A Mother’s Journal

I have never been a tofu eater, never been a big soy milk drinker, never really gotten “into” soy.  Though I have had soy milk before, I prefer regular diary products.  I eat meat, so I’m not a vegetarian looking for protein sources.  I’ve just never had a big desire or need to eat a lot of tofu, or any kind of soy for that matter.

Imagine my shock when, in the middle of my breast biopsy, the doctor asked, “have you been eating a lot of soy?”  My answer was no, but it set me to thinking.

I have done a lot of health and nutrition reading through the years.  It’s one of my favorite subjects.  I am sure that I have read things about soy before — positive and negative, but my mind just “read and released” the information as I did not think it pertained to me.

But there I am getting a biopsy and the doctor asked had I been eating soy.  She would not have asked that for no reason.  Would she?

I challenge you to read the ingredients in the foods you buy and see just how little is available on our grocery store shelves that does not have soy.  We try to stick to the basics such as our venison, a bit of store-bought meat to cook, potatoes, beans, rice, milk, oatmeal, fruits and vegetables, but we also like cereals and crackers and granola and an occasional protein drink or mayonaise on a sandwich or a salad dressing that doesn’t have to be made from scratch or a container of yogurt or a loaf of store-bought bread. Well, you get the picture.

You no longer see just “lecithin.”  It’s “soy lecithin.”  Many “nutritious” snacks now have soy isolates or soy protein.  The oils?  Soybean oil or canola oil (which I am also not a fan of at all). 

Just how much soy have I consumed without even thinking about it?  I have always been an ingredient reader, but I fell into the trap of viewing soy as neutral and thus not thinking much about it, but I think that soy may be very dangerous.  At least unfermented soy, that is. 

In her book, Before the Change: Taking Charge of Your Perimenopause, Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman says,

“One of my concerns about unfermented soy relates to the widely reported idea that it prevents breast cancer.  It appears that soy isoflavones bind with human cell estrogen receptors, and by occupying space in these receptors, prevent cancer cells from finding a “home.”  Therefore, in some cases, soy is thought to protect against breast cancer.  However, research has also shown that soy may enhance a common type of estrogen-feeding breast cancer.

She goes on to mention research where Dr. Craig Dees concluded that soy isoflavones caused breast cancer cells to grow.  It has also been reported that high levels of genistein may contribute to breast cancer and that genistein may negate the effect of tamoxifen (a breast cancer treatment)

Soy contains goitrogens that interfere with normal thyroid function.  Soy shrinks the brain. (!)

In her book, New Menopausal Years, The Wise Woman Way: Alternative Approaches for Women 30-90 (Wise Woman Herbal Series, Book 5) (Wise Woman Ways), Susun Weed says, “Soy has a dark side.”  She goes on to say that,

“Fermented soy foods (such as miso and tamari) clearly protect against breast cancer.  But tofu, soy “milk,” and other soy products expose breast tissues to extra estrogens which may increase breast cancer risk, especially during and after menopause.”

 There’s more, but I’ll stop there.  And I have more books with even more information.  I guess it just did not strike me before because I’m not a soy eater.  At least I didn’t think I was.  Now, however, that I am looking intently at all labels for soy, I’m finding it in a huge number of products.  It makes me mad at whoever, or whatever, is behind the campaigns to market soy products to women, and especially soy formulas to new mothers!  And don’t even get me started on how much soy our boys and girls have consumed in their short lives.

Here’s a page on Dr. Mercola’s website about soy. It contains a great video you might want to watch. I think he explains very well the dangers of soy.

I see oodles and oodles of women come through the store, their carts loaded down with soy products. And since my own quest to completely eliminate soy from this home, I have had no less than three women come to me at work and share their personal stories with soy. One has breast cancer that was estrogen fed and her doctor told her to stop the soy! The next told me of large cysts or growths on her ovaries and part of her thyroid having to be removed, and her doctor told her to stop the soy! Yet another felt she had been unknowingly feeding — again, cysts and fibroids around her uterus and ovaries and now is finding it difficult to eat “normally” without encountering soy.   Yes, soy is all around us.

I guess the bottom line is that soy and I are not friends, and I would urge you, if you are a big soy milk drinker and tofu eater, to do a bit more research.  This site is not for diagnostic purposes, I am not a doctor nor a nutritionist, and I do not propose that I have all the facts.  I’m just sharing some things that have landed on the table before me in my own experiences.

Lynn