I’ve heard some vague mumblings that too much soy can be dangerous, especially for women. Anyone have any stats on how much/how dangerous, if it is at all?
My specifics: I’m in my early 30s, and female. As far as I know, my only regular source of soy comes from my newly developed edamame obsession. I eat about a cup of it (steamed, FWIW) a day. Every once in a while, I’ll have something with tofu in it. Should I scale back the edamame?
Apologies. I know this information is surely accessible elsewhere, but when I Google it, all I get is stuff that:
a) sounds a bit too sensational to be true.
b) I know will set off my hypochondria.
I am not a doctor and know nothing about health care. I’m sure someone who knows more than I will be along shortly.
Until then, I think the concern is the way soy can mimic estrogen. Soy is sometimes suggested to alleviate symptoms of menopause. But since an overproduction of estrogen can be problematic and potentially cause certain cancers, possibly too much soy could do the same thing.
My information comes from a girlfriend who had breast cancer at 27 and again at 30. Her doctor told her NOT to take soy supplements after she had a hysterectomy to stop estrogen production.
No information on the health effects of soy, but you mentioned how much you’re eating “as far as you know.” If you eat any processed foods or vegetable oils whatsoever, you’re almost certainly eating soy. I have a soy allergy, so I’m quite familiar with how prevalent it is. Candy bars, cereals, salad dressings, even the sausage on a take out pizza often has it added.
If it was as dangerous as some people make it out to be, shouldn’t we have seen widespread effects by now? I avoid it because of my allergy, but that hasn’t made me in any way healthier than other people who do eat it.
Only fouryears ago, soy was still being touted as a way of lowering the risk of cancer. Lab results suggested that soy’s phytochemicals (the chemicals that mimic estrogen) can bind to estrogen receptors which might interfere with real estrogen’s nasty cancer-promoting effect. So soy is good then? Not so fast…
In 2007 someone tweaked to the fact that soy could in fact initiate hormone based cancers. The problem was that many of the earlier studies focussed on the fact that many of those cancers were much lower in Asia where soy consumption is high. The problem is that their soy consumption was based on fermented soy products (tempeh, miso, and natto). The stuff we eat in North America as tofu and soy milk are not fermented and purportedly higher in phyto-estrogens then the fermented stuff. (Or so I’ve read).
What does this all mean? I have no idea. I’ve been thoroughly confused by contradictory articles for the past five years. The last I looked into it, a couple of years ago, I was hearing stuff along the lines of this article from Cancer Council NSW
If you follow the links in the navigation menu at the article above, you may find more detailed information. I still have no idea what to really make of it.