A three-inch-long green bean is polarizing health food advocates and terrorizing North American consumers. The soybean, used in making tofu, soy sauce and soy milk, was once viewed as a “superfood,” says soy expert Dr. Mark Messina. Now the protein-rich legume is provoking raging debates. Does it boost brain power or cause dementia? Does it fight cancer or shrink penises? Should boys drink it or will it turn them gay?
A vegan cookbook author on B.C.’s Denman Island is so fed up assuaging fears she’s using her website to post people’s panic-filled questions along with links to scientific papers. Bryanna Clark Grogan makes her own soy milk at home. “I’m getting the same questions over and over again,” she says, questions like, “I read that soy kills sperm. Can soy affect menstruation? Is it true tofu gives you Alzheimer’s?” Last week, she says, a girl asked, “I really want to use soy but how do you handle the hair loss thing?” Grogan is 60. Her hair reaches down her back. She sent the girl a photo of herself. “There are so many crazy stories going around,” she says. “I’ve gone to the health food store and had one of the owners come up and ask me if it was all right to give soy to her son because she was worrying about his penis getting too small.”
Canadian biochemist Richard Béliveau holds the Chair in Prevention and Treatment of Cancer at the Université du Québec. “You’re probably touching on the most complicated subject in relation to food and cancer, which is soy,” he says. Scientists got interested in soy after it was noticed that breast cancer in Asia is low compared to North America. “Among the things identified in the lifestyle of Japanese and Chinese women is that they eat soy on a regular basis,” says Béliveau. “In soy, you have a class of molecules called phytoestrogens that are very similar to estrogens, the female sex hormone.” Béliveau believes “phytoestrogens are able to prevent estrogens from interacting with breast cells.”
Menopause guru Dr. Christiane Northrup tells thousands of women to eat soy. “Soy may be helpful for conditions associated with hot flashes, vaginal dryness, night sweats, and mood swings.” Still, “every day I receive letters from individuals who have heard that soy is dangerous.”
Online searches frustrate Grogan. “Every time I search soy, it’s negative.” SoyOnlineService, for instance, states: “Myth: Soy estrogens are good for you. Truth: At dietary levels, they can prevent ovulation and stimulate the growth of cancer cells.” In an article titled “Soy is making kids ‘gay,’ ” Jim Rutz writes, “I have nothing against an occasional soy snack. Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy, you’re getting substantial quantities of estrogens. Soy is feminizing, and frequently leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality.”
In July, the BBC reported a Harvard study found “a regular diet of even modest amounts of food containing soy may halve sperm concentrations.” Soy advocate Mark Messina lambastes the findings: “It was an absolute terrible study. It shouldn’t have been published.” The study involved 99 men from fertility clinics. “Most of the reduction of sperm concentration was because ejaculate volume increased. If anything, that’s a cool finding. But I don’t think soy increases ejaculate volume, and there have been four clinical studies where you feed soy and look at sperm and you don’t see anything. But the Harvard study got 900,000 hits! There’s just so much misinformation about soy,” laments Messina, from his home in Washington state. “It’s just a mess.” He blames a group called the Western A. Price Foundation, “whose main claim to fame is bashing soy.” To Messina, their most aggravating assertion is that Asians don’t eat much soy.
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Just to give a little prospective. Jim or whatever wrote that article for Worldnetdaily.com which is disgustingly conservative. Half of the current leading articles on the site are about if Obama is from America or not. It World Net Daily makes Fox News look like MSNBC.
So for me at least I don’t trust anything on that website.
Why do people always think the ‘meat or dairy boards’ are trying to slam soy, without considering the massive industry of soy, one of the biggest and dirtiest businesses in the world. We can’t blame the beef any longer for the disappearing rainforest.
Here’s just a few of the errors/omissions/misconceptions in this article:
Messina is indeed a ’soy expert’. He’s at the top of the soy industry food chain. His interest in soy is massive, it’s called money.
It’s not the Western A. Price Foundation, but the Weston A. Price Foundation. They are not paid by the meat or dairy board. Their main slant is not to knock soy, but to advocate traditional foods, including hormone-free, grass-fed, compassionately farmed meats, fats that are not rancid and artificially processed, and chemical free whole foods. The foundation follows the work of Weston Price, a dentist, who went around the world to study tooth decay and health, expecting to find vegetarian cultures that fit his paradigm of health. His studies of nutritional anthropology and modern health advocate whole and traditional foods, as does the foundation. Dr. Kaayla Daniel, who is a member of the foundation, wrote a book called The Whole Soy Story.
This whole idea that soy is a health food comes from- the soy industry! But the roots of soy are deep and dirty. Soy’s big thrust here was as oil. Processed, poisonous ‘vegetable oil.’ You know, the stuff of margarine. Hydrogenated oil. Trans fat. Heart-healthy! the margarine companies chirped. For years we used the plastic on our food as a healthy alternate to butter. The cheap oil was used in all processed foods. Junk foods. As science came around, soy saw the bottom falling out of their market and began pumping another batch of health food stories. Think about it. Hydrogenated oil is one of the most toxic heart dangers, with ZERO as a safe limit. Why are the new ‘health’ products any different?
The quote from the Asian girl about the flat earth was very cute and so on, and strategically used to make us think that anyone who thinks soy is dangerous is a lunatic. Recall that at first, EVERYONE thought the earth was flat because that’s what they were told. The insinuation is, if we are thinking soy is harmful, we are idiots. But considering the massive amounts of evidence against it, we are actually the first to stop believing in that flat earth and consider a wider science. I don’t know the measurement of soy products in Asia, and I am not Asian, and I do believe many Asians eat soy products. However, Asian cultures eat a lot of fish, raw fish, and vegetables, and less processed foods or wheat-based products. There are many many reasons why they don’t have our diseases. Also, Chinese cultures eat a lot of eggs and pork. I mean, A LOT. Maybe this is why they have less cancer? Finally, there was no mention of something very important: soy foods in Asia are fermented. The entire miso-making culture was about learning fermentation secrets. Why is this important? Because unfermented soyfoods are poison. Soy beans were used as fertilizer, and fermenting the bean made it edible to the people, all those years ago. Asians do not eat isolated soy protein or vegetarian soy and gluten patties. They eat pork, fish, vegetables, and traditionally fermented tofu. Tofu here, and most soyfoods, are not fermented. The fermenting process removes many of the toxins in the soy. Go ahead, ask a real Asian miso maker why they ferment the soy. They’ll tell you why.
Finally, if the aim is to make soy dissidents feel like neanderthal redneck homophobes, whatever. I’m pretty in pink, believe me. But that doesn’t change the fact that hormone disruption is a dangerous thing. Artificial or natural, screwing with your hormone function is risky business. Plants are drugs, don’t forget. Chemical drugs are based on plant science. So it makes sense, just possibly, that estrogen might not be a good idea to feed either boys or girls. You have the estrogen you need already. It’s not about making anyone gay. It’s about girls menstruating before age ten and little boys growing moobs. It is happening out there. It makes sense to question the hormones in meat, the estrogen in plastics, and the estrogen in soy foods.
Those are just a few of my thoughts. Those interested can read more, in my article on the great soy deception, Spilling the Beans, at Gremolata dot com.
Cheers,
Lorette
@DOUG IRVINE:
Trust me, if you have seven kids, one of them is gay. Or one of their kids. Just not from the soy.
Funny, I always thought straight parents made kids gay.
At least that’s been the case of 100% of the gay people I know.
On a study of the bloggers on this website, It has been determined that soy changes your brainwaves into being hippie liberals.
so, if I convince a couple of lesbian friends to eat massive amounts of soy, it’ll make ‘em straight?? or will they turn completely into soybean plants? i mean, hey, sounds like these plant estrogens are mighty powerful!
seriously, aren’t the super-strength hormones and antibiotics that are crammed into meat animals, in modern factory farming operations, of significantly greater concern than some weakened plant estrogen in a bean that’s been consumed for ages?
it may be comforting and convenient to a contented-meat-eater to believe some hyped-up charges about soy because it helps them justify their current food choices. but really, learn more about where your meat comes from, the awful substances farm animals are fed, the disgusting living conditions, the slaughterhouse operations, and *then* decide which is scary – that piece of meat or a soybean!
The amount of estrogen in meat and dairy is tiny compared to the amount in soy, or other plants. The soybean is much scarier to me..sorry
[...] http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/12/04/will-soy-make-my-son-gay/ [...]
I think most of the “Soy Is Bad” propaganda comes from the meat and dairy industry.
Think about it.
What do you do if: A) people are eating less meat and more soy foods, B) people are drinking less milk and more soymilk and, C) the soybeans you feed to your cows and/or chickens are costing you more because other companies are turning them into soyfoods.
And as was mentioned by another, what’s really worse for you a little soy or meat and dairy that’s been pumped full of hormones, anti-biotics, and other drugs?
I read something once about how little girls in Puerto Rico were developing breasts and starting their periods at 3-5 years old. And that the boys were growing pubic hair because someone had fed too many hormones to the chickens there, but I think it was a fluke and they took care of it.
I’ve also read that plastic has chemicals that mimic estrogen and so you should NEVER microwave your food in plastic or any kind. NO frozen food tray. NO Tupperware. NO Rubbermade. And that you shouldn’t leave plastic waterbottles in your car on hot sunny days or warm them in the microwave.
And I’ve read that antibacterial soap mimics estrogen too because of the germicides they contain. It gets absorbed through the skin.
As someone who has been a vegetarian in the past and hopes to be vegan in the future, I hate to admit that the most “realistic” diet for myself might be eating limited amounts of chicken and fish, but concentrating on getting more fruits, veggies & fiber in my diet.
“Realistic” meaning more convenient and “doable.” I’m not currently vegetarian or vegan, but I usually limit the amount of meat that I consume.
Also, if soy made you gay they probably wouldn’t have a billion people in China, would they?
And eating meat & dairy increases impotence (and reduces penis size) by clogging the veins of the penis with plaque. OUCH!
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these comments. Some were quite humorous! anyway, since the Asian diet and the influence of the meat and dairy industries were brought up a number of times, I can’t resist suggesting you all read “The China Study’.” This is a 2005 book by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., and his son, Thomas M. Campbell II.
Oh please…I don’t think either of my parents ever touched soy (except as a normal food additive), and I was raised on meat and potatoes, and guess what? Have been gay since day 1! Only recently I went vegetarian, and eat a minimal amount of soy products. I guess if I have a day where I suddenly feel an urge to break out into a Liza Minnelli song, I’ll blame the soyburger I had for lunch.
Soy is only ok when fermented, otherwise it is extremely unhealthy. You cant just say that the Japanese eat soy and are healthy, because they dont eat it like the americans, the Chinese and Japanese never ate soy untill they discovered fermentation techniques. So yes they have been eating it for hundreds of years, but never have they eaten it unfermented.
And reading Macleans.ca helps you to become an idiot…