I’m Asian and I am lactose-intolerant… I mean, I can drink regular milk, but if I do, it’s gas-city! So recently I started buying soy milk by the case from Costco. I like it, and my son likes it. Problem solved? No, my mother comes over and sees the case of vanilla soy milk and starts telling me how bad soy is for me. I’m like WTF?
So anyway, I press her to tell me why and she says she can’t remember off of the top of her head. A few days later she gives me a Xerox copy of a magazine article that says that soy products and canola oil is bad for you. It claims, among other things, that it causes macular degeneration, and weakens the immune system.
I look at the bottom of the paper and apparently it is from some magazine named Perceptions. Anyone ever heard of that magazine? How credible is it?
A quick Google turns up several magazines with the name “Perceptions” so without additional information it’d be hard to consider the source.
As for soy and macular degeneration, Clare M Hasler, PhD says there’s none in the literature she’s reviewed. This site indocates that soy contains a chemical which may inhibit macular degeneration, specifically genistein. This doctor recommends “[f]ollow[ing] a diet that is very low in saturated fat and rich in antioxidants, focusing on vegetables, fruit, legumes including soy, whole grains and fish.” Being a vegetarian I can’t recommend eating fish.
Speaking from an extremely small sample size, I’ve been eating soy in place of meat protein for the last 14-15 years. Another friend has been doing so for longer than that and yet another friend is vegan and hasn’t gone a day in decades without having soy milk. None of us suffers from macular degeneration or any other eye disease.
Unless your source can come up with something a little more conslusive, I call bullshit.
There has been some problems with certain brands of soy sauce being contaminated, but I haven’t heard of any problems with soy milk. They’ve been using soy in infant formula for yonks.
Yeah, what really shits me is that my mom gets this info from her friend, who is a doctor. The thing is, this doctor seems to get into every new thing that is out there…stuff like this Asian mushroom that they make coffee out of, crushed crab shell powders, etc. And all of these stuff are, you guessed it, products from those MLMs.
Now I won’t say all MLMs are evil, because I have seen some people make some good money. But this Dr. seems to get into every freaking new product that comes out! He’s made a lot of money, and my mother doesn’t do it for the money, but she truly just wants to be healthy (she is). Every couple of months there’s something new. I don’t trust this guy. Granted, I’ve never met him, but she seems to put a lot of trust in him merely because he is a doctor.
One word: phytoestrogen.
Two words: estrogen mimic.
I like soy quite a bit, but it can do weird things to hormone sensitive people. I wouldn’t recommend giving it to anyone who hasn’t finished puberty, at least on a several servings a day basis.
There are options other than soy milk, if all you want is a dairy replacement.
Lactase tablets are another option - have you tried those? They might be particularly good if there are occassions where dairy is hard to avoid.
First of all, no one know what really causes macular degeneration. There are some risk factors - like age - but no defined causes. A diet high in fruits and vegees, along with adequate vitamin intake, seems to be protective. But I’ve never heard of a soy/MD connection.
I think they’re great in moderation, as part of a balanced diet. And balanced diet is the key - too much of anything is a bad thing, and you need variety in your diet.
On notable factoid is that soy does not contain the calcium that dairy does. If you have given up dairy, you still need to get your calcium from somewhere. That could be a calcium enriched soy milk, or other enriched food product, or non-dairy foods naturally rich in calcium.
But humans don’t need dairy once out of infancy, although it is an option for some. Several billion humans exist quite well without dairy once weaned. They get needed nutrients from other sources, and they’re quite healthy.
Like what? My local Publix stocks buttermilk and chocolate milk. That’s about it. I’ve had soy milk, but to me, it tastes off (yes, I did give it a chance for about a month, but the taste was like soured sweeten lo-fat milk)
Love soy nuts: the honey roasted ones are a bit too sweet for me, but again they rarely have the plain ones I like.
I love most soy products. I can’t handle the milk; it just doesn’t taste good.
My local Chinese restaurant offers edamame: green soybeans that have been steamed. I will often get an order to go so I can have a snack later. (I often order Chinese food when I’m at school on Saturday nights since it’s the best option out there.) If I eat too much, I get gassy, however.
The only reason I can really see to watch out for soy products would be if you have migraines. Soy can trigger migraines. My lactose-intolerant sister can’t have soy (because of her migraines) so she drinks almond milk. I’m a fan of the rice milk, myself.
Soy products have been a reasonably sexy research area for going on a decade now. If the best she can do to show their harm is pull an article out of a magazine called “Perceptions,” I think it’s pretty safe to ignore her.
This is a fairly famous article on soy among the dieting community. It was originally published in Nexus magazine, which tends to print articles that are a little out there in terms of tinfoil-hattiness. However, it’s heavily annotated/referenced and I’m not sure if the info there can be disregarded out of hand. Take it with a grain of salt, I guess.
Eh, we use Silk-brand soymilk (best tasting one I’ve found) because regular milk gives me the runs something terrible. Only problem I’ve had is the stuff isn’t great for making pudding or any other kind of serious cooking.
There is a lot of controversy about the dangers of soy and the health concerns associated with soy isoflavones. There was a thread in GQ about it recently, where I posted that same link, as well as several others that might be worth reviewing if you’re at all concerned about this issue; Why Soy?
Just wanted to add that different brands of soy milk will have different textures and tastes. I’m a pretty big soy milk junkie myself, but will usually stick to the brands I know because I’ve been burned several times with a “new” brand that I didn’t like.
If I recall correctly, there were articles published last year in several of the leading women’s magazines (Shape, Fitness) about the relation between soy products and cancers, particularly breast cancer; however, I think that relationship was disproven recently, or at least it was decided that there simply wasn’t enough scientific evidence to back it up.
I cannot drink milk (a milk allergy, not lactose intolerance), so I use soy milk in cereal and smoothies. My biggest trauma was coffee and tea-- what, no cream? but Silk makes a soy creamer that is almost as good as half-and-half, so now I can avoid milk almost always except on the rare occasions when I have coffee in a restaurant.
I also like tofu. To me it tastes best when marinated and grilled or broiled. Tofu hot dogs and Boca soyburgers are also great and help out with being normal at summer barbecues as a vegetarian. I’m not too worried about the “dangers of soy” because I don’t think I eat that much, considering. It’s the odd meal and a few tablespoons in my coffee, so no big deal.