I have heard so many conflicting reports on soy. Is soy good for you (lets assume it is organically grown)?

I like tofu alot, but I'm worried that it is bad for the health.

I'm no soy expert but it seems a while back soy was really good for you. A vegetarians answer to protien. Now it's getting a bad rap.

I think soy products in moderation are fine. Haven't asian people been eating lots of soy for centuries? I think the problem is when people try and use soy as a protien substitute... soy burgers, soy milk, soy protien powder, soy protien bars. Too much of anything isn't good. I also don't think that it is a complete protien, but maybe the closest to complete a plant product has to offer.

Someone else will probebly give you a better answer, but I think a little tofu is great!

Fermented soy like miso is suppose to be best. Tofu can have loads of calcium, and I use it to boost my calcium intake. I don't think that Asians drink much soy milk, but they do eat tofu (at least I know they do in Japan)

I know that the isoflavones are supposed to be beneficial to women, but I've also heard that soy is associated with early dementia and that it interferes with the absorption of nutrients. Oh,well. Even the experts don't seem to agree at all on this one.

How about soy product for topical application? Do they have beneficial effects?

ZuZu,

I am confused about soy because there is so much c--p out there from both sides I guess, but what I read is not good.

In a nutshell, I believe that the way it is produced in the U.S. anyway (and probably the rest of N. America and Europe) is very bad. I can post the whole "production" process, but it will make you ill!

Basically, soy is not digestible, which is why the Asians learned to ferment it for 2 years before eating it! You can buy naturally fermented tamari instead of soy in health food stores and that is what I use if I cook with it once in a while.

Anyway, what happens when your body can't digest proteins is that you react to the foreign protein in your body much as you would to any other foreign protein, i.e., you develop allergy type symptoms.

There is other bad stuff, too. The process used to make soy "consumable" without fermenting uses tons of bad chemicals for you. It also has a ton of phytates in it, which block mineral absorption. The companies use even more chemcials to try to get rid of the phytates, but they can't get rid of all of them and you're left eating a bunch of very bad chemicals.

I know I'm being vague here. I just remember I didn't want to eat the stuff and forgot the details, although I can find them!

I do believe there was a lot of marketing to convince people soy was a wonder food! Mostly this was due, I believe, to there being an abundance of soy by-products after margarine was declared the healthy butter. (Most margarine is made from soy oil.) So they sat down and thought, "How can we make money with this soy by-products? AH! Convince everyone soy is wonderful for you!"

I get so congested with soy I can barely breathe!

I was of the impression soy is used more as a condiment in Asia, but I could be wrong. I also believe it is fermented, although I don't know how they make their tofu, whether it is from fermented soy. Maybe it is; I hope so!

The estrogenic effects of soy isoflavones; I don't know about that one. That is, I don't know whether taking such an isolated substance saves you from the rest of the junk that has been used to extract the substance in the first place. There are lots of estrogenic herbs out there like red clover and hops. I guess I would try those or a bioidential estrogen cream before taking soy isoflavones. But I haven't really studied it much.

Dave,

I know nothing about using it topically, or whether it would be very harmful systemically when used this way.

And anyone with differing knowledge, please feel free to refute me. I don't claim to know everything!

I don't know if Soy is bad or not, but I have recently started using MUACs Soy Fluid and love the results!

I have also noticed that CPs have soy protein in them...

Thanks for the explanation on the soy in CPs, Deb...now I am worried too...I'm putting soy on my face, I feed my kids tofu, edamame...yikes!

What kinds of problems does it cause?

Dana

Dana,

I think Deb said soy was okay for the face becaue it does not absorb into the body.

Eating soy causes allergy symptoms for one (congestion, coughing, etc.) and can cause hypothyroidism because it is so estrogenic and also a goitrogen (interferes with thyroid perfomance).

I read one report that giving babies soy milk was like feeding them birth control pills! There are organizations trying to get soy milk banned in welfare programs!

I don't know what other health problems it causes; those were enough for me! (Besides the fact I can't breathe when I eat or drink the stuff.)

The stuff I read about pushing soy by corporations may have been bunk, but like Deb said, the milk industry does it, so I would not put it past the soy industry!

I didn't know the bread industry does the same thing. GEEZ! Where does it end? Sigh.

Well, I do eat my 2 slices of sprouted bread, though. Hope that's somewhat okay!

I think the links will depress me. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed at the corruption and feel that I can't trust or believe anything. It's very frustrating!

However, maybe they will help to get my hubby off so many grains and resume meat or fish consumption. I am tired of making 2 different dinners every night, lol!

On another note about soy, though, I just read somewhere that tofu may be fermented and therefore okay for some people. What was clear is that all the Americanized soy crap like powders and soy burgers and the like was definitely bad.

I'm not sure though that even American tofu is fermented, although it may very well be in Japan.

Soy products contain phytoestrogens, which make the man or women more effeminate. When I was consuming more soy products, I found myself more attracted to darker-haired women with lean faces. Typically men should be attracted to lighter women(hence the success of blonde hair dye industry) with some baby fat on their faces.


The benefits are less hair growth on the body and more on the head.

Ditto the

I think men being attracted to blondes is purely cultural. Also the fact that in some places blondes are very rare, so they are prized.

I see no genetic reason why men would be hard wired to prefer blondes! Some of the most famous supermodels and actresses have red or brunette hair.

What was the ratio of hip to waist anyway? That's very interesting! I wonder what else we are hardwired to prefer?

My husband educated me all about the "women preferring the alpha male" thing. I found that pretty interesting and pretty true! So the gold digger stereotype is based on genetics!

My experience with soy? It TOTALLY screws up my hormones. I'm pretty sensitive to hormones, but still, anything that reliably breaks me out along the chin and gives me mood swings and hot flashes (I'm only 23), I would say has a direct effect on hormone levels, and it's very unpredictable how your body will respond. I have heard that a bottle of soy baby formula has more estrogyn in it than 10 birth control pills. I've read excellent info on soy, but I forget the name of the book - I'll find it and get back to you.

quote:

Typically men should be attracted to lighter women(hence the success of blonde hair dye industry) with some baby fat on their faces.

ARE YOU F@#K@#G KIDDING ME???!!!?!?!??

quote:

Originally posted by Pirate Jenny:

quote:

Typically men should be attracted to lighter women(hence the success of blonde hair dye industry) with some baby fat on their faces.

ARE YOU F@#K@#G KIDDING ME???!!!?!?!??

If most women had naturally blond hair, men would give more attention to women with very dark hair. It is more about what is different.

quote:

Originally posted by Dr. Pickart:

quote:

Originally posted by Pirate Jenny:

quote:

Typically men should be attracted to lighter women(hence the success of blonde hair dye industry) with some baby fat on their faces.

ARE YOU F@#K@#G KIDDING ME???!!!?!?!??

If most women had naturally blond hair, men would give more attention to women with very dark hair. It is more about what is different.

Yes, thank you, Dr. Pickart. Preference for blonde is about exoticism, not biological superiority or femininity, and what's more, it's a very heavilly culturally induced idea that's shared by a staggeringly small portion of the world's men (and women).

I apologize for my not-so-eloquent rebuttle, but when someone posts something that void of scientific understanding of psychology, sexuality and evolution, and that skirts that close to racism (I'm being generous) it's pretty disapointing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pirate Jenny,

Soy is controversial for people with breast cancer due to its phytoestrogens.

Another problem...I have heard that non-organic soy has a lot of pesticides (I have not verified this) and is very likely to be genetically modified unless otherwise specified (representing a population-level health experiment as well as global-level messing with Mother Nature).

The oestrogen found in soy is of a type that protects against breast cancer.