For those who eat soy, opinion wanted...

[mamayogibear]

I am vegan and eat abo9ut one seving of soy a day, like yogurt or a fermented item. I was eating an edame salad earlier today with my mom who started freaking out on me because she read http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm now she is convinced my kids and I should eat no soy at alll! I try to limit our soy as much as possible but prefer it over items with sugar or gluten. So yeah just kind of venting and hoping for a few opinions

[dovey]

From what I've read, the dangers of soy are highly exaggerated on the internet.  Yes, some people are allergic to soy, but it doesn't deserve the kind of demonizing that it has received in recent years.  Soy has been a staple of people's diets in Asia for thousands of years.  Soy has also been abused by modern industrial agriculture.  But in my opinion, organic, sustainably grown soy is an important source of concentrated protein, vitamins and minerals.  We humans need plants like soy so that we don't deplete our farmland and water supply with animal agriculture.  It is not possible to feed the world's population of humans on mostly animal based protein. 

Sorry about the rant.  I've just been thinking about soy lately.     

Bryanna Clark Grogan, a vegan chef, did her own analysis of all the anti-soy stuff on the web (esp. places like Mercola etc.)  You might want to check out what she has to say:

http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/3476771.htm

[jbk21]

Ginny Messina is a very well respected vegan RD and her husband is one of the leading researchers of soy and soy products.  She talks about it a lot on her blog (theveganrd.com) if you want to read her opinions.  But basically, she thinks it is safe in moderation.

[MrsSlocombe]

I'm very interested in this thread!  I had cut out nearly all soy (except soy sauce) when I was having fertility problems, having read that the genistein in soy can block eggs from accepting sperm;  what made me feel worse is that it turned out that the soy product I thought was the least hormonally problematic, tempeh, turned out to be the one with more available genistein.

I now qualify, once again, to answer your question, as we have started eating tofu again about twice a month.  My husband became convinced that this was okay, and though I didn't fully agree, I craved it enough that I went ahead.  The fact is that, outside of the laboratory setting, I have ample evidence that moderate soy consumption is not harmful at all.  I know a mother of three who is a pescatarian, and eats tofu at least once per week.  She had no trouble conceiving any of them.  Her children eat it, too, and they even eat highly processed soy dogs, as well.  It hasn't caused her seven year old daughter to menstruate or her sons to grow boobs.  Then there's most of Asia.  I read a review of an anti-soy book on Amazon that was quite funny.  The review was by a Chinese man who said he was taking the middle ground.  He said that the Chinese eat some soy, but not as much as pro-soy Americans think.  They wait until babies are six months to start feeding it to them, and even then, it's "only" 2-3 servings per day!  :-)  Here I was thinking I'd ruined my body by eating it 2-3 times per week!  And I wasn't planning to feed my baby solid food at all before six months, never mind tofu.

I wasn't able to read that article because there was a block involving registration, but I looked at others on the site.  Most of them did not frighten me.  I know that some anti-soy propaganda is completely false, such as the dementia link. It turns out that the problem in Indonesia was due to the tofu being preserved in formaldehyde, yet the claim that it is soy can still be found floating around the web.  Other studies that I have not yet seen debunked, such as the genistein one I mentioned, continue to worry me.  I can stop with just one baby, but I don't want the child to be infertile, either.  Still, I try to tell myself that if I take the amount of soy consumed in the world's most populous nation, and reduce it several fold, surely that will be a very safe level of consumption, and still allow me to have some tofu every week.

[Dia]

I am interested to hear the replies to this topic. I'm a vegan, but generally do not eat soy.

My personal opinion is that it is fine in moderation. My reasons for not eating it have more to do with my desire to avoid processed foods than the soy itself. 

[ernverry]

I second the notion that it is fine in moderation. Also, I have started taking anything that originates from Dr. Mercola with a grain of salt. 

[catnip]

We limit fake meats (except the homemade kinds) to special occasions - as seldom as reasonable - like mummy dogs on Halloween or carried along to a barbecue, but we eat tofu, edamame, tempeh, soy yogurt and/or soymilk everyday.

[kittymac]

Originally Posted by ernverry 

I second the notion that it is fine in moderation. Also, I have started taking anything that originates from Dr. Mercola with a grain of salt. 

That. I am really not a big fan of Dr. Mercola. Many of his sources on the dangers of soy are questionable at best. There are cultures in the world that consume a fair amount of soy (tofu, tempeh, miso) and have for a very long time.. They typically have excellent health and no issues with fertility,early puberty, etc.

I save fake meat for occasional use, but eat tofu and tempeh a few times a week. I also drink around 1 c of organic soy milk every day and occasionially like to munch on edamame.

[neptunemama]

I'm also not a fan of Dr. Mercola, for similar reasons PP have mentioned.  My dds are veggie, and have been for over half their lives.  My youngest since 3, oldest since 6.  They eat tofu, edamame, miso.  So do I, though I'm not veggie.  My girls have eaten veggie sausages for breakfast almost every day for the last 4 yrs, b/c that's all they want.  And they sausages aren't even gmo free. We've tried the organic ones but they don't like them.  They don't eat any other "fake" meat type items, except for a veggie burger maybe 1x/mth, and that's only my younger dd.  My older dd doesn't like veggie burgers.  But they do love miso soup, which I make and they eat at least 2x/week.  Chock full of miso and tofu.  Edamame is a snack about 1x/week.  And they have tofu as their protein source for dinner 1x/week.  We don't eat too many processed foods, but some, so they are getting some soy from those.  My oldest is 12 1/2 and at her well check in Oct. her doc let us know that she's still prepubescent.  So her soy intake hasn't led to early puberty.  She's going to be on the late side.  I don't know about my 10 yr old yet, but she's showing no signs of anything in that direction at the moment.  

[AAK]

Last year I was having some serious migrane headaches a day or so prior to AF.  It was suggested that I switch to soy milk, which I did, and the headaches have completely disappeared. At the time, I didn't eliminated dairy products so I don't think it was a dairy allergy.  Either way, the soy has been good for me.  Now, I rarely use other forms.  I am just getting used to tofu, I do eat edamone, but haven't ever bothered with fake meats.  

Amy

[heatherr30]

I would show your mom the wikipedia entry on Dr Mercola.

I read Mercola from time to time (It's hard to avoid him if you spend any time on the web reading about health related topics) but I think one needs to be critical about what you read on that site.

[ShadowMoon]

We're vegan and include soy in our diet. Mostly in the form of milk, tempeh and tofu. I've never been worried about it.