That all too often a vegetarian diet is blamed for things that aren't necessarily its fault...

I have suffered from polycystic ovarian disorder for years and it was suggested to me that my vegetarian diet and high soya intake might be a problem. I did not stop being a vegetarian, but I did cut my soya intake to nil for several years, with absolutely no benefits, and considerable weight gain.

Conversely, What no-one suggested to me was excluding dairy products. About eight months ago I gave up dairy products because of a variety of reasons (mainly ethical). Quite surprisingly, within three months all symptoms of my Polycystic Ovarian Disorder (painful, uncomfortable, demoralising and inconvenient) were gone without a trace and I lost a lot of weight, very quickly. It was not an expected result of quitting dairy, so don't think that it could be in some way psychosomatic. I don't know if the cysts are still there; they possibly are; but I would still recommend a dairy free diet to anyone with gynaecological problems, in particular PCOD, because of the enormous improvement doing so has made to my condition and my life.

That aside, I maintain that the south asian diet is high in both soya and fermented soya (my chinese and japanese ex-boyfriends would bear witness to this) and that the incidence of gynaecological cancers there is lower than in the west. People do indeed seem very willing to blame ill health on vegetarian diets, but very unwilling to consider that it might be hormones and chemicals in animal products, or just its indigestibility, that might be causing a problem.

I think as a rule, moderation and variety is important in your diet, and I can't help but think it's better to get your protein from a variety of sources. I eat soya products every day in one way or another, and I don't worry about it. I think if people do suffer from ill-health whilst following a veggie diet it's more likely to be because they are not implementing it properly - not that it's hard. Many vegetarians find themselves overdosing on refined carbohydrates, though, (ie, eating a LOT of pasta and the like) and I think that is more likely to cause trouble.