Soy is fine!

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In case you didn't see the study posted on the home page I thought I'd flag it.  It found that soy is not harmful and may even be protective, even for women with er+ cancers.  I have long suspected this based on the patterns of breast cancer in populations with soy-based diets.  I was always advised it was OK in moderation and I have continued to eat tofu, which I love.  Of course one study is only one study and you may want to wait for more, but I do think soy in moderation is fine.

Comments

  • tkone
    tkone Member Posts: 511
    edited January 2010

    Yippee, Yippee, Yippee!

  • NativeMainer
    NativeMainer Member Posts: 10,462
    edited January 2010

    That's the sense I've gotten from the reports of a number of small studies.  Soy is such a good food it would be a shame if women who like it couldn't eat it.  I suspect moderation is the key, as in all things.  So, since my mind obviously understands the benefits of soy, why does my gut tie itself up in a knot every time I even think about eating something soy based?  Funny how the mind and gut have different ideas, isn't it? 

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited January 2010

    NativeMainer, this is why your gut ties itself up in a knot.

    http://www.westonaprice.org/Soy-Alert/

     Soy Alert!

    Confused About Soy?--Soy Dangers Summarized

    • High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
    • Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
    • Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
    • Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
    • Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.
    • Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
    • Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
    • Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
    • Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
    • Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.
  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited January 2010

    Lucy, i don't know where this information comes from but the studies show that soy does not promote breast cancer and may even help prevent it.  And although I eat tofu, I recently had my vitamin D levels checked and they are fine.  Anecdotal, i know, but I don't see a source for your information.

     Obviously, if you are concerned about soy you should avoid it.  But as a vegetarian I find it a welcome part of my diet. 

  • lexislove
    lexislove Member Posts: 2,645
    edited January 2010

    Good to know!

    I saw this a few weeks back and immediatly went to the grocery store to get my veggie burgers and some tofu. Was getting kinda bored of fish, chicken.....fish, chicken.

    I love my tofu stirfry's!

    Thanks for posting.

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited January 2010

    Member, as per netiquette, I placed the link source for the negative soy findings at the top of the post.

    Processed soy protein isolate is a junk food. There is a lot of research for this--also on the myth that the Asians eat a soy-based diet. The Asians eat soy sparingly, mostly fermented (Miso) and in combination with high mineral sea vegetables. An Asian would never eat soy burgers or the fakest food of all, soy "milk."

    People are going to eat soy irrespective of the facts. I just thought I'd post the info. I eat soy sauce and Miso but wouldn't touch the fake soy foods because they suppress the thyroid.

  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited January 2010

     Caution   When a link to this study was posted earlier in another thread, I raised a big red flag.  I'll do it again here (but I couldn't find a red flag so I posted a "caution" sign instead).

    This is a study of Chinese women.  The fact that Chinese women who've had breast cancer react positively to soy is not surprising; this finding is in fact fully consistent with previous studies. But other studies have shown that women raised on a western diet (i.e. little to no soy) do not have the same positive results from consuming soy and in fact, for these women, soy may be harmful.  So from my standpoint, this study is meaningless to those who of us who were not raised on a diet heavy on soy.  And personally I think it is irresponsible of those reporting on the study (including the authors of the study) to not point out this very important fact.

    Having said that, I'm by no means saying that soy is harmful and/or not beneficial for North American women.  The problem is that we just don't know enough.  Some small studies have shown negative results but there hasn't been a definitive long-term study.  One study showed that if girls start to consume soy when they are young (just like those in China) - at least by their pre-teen and teen years - this reduces the risk of breast cancer later on.  So while it's not known if soy is good for those of us raised on western diets who've had ER+ breast, it is likely that soy is exactly the right thing for our daughters to be consuming from an early age.

  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited January 2010

    Thanks Beesie, this is fascinating and doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I accept it.  I still think that in moderation (I never drink soy milk or anything like that) tofu is fine.

  • Claire_in_Seattle
    Claire_in_Seattle Member Posts: 4,570
    edited January 2010

    I will eat tofu when in Asian dishes.

    Otherwise. BLECH!!!!   Jumped for joy when my oncologist told me to lay off the stuff and not use as a source of protein.

    Long journey from the initial bean to the heavily processed phony meats that abound.  I can see no reason why a soy hot dog processed with the same stuff as your regular ballpark grease ball would be anything any of us would want to eat.

    And there are so many delicious alternatives such as the chicken pie I made and will heat up for dinner.

    As for ice cream, I go for small amounts of the super premium stuff.  Infinitely more satisfying.

  • Yazmin
    Yazmin Member Posts: 840
    edited January 2010

     Lexilove, I believe you wrote:

    "......I saw this a few weeks back and immediatly went to the grocery store to get my veggie burgers and some tofu."

    My understanding was that soy FOODS were OK in moderation, but not soy supplements. Anway, I am sure that the jury will be out for a long time on soy.........

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited January 2010

    I looked into soy years ago as I'm lactose intolerant and got the same China studies over and over until one finally admitted that only those raised on soy had a protection factor for bc, otherwise it can be a trigger. I didn't use it, thank God, as I am ER+ and I would have blamed myself.

    This topic has gone back and forth and probably still will for many more years. I believe anything in moderation is fine. Now.....define moderation! It's just been revealed that moderation in alcohol for a women is 2 drinks or LESS a week! Not my idea of moderation....

    Also, the amount of soy in a burger can't be all that much....can it?

  • Member_of_the_Club
    Member_of_the_Club Member Posts: 3,646
    edited January 2010

    Where did you read that 2 drinks a week or less is moderation?  I have about three glasses of wine a week and I sure don't think of myself as a heavy drinker.

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited January 2010

    It was on this board MOTC, I was pretty shocked myself, as I used to have more than 2 drinks a NIGHT! Check out recent threads on alcohol as it is posted there. It's on bco, though....

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 19,757
    edited January 2010

    MOTC, I just went to the bco search engine and typed "moderate alcohol" and it came up with the link to the SABCS that made the claim. Scary, eh?

  • motheroffoursons
    motheroffoursons Member Posts: 333
    edited January 2010

    Hi,

    About two years before my diagnosis of DCIS, i had asked my pcp about what to take for menopausal hot flashes.  It was recommended black cohosh and soy isoflavenes.

    Now I always wonder if the 6 months or so of the soy supplements triggered the DCIS.

    As a result, I am not gung ho about a lot of supplements as well as anything containing soy.  I pick and choose carefully.  I know I still get some soy in the vitamin pills, etc. as it is everywhere, and soybean oil.  I still just try to limit what I know I am consuming.

  • Fantomia
    Fantomia Member Posts: 16
    edited January 2010

    I think those researches about soy intake is very inaccurate and confusing as most of them measure soy intake in total and not differ between the different ways of eating soy - processed textured soy, natural soy beans and tofu + other traditional ways of eating soy. Here in western countries we mostly eat processed textured tofu protein witch I agree with lucy88 to be regarded as junk food as they're made under high temperatures and with use of chemicals etc that changes the component - in a similar way making margarine of plant oils changes the plant oils. But natural soy can be hard to digest because soy has a lot of anti-nutrition's (a protection in the plant - which it needs because it is so nutritious) that interferes with the nutrition in other food we eat. That's why Japanese and Chinese make tofu or ferment the soy. Making tofu is quite another process than making textured soy protein - I've made it myself, you simply separate the protein (after making soy milk by grounding the soaked beans) with for instance sea salt or vinegar (it's very easy to make). My stomach reacts on non-processed soy (with gass) but not on tofu. I guess the anti-nutrition agents are left in the rest-stuff. Maybe the digesting system can adjust to natural soy - but nevertheless people traditional eating soy never eats whole dried beans.

    My natural doctor (he's a trained doctor in medicine that have chosen the alternative way instead of the established, and he is specialized on herbs) recommend eating tofu because the phytoestrogens take the estrogens place and in this way block the estrogens activity on cancer cells (= like tamoxifen does), but he tells me to stay away from hoops (beer!) and red clover (in a lot fo cleansing mixtures) because the phytoestrogens in them have shown activity on breast tissue (you can notice that men drinking a lot of beer are developing breasts).

    All beans & lentils & peas (legumes, is that the word for all of them?) are found to help the body get rid of estrogen instead of reusing it - witch maybe is the main problem with estrogen for women on a western diet; we reuse the estrogen.

    I eat tofu now and then - I like the taste and feel good eating it, and believe it helps getting rid of some estrogen - like flax sees, lentils, beans etc also does.

    I'm always sceptical to isolated supplements so I stay away form those. The fact that some nutrition's have good effect on health doesn't mean it will do so if we isolate the one part we think work - even if it work in vitrio. Our body is more compicated than the processes that can take place in a glass tube. Doing so just make it easier to pack & sell & brand the product - just as the poison we are recommended to take against our disease with very poor evidence. (I had a slow growing cancer - still my oncologist recommended chemo ("just in case" - they could not prove I had any disease left) - and chemo is shown to work best on cancer with high proliferation. Besides that, research shows that the chance for getting a new cancer after chemo is increased.

    Mia

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