To be perfectly clear I do not believe that and the site is World Net Daily which is, in my opinion, a hugely untrustworthy site. (If they said the sun rises in the East I’d get up early tomorrow morning to double check.)
Still, my Googling only confused me. I found various information that said you should generally avoid soy products (a little won’t hurt) to it is not a big deal at all unless you are a woman with hormone sensitive breast cancer and you eat lots of it.
So, anyone have the Straight Dope on this? I enjoy soy products in various foods and things such as edamame but I really like women and do not want to become gay.
Well, I depend heavily for health advice on the chairman of “Megashift Ministries” - he knows all that stuff that They Don’t Want You To Know.
Except the soy scare is garbage. It’s hard to pick out the most ludicrous part of this guy’s screed, but probably it’s the part about babies on soy formula being exposed to the equivalent of five birth control pills a day.
Soy products do contain compounds that have a very weak phytoestrogenic effect. They do not cause “feminization” or homosexuality. There’s also a lack of evidence linking soy-based foods to cancer (there’ve been suggestion that soy may be protective against breast cancer, but that hasn’t been established either).
I didn’t know the religious wackos were leaping on the anti-soy bandwagon, which to this point has largely been the province of the Weston Price Foundation, a group of nutbars who are very energetic about promoting health quackery.
Besides, emphasizing fears about soy is distracting us from the Real Evils, like water fluoridation, aspartame and vaccines. :dubious:
Again, to be 100% clear, I do not buy the soy makes you gay thing at all. Just thought it was kind of humorous (and also vaguely scary that these wackos exist).
Apart from soy making men gay my real question, I guess, applies particularly to middle-aged women and older.
There seems to be some concern that soy could abet getting breast cancer. Then again seems soy has some properties to avoid cancer.
Middle-aged women who may be prone to breast cancer it seems should wonder at the estrogen-like aspects of soy. What I am not able to discern is how big of an issue it is for them. Avoid soy completely? An ounce of tofu a week? You probably couldn’t eat enough to make a difference?
There’s also evidence that soy supplementation can improve cognitive function.
At this point, I wouldn’t accept either of these studies as gospel regarding soy and brain function. I haven’t heard of a consensus that soy is wonderful brain food or that it leads to dementia.
This is the problem with isolated/cherry-picked research studies. Someone with an agenda can present a one-sided and misleading list of impressive-sounding references to support their claims.
Or, as in the case of the Reverend Megashift McGoofy, use bizarre unreferenced factoids to prove that soy is an insidious “poison” that’s “tearing apart our culture”.
I’m a str8 d00d who got in touch with my inner sissy only after eating soy products. I subsequently went back to meat and carbs, but I am more secure than ever in my unmasculinity.
While the responses so far are humorous (truly…that guy at WND deserves all the derision we can muster) but please remember there is a legitimate question on the table I am curious to see answered.
