By: Caryn Tamber

A group of inmates at a prison in Illinois say they’re getting dangerously high levels of soy in their food.

According to a Chicago Tribune story, the inmates allege that they are getting up to 100 grams of soy per day, even though the FDA recommends about 25 grams per day. The soy is everywhere–in soy cheese, cooking oil, gravy, hot dogs, sloppy joes. The head of the foundation backing the lawsuit calls the high-soy diet “the Tuskegee of the 21st century.”

The inmates say they’re having big health issues, such as gastrointestinal difficulties, allergic reactions and heart problems.

One former inmate, who isn’t actually a plaintiff, said he is allergic to soy. Prison meals caused a big problem for him in the tight confines of a cell, he told the Tribune.

“Gas was really an issue,” said [Thomas] Salonis, who was released from prison last fall. “And most of my (cellmates) were real big, and they were like, ‘Hey man you gotta take that somewhere else.’ But I was like, ‘Where am I gonna take it?’ The whole thing was just offensive.”

The foundation head says the diet conditions at the prison represent an accidental experiment in “what happens when you feed people soy with no other choices. This situation has brought it out into the open.”

HT: ABA Journal.