Will soy make my son gay?

People are panicking about what’s been dubbed a ‘superfood’

by Julia McKinnell on Thursday, December 4, 2008 1:00am - 45 Comments

“Overall consumption of soy in Asia in surprisingly low,” explains the foundation’s website. “It is not a staple like rice, fish or pork. Soy is a condiment. No one would call mustard a staple in the American diet even though it is a very typical foodstuff.”

Yoshi Yoshihara moved to Canada from Japan and adamantly refutes the condiment claim. “No, no, no! It’s a main source of protein. Because my family didn’t eat meat, we relied on tofu. The tofu vendor came every other day on his bike. We bought several cakes of tofu a week,” he says. “I’ve heard about the anti-soy campaign. To me, it’s a very strange phenomenon, like the Flat Earth Society.”

“It’s very funny,” says Béliveau. “We eat junk food, we’re facing the biggest obesity problem in the history of mankind, and we question that soy could lead to a health problem. We’re very racist when it comes to food. Soy has been consumed for thousands of years by billions of people. If there was a health issue, we’d see it. It’s impossible.”

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  • http://www.thorspace.com Thor

    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.

  • Lorette C. Luzajic

    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

  • Stephen Strepsi

    @DOUG IRVINE:
    Trust me, if you have seven kids, one of them is gay. Or one of their kids. Just not from the soy.

  • Barcolet

    Funny, I always thought straight parents made kids gay.
    At least that’s been the case of 100% of the gay people I know.

  • gamer

    On a study of the bloggers on this website, It has been determined that soy changes your brainwaves into being hippie liberals.

  • frances

    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!

    • elad

      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

  • Pingback: In Response to the Shoddily Researched Pro-Soy Blog on the Maclean’s Site « Little Miss Chatterbox

  • JustMe

    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!

    • Hilary

      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.

  • rob

    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.

  • Giordano

    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.

  • Pierre

    And reading Macleans.ca helps you to become an idiot…

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