What is your opinion of soy?

[morganlefay]

Good? Bad? Okay in moderation? Better if less processed? Do you feed it to your kids? I've heard bad things about its potential to disrupt hormones. We are not a vegetarian family, but we eat meat only a couple times a week, and have replaced cow's milk with soy milk.

[Magelet]

Just my opinion/belief based on research, but I think soy is bad bad bad.
Here's my basic take. For thousands of years, folks in asia grew soy. They grew it as a cover crop, and didn't eat it. Then, particularly some societies which eat more iodine rich foods (lots of seafoods, seaweed, fish eggs, shrimps, some fishes) discovered that it was edible if they fermented it for a long time, and started to include it in their diet in moderation. Because soy reduces sperm count, hurts thyroid function, circulates estrogenlike plant hormones throughout the body, makes protein more difficult to digest, and causes other havoc on the body, (there is evidence that soy formula is the biggest reason girls are hitting puberty younger, among other things), me and my DP are extremely cautious of soy in our diets.

I don't worry about small amounts of soy that is fermented (fermented (not brewed, that isn't the same) soy sauce and miso, but there are a few other types that we don't use that are fermented).

I also eat tiny amounts of tofu or edemame, ALWAYS with an animal protein at the same meal. So a tofu veggie stir fry might happen every month or two, but it will always include an egg. Edemame is only when I go out to eat sushi, and thus with fish. I read somewhere that eating animal protein with soy helps the body better deal with the bad stuff in soy.

I never eat any products containing soybean oil, soy protein, soy protein isolate, or any other processed soy.

[Alyantavid]

Originally Posted by Magelet

I never eat any products containing soybean oil, soy protein, soy protein isolate, or any other processed soy.

Same here. I'm not big on most things that are processed anyways, but soy is just bad from what I've found. My youngest son is intolerant anyways so we don't have any in the house.

[Elecampane]

I try to stay away from processed soy, but we do eat tofu fairly regularly, tempeh every few weeks, and soy sauce and miso all the time. I wouldn't personally choose to drink soy milk or use soy-based meat substitutes but I'm comfortable with traditionally prepared (and preferably fermented) soy in our diet.

[akimbo]

Because I'm hypothyroid, I try to avoid unfermented soy altogether, and limit the amount of fermented that I eat. I've also heard most soy nowadays is GM, which gives me another reason to avoid it as much as possible.

[mamadelbosque]

We don't eat a lot but do eat some. I'm an 'everything in moderation' kinda gal. So we have tofu maybe once a month and tamari fairly often, but thats about it. If your not into GMO foods, then you really need to be avoiding non-organic corn & soy, and really wheat too (though tis not quite as common yet as gmo corn/soy)!!

[inkslinger]

I have endometriosis and am supposed to stay away from soy. I used to eat it quite a bit, before I read about how bad it is for you. H is lactose intolerant and he used to only drink soy milk, but he has stopped drinking it altogether now. We try to avoid it for the most part.

[noobmom]

In theory I would say "soy in moderation", but in all honestly we don't consume much of it. I don't think there is a problem with soy in it's original uses ( homemade soy milk, as a treat, not a subsitute, tofu, miso, etc.), but I try to avoid it as a filler product such as in meat substitute, in protein bars, etc.

[cristeen]

I spent several years eating lots of soy products as a veg and then a vegan. I did some serious damage to my body. At this point soy is extremely limited - to real soy sauce on occasion, the very rare bit of miso, and a bowl of edamame if I'm having sushi (a few times a year). I don't allow it in my diet in any other form.

[Mom2M]

Originally Posted by cristeen

I spent several years eating lots of soy products as a veg and then a vegan. I did some serious damage to my body. At this point soy is extremely limited - to real soy sauce on occasion, the very rare bit of miso, and a bowl of edamame if I'm having sushi (a few times a year). I don't allow it in my diet in any other form.

What kind of damage happened to you as a result of eating soy?

We eat soy products, not all the time but I enjoy them in all kinds of forms, tofu, miso, tempeh and sometimes soy burgers.
I haven't noticed any hormonal problems but I never really looked for any.
I do use soy milk sometimes in chai tea.

Deb

[WC_hapamama]

I have a dairy and almond allergic daughter, and in some cases, the only options we have for some products are soy products. So we do unfermented soy in moderation.

We do eat fermented soy products though... we're mostly Japanese-American, and giving up things like miso and soy sauce totally is not in the plans.

[jimblejamble]

I'll do soy sauce and very ocassionally eat tofu, but I try to stay away from it in large/frequent quantities. I'm hormonal enough already!

[williamsmommy2002]

We are vegetarian. My oldest had an allergy to milk, wheat, nuts and eggs at one point. He did have soy formula as a supplement but when we switched to soy milk, he became intolerant. I was still nursing so we cut it out. He started consuming small amounts of soy at about 3.5. Now he eats it maybe once a month. My youngest will consume soy about once a week. They both are autistic and have very few foods they will eat. I consume tofu maybe 4 times a year in a very small amount and otherwise only use soy in soy sauce.

I don't think soy is very good for you so I don't push it. My biggest issue is from an allergy standpoint in that it's in so many foods. I have read other bad things but don't pay much attention because we consume so little of it. We use high quality dairy and eggs along with legumes for our protein.

[ambereva]

I eat quite a bit of soy in the form of tofu and soymilk and have never been healthier or stronger in my life. I've read all the anti-soy stuff and I'm skeptical. Most of the actual science I've looked at shows the benefits of soy dramatically outweigh any theoretical risks. This is assuming no soy allergy of course.

All the soy I eat, like all the other food I eat, is organic and unprocessed or very minimally processed.

[rainer.sullivan]

if its in the form of tofu then I eat them!

[Jojo F.]

Fermented soy is the only good soy imo.

Edited to add- I have a dear family friend who is a breast and cervical cancer survivor and her doctor has told her to stay *very* far away from soy.

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by Jojo F.

Fermented soy is the only good soy imo.

I agree. I'm working hard to ensure that the only soy in our diet is a very small amount of properly fermented soy sauce maybe twice a month. It's hard to find eggs and chicken meat though that wasn't raised on soy feed but we're getting there.

[Asiago]

I don't purchase soy products like soy milk, tofu, soy frozen foods or anything like this but if it is in a processed product in a small amount I may eat it. I try to consume very little processed food though as a rule. I am pregnant now but once my baby is born and older, I will not feed soy milk.
I just don't feel comfortable after researching it. Once in a while a whole soy product like edamame perhaps but soy will not be a regular part of his diet. If he wants to nosh on edamame once in a blue moon, I am comfortable with that level of moderation.

Actually my dog has an adrenal defect that causes her adrenals to respond to ACTH with estrogen (not ovarian she is spayed) instead of normal healthy cortisol. The incorrect adrenal layer reponds to ACTH. The vet who consults on her condition reccomends avoiding any soy in her diet (I don't feed her commercial dog food or treats though anyway). But he wants to avoid worsening the hormonal imbalance so he reccomends avoiding the phytoestrogens.

Also one of my husband's family members had uterine cancer and her oncologist reccomends she avoid all soy now.

Now if someone were estrogen deficient (determined via testing), I could understand how perhaps soy could be advantageous in the diet and maybe even replace pharmaceutical treatment. So I don't want to make soy out to be evil but I think for a person, male (normal adrenal estrogen) or female with normal estrogen levels, high consumption of soy may effect the hormonal balance which in turn can effect immune system function (endocrine and immune systems are dependant upon each other).

[mlh]

I would say moderation if it doesn't bother you. My family can only tolerate it in moderation, but try to avoid it if possible.

[es1967]

We eat organic Tofu, tempeh and soymilk. I just saw the movie Food Inc. and I will never buy non organic soy anything ever!! Scary what is going on in our food industry.