history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

“Dr. Miller spent most of his time from 1960 to 1973 in
East Asia. He practiced surgery until the age of 93. In 1961
his biography China Doctor by Raymond S. Moore was
published by Harper & Bros. In 1963 Dorothea Van Gundy
Jones in The Soybean Cookbook wrote: ‘Certainly Dr. Miller
has done more than any other person to introduce soybeans
and soybean products, especially the milk, to the population
of this country.’
“In 1973 Dr. Miller formally retired from medical
practice and returned to California, where he spent the last
few years of his life doing the work he loved so much:
soyfoods research. He lived about one mile from Loma
Linda Foods in Riverside, and he walked to work each
morning. He continued his experiments with tofu and
soymilk, making improved acidophilus soymilk, tofu-based
cheese, and cheese spreads. He made a good tofu-based
Cheddar cheese but could not make it melt. His later years
were not as productive as they might have been since, in
old age, he had lost most of his sense of smell; when he
would ask others how new products tasted, they would often
tend to fl atter him instead of giving an honest and objective
response. Yet this work was still of real potential value.
“In 1972 the Southern Asia Division of the Adventist
church asked Mr. Pinnick of Mt. Vernon to go to India to
set up a soymilk plant at their Spicer Memorial College in
Poona. In March 1973 Dr. Miller fl ew over from Hong Kong
to help the operation get started. Pinnick writes: ‘He would
work all day with us at the plant (at age 94) then spend
nearly-every evening speaking to some group on healthful
living. There seemed to be no limit to his endurance.’
“Starting in 1975, while in Japan, I exchanged numerous
letters with Dr. Miller. He typed each letter himself and was
always full of questions about new developments in tofu
and soymilk production in Japan. In 1976 he sponsored
and hosted a program about tofu and soymilk that my wife
and I did for several hundred members of the faculty and
community of Loma Linda University, La Sierra campus.
During the day of our visit he took us through his pilot plant
and described his latest experiments making tofu-based
fermented cheese spreads. He seemed extremely alert and
well informed.
“Dr. Miller died on New Year’s Day, 1977, at the age of
97, just as he was getting ready to go to his beloved church.
“Harry Miller was a shining example of what the
Chinese call ‘The Great Man.’ He dedicated his life to the
welfare of all beings, human and nonhuman. He chose a
life of voluntary simplicity, fi nding his real joy in giving.
Close associates estimate that, in professional fees alone,
he turned over some $2.5 million to the hospitals, church,
and nutritional work with which he was connected. Spiritual
values were at the center of his life. Though world famous,
he was the most humble of men; though very busy, he had
time for each person who needed him. His vision was fi fty
years ahead of his time. He left an indelible impression on
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 176
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the world. Would that he could he here with us now to see
the blossoming of his work in America and around the globe.
“The author wishes to give special thanks to Dr.
Miller’s two sons, Willis and Clarence, and to Glen Blix,
plant manager at the Loma Linda Mt. Vernon plant, for
extensive information provided in interviews and letters. For
a bibliography of Dr. Miller’s publications, send a SASE to
Soyfoods magazine.” Address: Lafayette, California.
428. Shurtleff, William. 1981. Early history of soymilk.
Soyfoods 1(4):31. Winter.
• Summary: Note: This was published as a sidebar to the
article “Dr. Harry Miller: Taking soymilk around the world.”
“It is important to understand Dr. Miller’s soymilk
research, writing, and product development in their proper
historical perspective.
“Soymilk is thought to have been developed in China by
Liu An, King of Huai-nan in about 164 B.C. In most parts of
China, soymilk has long been used as a spicy hot breakfast
soup (sien tou-chiang) or as a warm, sweetened beverage
(t’ien tou-chiang). Yet it had not traditionally been used as a
substitute for mothers milk or cow’s milk in infant feeding.
and its nutritive value for infant feeding was virtually
unknown. By 1923, as described with photographs by Piper
and Morse in their classic, The Soybean, a soymilk factory
in Changsha, China (p. 231) was selling soymilk in bottles,
each sealed with paper, and carried in baskets suspended
from shoulder poles. This was 13 years before Dr. Miller’s
soy dairy opened in Shanghai.
“The fi rst known mention of soymilk in a Western
publication was in 1895 by H.C. Prinsen Geerligs, a Dutch
scientist who lived and traveled in Southeast Asia, and
wrote an article entitled ‘Einige Chinese Voedingsmiddelen
Mit Soyabonen Bereid’ [Some Chinese Foods Made
with Soybeans]. The fi rst English-language article on
soymilk, entitled ‘Soybeans and Soybean Products,’ was
published by H. Trimble in 1896 in the American Journal
of Pharmacology. In 1906 Katayama in Tokyo wrote
‘Condensed Vegetable Milk,’ and in 1907 J. Rurah published
the fi rst article on infant formulas entitled ‘The Soybean
in infant Feeding’ in Archives of Pediatrics, followed in
1910 by ‘The Soybean as an Article of Diet for infants.’
Some 30 journal articles had been published by 1928 and
at least 66 by 1936. In 1926 Dr. Ernest Tso of the Peking
Union Medical College published his fi rst of many studies in
English on feeding infants water-extracted soymilk. Entitled
‘Soybean Milk–Infant Feeding,’ it appeared in the American
Journal of Physiology. He published fi ve more similar
studies prior to 1931.
“The fi rst patent for soymilk was issued to Li Yu Ying
in Britain in 1910. A German patent was issued to Goessel in
1911. The fi rst U.S. patents were issued to Goessel (1913),
Li Yu Ying (1913) and Monahan and Pope (1915); the latter
was the fi rst issued to American citizens. By the time Dr.