What's the story with soy????

[Faithnj]

All the sudden I'm starting to see articles saying that eating a lot of soy might not be too good for you. (See the home page of the Active Low Carb Forum, under news--right hand column, for starters.) I'm getting emails from people telling me they won't eat anything with soy in it anymore. I don't know-- soy is kind of important to my diet. I probably eat one soy food almost every day, and I don't want to be giving it up just because of some alarmists who are creating a scare program based on tons of soy feed to mice. (You'd probably make mice sick if you fed them too much meat, also, you know what I mean?) But once you've heard enough of this kind of information, you have to wonder.


The fact that the "news" on soy often feels more like an alarming "attack," rather than something coming from a scientific organization, makes me wonder if the beef industry isn't up to something! LOL! I mean, soy's in just about everything these days-- the beef hamburgers some kids eat at school are extended with soy, the cereal I eat has soy nuggets, my favorite veggie burgers are made of soy. Certainly some industries must be threatened by those of us who have switched to soy milk and soy bacon and whatnot. But on the other hand, there may be some validity to some of the info-- because some research is usually cited in the attacks. (Then again, if you want to obscure the truth, nothing helps like having a few "statistics" on hand, right? What's the saying? "There are lies, damn lies and statistics"?)

Anybody out there with a good head for research and statistics have an opinion on these latests attacks on soy? Or anybody out there who just wants to weigh in on how they feel about this?

Faith

[pecan]

i'll share a few of my thoughts on this. my own family was very worried about my vegetarianism because they, too, had heard of the negative effects of soy. they gave me two arguments, which i researched.

1. soy contains hormones.

2. soy has additives.

i did the research, and what i came up with is as follows.

1. yes, soy does contain estrogen. lets go back to the apple seed argument for a moment. "apple seeds contain cyanide!!" yes, they do! and that cyanide is of organic form, the kind which the body needs, the kind which prevents cancer. the estrogen in soy can not harm your body because it is of this same form.

2. a legume is a natural food that grows on the earth (which soy is, of course). it is perfectly healthy. however, man can certainly use additives when making products such as your favorite soy burgers. my best advice is to look in your ingredient list for NON-GMO (non genetically modified organic) soy. tofu and many such products DO have additives. lets not allow ourselves to generalize tofu and soybeans into the same category.

sorry if this doesn't help much, i know i'm not really listing any of my sources for this info. but if you do want more information, there is TONS of it online, just start running searches.

good luck :)

[Faithnj]

Thanks, Pecan. This is a good start. I'd welcome additional comments.

Anyone else?

Faith

[tortoise]

I think it is neither the Food of Satan nor God's Greatest Food Gift - it gets painted both ways, doesn't it?

I just posted this link on a soy thread in the Media Watch forum. It's one of the few balanced things I've seen:

http://www.radiantrecovery.com/soy4303html.htm

[innermusic]

1. yes, soy does contain estrogen.

No it doesn't. Soy contains substances that are similar in molecular structure to estrogen, called phytoestrogens. But these are not estrogen and in fact may block the body's production of estrogen.

[black57]

I just purchased a bag of frozen soybeans and some canned black soybeans. What is the diference? Can I eat one kind of bean more than the other? My husband made chili this weekend and put the black soybeans in mine. They were good. I miss beans and I would like to be able to eat these even in moderation.

[Built]

Some people with estrogenic fat patterns (read: thunder thighs...<sigh!>) find that soy, because of it's phytoestrogens, makes it difficult to drop fat in these areas. I don't completely eschew soy, but I don't eat a whole lot of it for this reason.

[Amarylis]

I think alot of the talk about soy being bad is from the lab tests on mice. They force feed them extremely large amounts of things, and I don't care what it is, they'll have adverse reactions 99% of the time.

I like my soy :yum: and the only adverse reaction I have to it is an increase in gas. :lol: I feel better with my soy than without.

Here is another link about the safety of soy with more links for reference on their page. [url]http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/davis_soy_safe.htm

[black57]

Hi Amaryllis,

I also use soy flour to prepare fried chicken. Soy is a big help with my low carb diet. I don't want to overdo it but I do want to be able to use it freely.

Black