Soy

Soy...the incredibly debatable and curious food topic swarming the vegan media.


Soy milk, soy protein, soy cheese, soy...sauce. mmm...soy sauce.


Oh......sorry. The goal of this article is to take the two debating sides and present them here. You are the judge and jury.


In the one corner, we have the soy proponents. Mostly vegans, crunchies, and lactose-intolerant people. In this circle of people, soy is healthy and a wonderful alternative to meat and a great source of nutrition.


In the other corner are mostly the carnivorous predators of our day...rawr. Mostly people who believe that God meant for us to eat meat and mostly non-vegetarians, but you will find one or two.. (Don't get me wrong, I do eat meat...so I'm lumping myself in as a carnivorous predator). They are anti-soy because of the rumors that it can cause health problems and may even be toxic.


So the question stands. Is soy healthy?


I will take each side and present the debate. I do have an opinion but I'm going to make this as unbiased as possible and then tell you what I think at the end. The easiest way to do this is to start with why people think soy is unhealthy and then discuss why people think this is not true.


Soy is Bad. Bad soy. Bad.
Many people are anti-soy because of all the potential health issues it can cause. Here is a brief list of health concerns in conjunction with consumption of soy:

Soy contains trypsin inhibitors which are known to prevent healthy digestion.

Soy contains goitrogen, which affects thyroid function and iodine uptake, potentially inducing hypothyroidism.

Soy contains phytic acid, which impairs your body's ability to absorb minerals such as iron, causing conditions such as anemia.

Soy contains phytoestrogens, which is thought to raise estrogen levels. This has a variety of affects include the possibility of increasing breast cancer rates in women, premature development in girls, and underdevelopment in boys (if you think that's craziness, wait till you hear about a similar situation with yam containing progesterone).

The use of soy-based formulas in infants has been related to autoimmune thyroid diseases later in life.


Many people also argue that Asians have been eating soy for quite some time, and in large amounts, but it doesn't seem to have the adverse health affects on them. Well what if we told you that Asians don't eat as much soy as you think.

That definitely sounds like soy has a bad rap...but let's see what the other side has to say in defense....


Soy is My Bestest Friend
Addressing each individual issue with the resources I've found:

Organic soy, along with an organic diet should be ok because estrogen only causes cancer when there is also a presence of free radicals (toxins) in the system. Organic soy phytoestrogens can also actually help prevent certain types of cancer.


Many common vegetables contain goitrogens. The best thing to do is to balance your diet by eating foods high in iodine to counter the goitrogens.

Phytic acid has been shown to possibly help prevent different types of cancer, osteoporosis, and Parkinson's.


Now that doesn't sound too bad, does it?

Conclusions
Ultimately, you will need to come to your own conclusions about soy and how it fits into your family's diet.

I personally learned a lot about soy by writing this article and doing the in-depth research I never made the time to do before. My family used to drink soy milk on a regular basis. Then I found out about the adverse health effects and we switched to almond milk and a lactose-free cow's milk. Writing this article made me rely on more than a rumor to substantiate the health issues involved with soy.

So where do I stand now? I think organic soy in moderation is probably the best way to go. Research renders it an undeniable fact (in my mind, at least), that larger amounts of soy in a non-organic diet does increase the risk of various cancers. I personally would not base my diet on tofu, soy milk, soy proteins, etc. But I think my family will return to drinking soy milk (which I happen to find incredibly delicious...especially chocolate soy milk...mmm) so long as it is organic.