Do You Know The Effects of Eating Soy Foods?

If you don’t eat dairy products because you are lactose intolerant, suffer from allergies, or you are a vegetarian or vegan, you probably think that the Western version of soy products are a good alternative.

There is plenty of research on the effects of eating soy foods regarding your health. It’s touted to protect you against a wide array of illnesses such as:

• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Hot flashes for menopausal women
• Osteoporosis
• Memory Loss
• Kidney Disease
• Weight Gain

But, I also found plenty of research that contradicts the effects of eating soy products.

Soybeans contain phytochemicals called isoflavones that behave like the hormone estrogen known as phytoestrogen. The estrogen is known to increase the risk of breast cancer in women, especially in cancer survivors – not prevent it. Infants fed soy formula may be exposed to harm from the estrogen effects of isoflavones.

Be aware that much of the positive research is sponsored by industries with a vested interest such as: soy producers, processors, product manufacturers, and marketers all promote the benefits of their products.

You may be one of the enthusiasts of soy, but consider the effects of soy foods if you if you have not been feeling like yourself lately. Try removing soy from your diet to see if it makes a difference in the way you feel. Remember to read all the labels because over 60% of the foods on the grocery shelves contain some form of soy.

You have to know what to look for.

I invite you to take the soy quiz and find out now if you are allergic or have a soy intolerance.

Many people are unaware of how soy can detrimentally affect their health. If you’ve suffered from a soy related condition, please feel free to share your experiences here so others can gain insight on this wrongly perceived miracle food.

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I'm on synthroid for hypothyroid and was told that soy will negate the effects of the synthroid. It's one of the worse things we can put in our body and yet it's found in just about everything, especially all the health bars and cereals, let alone it gives you gas.

Comment by Joanne Macko on August 12, 2010 at 5:10 am

The dangers of too much information!

There has to be a limit to how much we listen to these doctors, and research. Since any research you can publish you can find two or three others that have been published that say the exact opposite.

If we listen to them all, we would have to be on anxiety medication. its like the water circle, one research says that tap water is contaminated due to pollution and pharmaceuticals that do not degrade through the waters purification systems and so we have a generation of children that are drugged by simply drinking water (yes, this was a research that was done, look it up) so we all go out and buy bottled water, but then we learn that not only water companies add salt to the water,(like coke)making us sick, just so that we will be thirstier and want to drink more, but on top of it the chemicals in the plastic of the bottles leach into the water causing cancer.

So we go out and buy bottled water in a glass container, only to learn that most water companies use tap water any way, and the environmentalist are screaming at us, that the energy used to bottle the water and transport us is killing us and the world in the long run.

SO what do we do?

The answer is simple…

Stop caring, I mean not totally, but caring enough that one will not listen to all the scare tactics that are out there. Most of them probably stared by the opposite company to get the consumer scared enough to buy their product instead.

It’s just not healthy to live this way.

One should do what one thinks to be right. And when people tell you that what you are doing is wrong because of AB and C research… nod, smile and walk away!

Adriana

Comment by adriana on August 21, 2010 at 3:18 am

Thanks for your comments. Everyone has to listen to their own body. For me, soy was life threatening, and since I have removed soy from my diet, I have never felt better.

Comment by Dianne on August 22, 2010 at 12:25 pm

I think we should all find out who did the studies,most of the time it is a company that has a vested interest in a product so they try to scare us into either taking the product or not taking the product according to their interests.

Use your own judgment when it comes to your health and your body. We are not all the same so some things that bother one person do not bother another etc.

As for soy, I am a vegetarian and use soy products once in a while and feel great with no health problems.

Comment by Elsie Gjelstrup on August 22, 2010 at 1:08 pm

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Comment by Tod Fahrenthold on October 5, 2010 at 5:21 am

I have been trying to eliminate all soy from my diet and recently found out that my herbal teas have soy isoflavins in them. the older labels did not specify soy isoflavins but just said natural flavors and all natural on the front of the box. How can soy, which is 93%GMO be considered natural? Anyway since I have eliminated soy from my diet most of my stomach and digestion issues have disappeared and I am now losing weight. If I do eat a product away from home that contains soy I get that bloated feeling and severe indigestion and I know there must be hidden soy in what I ate. I now use muscle testing when I shop and ask my body if a food will have adverse affects in my body and when I get yes and I read the label, sure enough there is MSG or soy isoflavins which are listed as natural flavors but at the bottom it will now say contains soy. I have contacted some of the product manufactures and asked if they have soy free products and tell them not only will I not buy their product but I will tell everyone I know to avoid their products because they contain soy. I am especially disappointed in Kashi which I used to eat all the time because I thought it was healthy. Their reply to my comments was not positive and they said they cannot control all the ingredients in their products. I will never eat Kashi products again.

Comment by Susan on March 5, 2011 at 4:41 pm

Hi Susan, thanks for your comments and feedback. I can relate to your digestive and weight problem. I'm glad you too, have the guts to stand up to the manufacturers. I am afraid it will get worse because some manufacturers and Whole Foods are jumping on the bandwagon with Monsanto to allow GMO in products without having to state it on the label. I stopped shopping at Whole Foods altogether.

Always check the labels of manufaturers that you trust because they can change the ingredients without you knowing it.

Comment by Dianne on March 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm