Another Soy Warning

Mentalmiss

http://articles.mercola.com:80/sites/articles/archive/2008/3/6/weston-a-price-foundation-to-fda-soy-is-no-health-food.aspx

Can't read that mentalmiss can you give me the gist?

Peanut

Some of the comments on that article are very suspect, re: asian cultures "They do not eat unfermented soy" - a quick stroll into any of the Chinese food stores here will put that to rest.

I do think that too much soy, like a lot of things, may have not so good effects, however I think for the quantities that most people or veggies will consume it doesn't appear to be a problem.

Another comment reads

"None of the Soy meat substitutes are natural."

Again this is really subjective, in essence everything originates from nature - what I imagine they are saying is that they believe it's too processed, fair enough, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is, by definition, bad.

Hmmm and this one is a classic! -

"This is the real reason behind the "epidemic" of homosexuality and for the breakdown in society.

Soy.

I think it was done deliberately, if not by the corporates, then by the spiritual forces behind them."

Oh yes soy... the cause of all that's wrong with the world.. sorry but I will keep my Alpro Strawberry and chocolate drinks thank's all the same!!!

Lol at soyas affect on sexuality.

sweet-rasmus

ha!

Peanut

News article from today..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7490202.stm

"Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests.
..
The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.
..
There is some evidence that they may protect the brains of younger and middle-aged people from damage - but their effect on the ageing brain is less clear.
..
The latest study also found that eating tempe, a fermented soy product made from the whole soy bean, was associated with better memory."

There's a lot of potentially conflicting info there which suggests that it's too early to reach a definitive conclusion on the effects of soy, it's kind of interesting though.

I'm screwed so....I can just about recall where I am as it is.

I actually tried tempeh a couple of weeks ago, it is a bit guinessey.

sweet-rasmus

odd. odd indeed.

dynastygal

Oh well, I'd rather have memory loss than the abundance of illnesses associated with consuming animal products

El_Dangeroso

Soy is only bad for you if it's unfermented. The fermentation gets rid of most of the phytic acid and other anti-nutrients.

Fermented soy products include:

# Cheonggukjang
# Chunjang
# Doenjang
# Doubanjiang
# Gochujang
# Miso
# Natto
# Sweet noodle sauce
# Tamari
# Tauchu
# Tempeh
# Tofu

* Pickled tofu
* Stinky tofu

# Yellow soybean paste

Stinky tofu sounds particularly appetising!

Whispered

Peanut wrote: »

The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.
.

Well now in all fairness - vegetarianism in past decades was very very much a "hippie" thing so if you're an over 68 vegetarian then chances are you were partaking in other hippie "passtimes" in the 50's,60's and 70's. Some of which, I do believe, can lead to memory loss?

che81

Maybe there are issues with soy, but like another poster said, I'd rather take my chances than eat animal products, which have been shown to be associated with so many different health problems. Besides a lot of animals are fed on soy now, so that would invariably end up in meat anyway. A lot of processed foods use soy also. I think it's scaremongering for the veggies, but most people are consuming soy in some way.

cozmik

More bad news.

Two hormone-like compounds linked to the consumption of soy-based foods can cause irreversible changes in the structure of the brain, resulting in early-onset puberty and symptoms of advanced menopause in research animals, according to a new study by researchers at North Carolina State University.

http://news.ncsu.edu/news/2008/07/wmspatisaulneurotox.php

dynastygal

First of all, I'm not a female rat, so I'm not too scared about what sadists 'discover' on an animal that is another species. And frankly if it were to affect me I'd be more interested in why the sadists feel the need to do such to the rats when they don't need to than what would happen to me.

Peanut

I think it's worth bearing in mind that many perfectly healthy substances will make you ill if you eat/drink/ingest too much of them.

There isn't much suggestion that eating normal levels of soy products will have any significant effect.

cozmik

dynastygal wrote: »

First of all, I'm not a female rat, so I'm not too scared about what sadists 'discover' on an animal that is another species. And frankly if it were to affect me I'd be more interested in why the sadists feel the need to do such to the rats when they don't need to than what would happen to me.

I would never suggest you were a female rat.Just so you know many of the concerns you have voiced I share.But I don't think we should dismiss the findings of a study because we don't like the methods used to obtain the data.

Mentalmiss

dynastygal wrote: »

Oh well, I'd rather have memory loss than the abundance of illnesses associated with consuming animal products

There is no reason that you have to have either. Soy is not compulsory for vegies. Lots of us do nicely without it.

dynastygal

I didn't say it was compulsory, however, I choose to eat soy because I like it...I like tofu, and soy yoghurts and so on.

That said, soy is in pretty much everything so you'd have to cut out a lot of food to avoid soy.

sweet-rasmus

I actually keep soya out of my regular diet and it isn't too difficult. I get sunflower spread (hard to obtain alright), vegan mayonnaise with no soya and I drink oatmilk. The only time I have soya is if there is fake meat about while I am cooking for my other half (who loves the stuff) or if I need to use the soya cream to make a dessert (though... I saw an oatly cream when I was in France.... but no sign of it here in Ireland!). All in moderation you see!!

As you can imagine it can be easier for vegetarians to avoid soya rather than vegans, cause so many dairy products are replaced by soya.

I think she mean soya lecithin which is ubquitious in processed foods.

dynastygal

You won't be cutting it out completely though if you eat stuff like cereals, crisps and what not.

Exactly what moonbaby said...it's in tonnes of food that's on your shop shelves. Unless you buy fresh ingredients for everything you probably aren't able to avoid it.

sweet-rasmus

I generally make my meals from scratch and don't use processed foods but yeah, I see soya lecitin is in the Pure spread alright, so I stick with another brand.

AARRRGH

Isn't consuming soy similar to taking the pill, i.e. it's full of plant estrogen?

sweet-rasmus

Haven't heard that. If you have any references/links, stick them in. Otherwise...

Tar.Aldarion

it has a chemical that is similar to estrogen but is 1000 times weaker than that made in your body. There are other plants/foods etc that contain the same.

sweet-rasmus

I was reading in Chemistry World Magazine (September 2008 issue) earlier and they have a piece:

Soy and Sperm Count
Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health have reported a small-scale study suggesting that eating soy products might lower sperm count. The researchers, publishing in Human Reproduction(DOI:10.1093/humrep/den243), think that isoflavones might be interfering with the body's hormone signals.

Tar.Aldarion

Another advantage!

Sapsorrow

I'm doin my thesis on soy phytoestrogens and breast cancer at the moment so as you can imagine i'm up to my eyeballs in science journals and reports on soy and all it supposed health benifits and negative side effects also. For some really good info on it check out PUBMED and science direct if you want the latest info and studies. It's very contradictory a lot of it, in terms of oestrogenicity, it acts as an oestrogent agonist or antagonist depending on a persons level of 'homemade' oestrogen. Also the thing about different types of soy seems to be that the type of processing affects the active constituents in the soy foods and the arguement is that asians eat a higher proportion of unprocessed soy foods compared to western countries. Some scientists feel that processing soy can affect the phytoestrogen status. it's very interesting stuff though

Sapsorrow

my personal opinion is that the stuffs fecking great though thank god for smoked tofu!

El_Dangeroso

Asian's eat the fermented soy, tofu and soysauce and the like.

Where it becomes a problem is when soybean oil and soy flour (both unfermented) becomes a staple in your diet.