Is Soy actually healthy?

Dr. Mercola does not think so - http://www.***********/article/soy/index.htm


Any thoughts? It's probably a lot more ethical and sustainable than beef but as far as optimal health goes, theres probably a lot thats a whole lot healthier.

 

I know there is a lot of talk for and against soy. I am not sure who to believe when it comes to articles on the internet, so I look at cultures that have been using it for a long time. These cultures tend to be pretty healthy, but they also are not using soy as the main food in their diet either. So I think that soy is probably healthy as long as it is consumed in moderation and not relied upon as the main food in one's entire diet.

The thing about soy is that it is in a lot of processed foods, so if you are eating those you are probably consuming a lot more soy than you realize.

 

Its the same as anything-its about moderation. Soy every single day is probably not going to be as healthy as varying it a bit with other plant matter.

It is, however, just a plant. And to be honest id trust a plant more than a carcass, or anything animal derived, and the majority of people still base their diets on these things. There seems to be a dislike for soy. Maybe its the way the word sounds, or the fact that its seen as something only people from China or those oh so frighteneing "extreme" vegans eat to keep them going. But honestly my diet has quite a lot of soy, and im here, alive and very well from it

But as i said, moderation

 

My thoughts exactly
There are worse things out there, and we're going to die anyway. So I'm not overly concerned.

 

I have heard that if you consume soy more than once a week, it's thyroid suppressive quality will start to kick in. I'm not sure how true that is, but your thyroid is apart of your endocrine(hormonal) system, which is not something I wanna suppress to much !

I eat certified organic chickpea soy miso that's been fermented but I've pretty much cut out all fake meat,tofu,soymilk, and any processed soy from my diet

 

Dr. Mercola is a Low Carb pushing wack job who is firmly in the pocket of the meat industry. He does not have the credibility to criticize any food associated with a vegetarian diet.

Billions of people make soy part of their diet. That being said, too much of anything tends to have negative health consequences, so if you are concerned, make sure your diet is varied with a variety of protein sources primarily from whole foods (different legumes, whole grains, a wide variety of vegetables). Cook in more, eat out less, and reduce the amount of soy protein isolate in your diet if you're eating it a lot. BTW, omnis are just as likely as Veg*ns to eat too much soy protein isolate since it is in a wide variety of omni foods.

 

i heard a high soy intake could lead to fertility problems, but if in moderation i doubt it'd be an issue.

 

You have to be kidding about Dr. Mercola being in the pocket of the meat industry? He is like a natural health freedom crusader up there with Mike Adams, probably one of the more reasonable health voices out there.

All you gotta do is search "meat" on his site to realize that is a completley inaccurate claim and he does not advocate a lot of conventional meat that is pushed by big industries - http://www.google.com/custom?domains=***********&q=meat&sa=Search&client=pub-5036891189517018&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&hl=en&sitesearch=***********&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BLH%3A112%3BLW%3A778%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.***********%2Fimages%2Fmercolabannersearch.gif%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.***********%3BFORID%3A1%3B


Do you really think theres a big industry behind ostrich meat, bison, and free range chicken!?

 

I think this is a good article about soy. http://www.foodrevolution.org/what_about_soy.htm

 

That's an basically an Urban Legend that started because of a couple of badly researched articles. There have not been any serious studies that studied and linked fertility issues to soy consumption. There are well over a billion Chinese people who eat non-fermented soy products like tofu as a regular part of their diets.

As for Mercola and his "grass-fed" beef, ostrich and bison, the fact of the matter is that the majority of people don't care where the meat comes from, so if Joe Mercola says that eating grass fed meat is the best option, most people are just going to read "meat is the best option." In addition, he didn't used to have all this "free-range" crap on his site. That is new since I extensively went over his site in 2004, so it's pretty clear that he is getting paid by someone to tout the "free-range" crap. A lot of his sales pitch has changed in the last couple of years because Atkins isn't trendy anymore. Believe me, in the height of the Atkins-mania, he didn't give a crap where you got your dead cow from, just so you were eating dead cow (plus a generous amount of his over-priced supplements).

 

Eh, I'm okay with it.

I don't let my son have soy, and I SEVERELY limit my daughter's soy since there seems to be just enough evidence out there for issues with soy & prepubescence to make me leery. But as for myself & my husband, we drink soy milk regularly. I eat soy yogurt, ice cream & tofu on occasion as well, and so far it (and the other diet changes I've made in the last 1 1/2 years) has done nothing but good for me.

Avocado - I don't know about where you live, but buffalo & free-range chicken is HUGE here! You can even get these at my local Super Target!
love,
mom

 

well... i don't really give two hoots about what this guy says cos I know I'm not a big soy eater anyway.
if you eat a variety of foods, you'll be ok.
vegan, veggie or omni it's all still true. if you eat too much of something its gonna be bad for you.

 

Good! Thanks for correcting me!

 

my biology professor was a vegetarian and she preached to the class it was the BEST form of protein for biological reasons, not just ethnical. I trust her, especially seeing as she is a scientist, she probably knows what she's talking about.

 

Dr. Mercola, like all others, is one to be watched. He has some ideas that are reasonable, and then others that are while not maliciously intended, are plain misleading.
For example, he is the leading advocate for diet-controlled Multiple Sclerosis, that is to say that he is a firm believer that the foods we eat can repair infinite auto-immune disorders. While I believe that food is good medicine, when it comes to neurological diseases, I am skeptical, at best.

 

a lot of people would debate about diets and neurological disorders. I believe Dr. Mercola on this issue. for an example, a lot of people with autism eat a gluten-free diet and there is proof that this type of diet helps their body function in better ways and their behaviors are more appropriate.

 

There was a woman who posted on here awhile back that soy was stopping her from having a period. She was consuming a lot of soy each day though and when she cut back things got back to normal. So atleast for some people soy can mess with the reproductive cycle, but again this was in large amounts.

If Dr. Mercola has evidence that Multiple Sclerosis can be controlled with diet then that is great and something that should be explored. We should not discredit such things because they might be simple and not come in a pill. PCRM says diabetes can be controlled and even reversed with a low fat vegan diet: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diabetes/

 

Diabetes, as I'm sure you are aware, is a large step away from MS. Diabetes is obviously affected by what one eats. MS on the other hand, has not been proven to be so affected.
I am certainly not discrediting his solution, "because they might be simple and not come in a pill". Many of the symptoms of MS are mimicked by reactions to what we eat, but changing your diet has yet to be proven to remove the lesions(patches of rot) on one's nervous system that charectorize MS.

 

I stick with variety and mederation when it comes to soy. In the research I've done (no links handy, sorry) I've found enough correlation between high soy intake and endocrine/hormonal unbalances to make me nervous. Especially for myself, since I suffer from PCOS and my sister had Grave's disease (an extremely overactive thyroid) so I try to be careful.

I don't eat many things where soy is an additive, since I eat mostly whole foods. There is a small amount of soy flour in the bread I buy (it's the only loaf of bread at my local grocery that is vegan and affordable). Maybe once a week I'll eat either tofu or tempeh, and a couple times a week I eat a tofutti cutie. (they're sooooo good!) I use rice milk because I can't stand soy milk, so I'm not too worried.

It's not like I'm lacking a broad choice of delicious inexpensive protein sources. With the wide variety of beans, nuts, whole grains, and veggies I eat every day I'm always full and satisfied.

 

Sound advice.

It's also important to pay attention to the signals your body sends you. My digestive tract does not like tofu and rebels if I eat very much of it, but small amounts eaten with other foods don't seem to bother me. Tempeh gives me no problems at all.