Soy: Good For You Or Not?
When studies and research came out showing the many dangers of dairy consumption as well as the harmful substances that milk products contain a lot of people turned to soy products as the answers to their worries. Soy, which is produced from soybean plants has gained a lot of popularity with a reputation of being healthy, natural, and pretty good for you too. However there have also been concerns about soy possibly leading to birth defects, cancer, and affected brain function. Most of these problems come from the fact that soy, while filled with nutrients that are good for you, also contains a natural chemical that mimics estrogen - the female hormone. It’s been seen in studies with animals that this chemical can alter sexual development and enough of it over the course of a month can change the timing of a woman’s menstrual cycle.
Another issue that people have with soybeans is that in their natural state they aren’t suitable for human consumption and require extensive processing and fermentation which can also include chemical extractions and high temperatures to make them digestible. It’s also been shown that soybeans contain an “anti-nutrient” known as phytic acid which blocks the absorption of certain necessary minerals such as magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc. This is alarming especially when it comes to infants that are being fed a soy-based formula as opposed to breast milk. Soybeans also produce enzyme inhibitors which prevent the uptake of trypsin and other enzymes that are necessary for digestion of proteins and such anti-nutrients can cause serious gastric distress as well as leading to chronic deficiencies in amino acid absorption. There is also concern over the fact that soybeans contain hemagglutinin which promotes clots of red blood cells that clump together, preventing them from properly absorbing oxygen and maintaining good cardiac health.
The biggest concern when it comes to soy consumption is the effect that it can have on the thyroid gland and the hormonal balance in the body, especially in young children. Soy has been linked to early onset of puberty and research has been done that shows that feeding an infant soy is the medicinal equivalent of giving them five birth control pills a day - the damage of which is quite severe. It’s also been shown that even after three months of not consuming soy or soy based products the remains of it still linger in the body. There is also a direct correlation between the high consumption of soy products and cancers of the stomach, esophagus, pancreas, liver, and the thyroid.
These concerns are, at best alarming, and should be a factor in whether or not a person chooses to consume soy or soy-based products because as it is, the benefits certainly don’t seem to outweigh the negatives. It’s important for parents to think twice before feeding their children any soy products and while it isn’t proven to show up in the breast milk of nursing mothers it is still important that adults weight the pros and cons of this “food” before consuming any of it.