Are soy products bad for breast cancer?

Revkat

My dietitian wants me to eat edarmine (SP?).  She said it was "A must" at least once a week.  I have searched and searched and can only find Made in China.  Can you please provide the brand name ???

Thanks much

Erica

Japanese women do have lower bc rates and Japanese people also consume on average 13 milligrams of iodine per day. 

The USDA has declared the recommended daily allowance for iodine to be 150 MICROgrams. This amount is only ONE percent of what Japanese people consume daily.  We already have a lengthy thread on iodine for anyone interested.  

Just read this:

• Excessive iodine intake (over thirty times rda) can produce a metallic taste and sores in the mouth,
   swollen salivary glands, diarrhea, and vomiting
• High doses of supplemental iodine may upset the stomach

Funny but that's kinda what chemo does to a lot of people. Seriously there are lots of good food sources for iodine. If we all ate truly healthy diets rich in vegetables and low in dairy/meats with high fat and more fish we would need fewer supplements.

But it can't be EVERYTHING in moderation! That includes thing that are NOT okay. I guess it's just the saying that bugs me.

Like when people say "As long as you have your health." Well, I DON"T!!!!!!!

I think it's really important that our decisions be made on evidence and not on what we hear over the lunch table.  Even if we get it from a nutritionist or a doctor, I would insist on knowing what studies their advice is based on.  There are lots of logical reasons why soy might or might not be protective or bad for cancer, but logical reasons are not DATA.

Right now, the only actual data is that large scale study of Asian women and it showed strongly that soy was protective, even against ER+ cancers.  Is there really anyone out there who has not been eating soy since birth?  Where in the English speaking world do people not have Chinese food? My kids were having dim sum when they were less than a year old, and we had "chop suey" and the like even when I was very young (and I'm 46 now). 

I would be very interested to hear ANY actual scientific data against soy and breast cancer.  In the absence of data, it's just speculation and scare-mongering.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I get very frustrated with professionals too who spread their thoughts as fact and scare people.

I agree prettyinpink although I think I've been eating more Asian food than many Asian Americans. Thai, Korean, Japanese, Chinese love it all. In grad school my roommates would tease me that I cut up my hot dogs so I could eat them with chops sticks.

Barbe, I'm not even sure what your point is anymore, except somehow you think I'm wrong about everything. What you copied and pasted only confirmed what I've been saying -- there is no evidence that eating whole soy foods will hurt you if you have breast cancer. The next post (with the link!) is about farming in other parts of the world. In the US there is a very strong organic farming movement, it is possible to find healthy food here.

Finally, you threw in the statistic about the relationship of breast implants to a rare form of lymphoma. The incidence among women without implants is 3 out of 100 million. Which is much less than 60 out of 10 million, by a factor of 100.

My position on soy is -- eat whole soy foods, not isolated soy protein. Don't worry about soy lecithin (an emulsifier used in very small quantities in processed foods). If you don't like soy or don't want to eat it, you don't have not. Not eating soy will not hurt you. Neither will eating whole soy foods as part of a healthy diet. In my opinion, this is the position best supported by the data.

That's all I have to say on the matter. 

revkat, I got the stats on Lymphoma and implants (which I don't have) on another thread from someone else. I didn't make it up. Promise!

As for my points, I did state that the availability of non-GMO soy in the US is only 9%; as 91% is GMO'd. 100-91=9. That was easy, peasy.

I certainly don't think you're wrong about everything! At what point exactly did I say that, and I'll certain edit my post. You asked for what I was reading and I posted a quick couple of items I found when I Googled "soy and breast cancer". But hey, I'm repeating myself.

I posted the link about the farming of soy in other countries because of the harm it is doing to the environment. Don't you care? Aren't you concerned that your "organic" soy is sprayed with toxins? I certainly would care.....

You have seen other posts by other ladies stating what their DOCTORS have told them, including oncologists. Why are you picking on what I say?\

Eating an ER+ food when you have ER+ cancer is just irresponsible. Hopefully, that's all I have to say on the matter.

Wanna try some crack?

My nutritionist also told me that "whole" soy is ok. I could have things like Miso soup, but no soy milk or tofu, etc... I've had a hard time cutting it out- its in almost everything! I've changed to Almond milk and try to steer clear as much as possible. I figure better safe than sorry.

Thanks so much, ddlatt, for that excellent link.  I agree with them that it's really hard for any medical professional to keep up on every aspect of everything, so it's really important that we try to keep an eye on the research (and on articles like this one) ourselves so we can bring them up with our doctors and nutritionists to discuss. 

I'm BRCA1, so I really liked the information that soy can help damaged cells die--that's something that is very useful for us mutants!

Barbe, I'm really uncomfortable with being called irresponsible (or  with any name-calling in this forum).  Reading the research carefully and making an informed decision is not irresponsible, even if it's not the decision that you yourself would make.  And there is no such thing as an "ER+ food" in any case--that's a meaningless term.  Foods don't have estrogen receptors (possibly excepting breastmilk, and I suspect few of us are consuming that!)

Thanks again for that wonderful article, ddlatt.

MOTC, I agree.  There are no definitive answers on soy.  

The studies that are favorable for the most part have been done on women in China who grew up with an Asian diet. There's evidence that consuming something from birth may (but not necessarily) impact the way that one's body deals with this substance.  So it's questionable (but certainly not clear) as to whether these studies apply to those who grew up on a western diet. 

The studies that are unfavorable for the most part were studies done on mice.

Here's a great article from 2006 that summarizes pretty much all of the research on soy and breast cancer that was available up to that time:  Addressing the Soy and Breast Cancer Relationship

Since 2006 most of the studies that have come out have been quite favorable towards soy, even for those who are ER+, but here again most of the studies were done in Asia so whether these apply or not to those of us in the West is questionable.

For the past few years breastcancer.org have posted a Q&A following the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium to address issues that were discussed during the conference.  Here's what bc.org have had to say about soy:

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After the 2010 SABCS: Soy and flax in relation to ER+ breast cancer? 

Question - julie: What is the thought now on soy/flax intake in estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancers?

Answers - Eric Winer, M.D.: I always tell patients the same thing about this: they should eat foods that they enjoy, and that provide good nourishment. I do not believe that women need to either increase or decrease their consumption of either soy or flax to prevent a recurrence of cancer since we do not have data to support such a recommendation. I think concentrated soy products are foods, so I don't think people should eat them as a medicine. If someone wants to drink soymilk, that's OK with me.
Marisa Weiss, M.D.: Soy foods such as soy milk, tofu, edamame, etc. can be a healthy part of your diet if you enjoy them, but I have concerns about people using pharmaceutically concentrated soy products beyond what they're taking for nutritional needs. We just don't know the safety when you load up on these items.

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After the 2009 SABCS:  Is any amount of soy safe for people with breast cancer? 

Question - rev002: Is any amount of soy safe to use if you have breast cancer?
Answer - Kathy Miller, M.D.: There is information from some new studies suggesting that soy is safe to eat and that women who had a diet higher in soy had a lower risk of recurrence. It's important to remember that there may have been many other differences besides the amount of soy they ate, and this study did not look at soy supplements that you might find in a health food store. 

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We each need to do our own research (or review the research that others provide), talk to our own doctors, dietitians and nutritionists (but recognize that they may not be up-to-date) and make our own decisions. No one should judge anyone else for the decision that they make. 

Okay, I'll back down on the word "irresponsible" only because it upset people. But saying anything in moderation doesn't work for the alcoholic who can't have alcohol. I'm just saying.....

I will say that it would be irresponsible of ME to add soy to my diet. There. I take accountability for my comment.

I am just watching a show on PBS with Dr David Servan-Schreiber.  Talking about soy he says that all soy is very high in omega 6.  Omega 6 not only stimulates inflammation (BAD) and cell growth.