Not a dumb question at all, IMO! He was probably talking about soy protein isolate, unless there are other isolates that I'm unfamiliar with. There's a lot of controversy about the health benefits (or detriments) of using soy in what could be considered "untraditional" ways. Searching around for answers, I found
this webpage, which outlined it pretty well. Excerpt:
Quote:
| All soy contains phytoestrogens which are endocrine inhibitors that affect the hormonal balance in babies, growing children, women, and men alike. Soy also has a potent antithyroid affect upon the thyroid gland and its hormones, and increases the body's need for vitamin D, which is important for strong bone health and in preventing osteoporosis. The native protein present in soy is fragile and is easily denatured, or broken down, by the use of high temperatures required for the production of soy protein isolate and textured soy vegetable protein. The by-products of this high temperature processing results in the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines and toxic lysinoalanine. Because of this problem, soy protein isolate products should not be the protein of choice for the human body. In addition, highly processed soy products may contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the body, especially the kidneys, the nervous system, and the brain. |
The article goes on to reccommend whey protein, rice protein, and hemp (like the milk you bought) for vegetarians. It's funny because I always figured that soy was super-healthy, even though I'm not veg*n, and it wasn't until I started having fertility problems and doing a lot of research into diet, nutrition and fertility/ miscarriage that I found all of this negative stuff about soy. Which, btw, is still pretty controversial, so definitely do your own research as much as possible, and make your own decisions. For me, I actively avoid all unfermented soy. If a food advertises itself as being high in protein and there's no reason why it
should be (i.e. breakfast cereals), I stay away!
-- and thought I'd ask...........
