as cooking sprays, and especially chocolate bars. So now that we know what lecithin
is, what about soy? I have a separate video posted where I discuss soy in-depth, I'll put a link to
that video on the screen and in the description box below. In general terms soybeans are processed
to separate the oil and protein contained in them. Once that is completed, lecithin is then
removed from the oil. Soy lecithin has some health benefits, it's high in choline which is essential
to cells, without it, cell membranes would harden. Choline is also vital for healthy liver function,
and it's now being sold as a dietary supplement. But make no mistakes about it soy lecithin's main
benefit is to the food industry. Its ability to emulsify and stabilize food, give that food
longer shelf-life, and we know those three words make each and every food manufacturer
salivate. One last tidbit for you folks, 90% of soy in America is genetically modified and goes
through processing that exposes it to chemicals. Bottom line, soy lecithin has some health benefits,
but if possible you want to stay away from the genetically modified, try and stick to the organic.