Soy Sucks!!!

If I walked down the street and asked 10 random people the following: “Are soy and/or soy products good for you?” I am willing to bet that at least 7 of them would say yes. Foods such as Tofu, Soymilk, and Soy Yogurt would come to mind; they would recall the taglines that soy is high in protein and that soy milk is a good replacement for people with dairy allergies. So how would I answer this question? My answer would be no. Soy is not good for you, especially if you are male; it is an estrogen inducing, sperm count lowering, nutritional lightweight. I would go more into this, but you can find all the information regarding estrogen and sperm counts among other things here (http://nephropal.blogspot.com/search/label/soy).

Instead I will focus on the claims and evidence that exists in support of soy being a health food. Here is what I found:

Soy, analysis:

High in Protein – That’s good but unfortunately soy also contains trypsin Inhibitors. What is trypsin? Well trypsin is a glorious enzyme, produced by the pancreas that is responsible for breaking down protein in our digestive system. Thus the trypsin inhibitors in soy will limit the amount of protein that can be broken down and used by our bodies, thus making soy a mediocre protein source at best.

OK, but it’s Rich in Calcium, Zinc, Iron, Phosphorus, magnesium, b-vitamins - Excellent at least it has a good mineral profile right? Wrong because soy also contains a huge amount of Phytic Acid, this is responsible for inhibiting absorption of zinc, calcium, iron, and magnesium. So much for all the great vitamin and minerals; we can’t absorb the majority of them in the presence of Phytic Acid anyway. And here is a note for you people thinking Soy/Soymilk is a good way to get calcium: The calcium is there, but your body never gets to use it!!!! So don’t think that soy is a good source of calcium, because it is not!!!

Yeah, but it’s Rich in omega-3’s – I can’t fault that, or can I? Actually yes I can, unfortunately soy contains almost exclusively ALA, one of a handful of the acids that make up the precious omega-3 army. The downside to ALA is that it needs much more processing by the body (liver) in order to be used; as a consequence it is not nearly as effective in promoting good health as other forms of Omega-3 fatty acids (Such as EPA and DHA that wild salmon is chock full of). When consumed in excess ALA can even promote prostate cancer and macular degeneration. (http://www.afterthediet.com/omega3.htm).

Ah but soy does Lowers LDL and Triglycerides – It may lower LDL and Triglycerides slightly, but the jury is still out on this one. However I do know this for sure: the American heart association no longer recommends soy as a good food for lowering cholesterol levels (http://www.healthcastle.com/soy_heart_AHA.shtml). I wonder why (Sarcastically)???

Low in Saturated Fat – Well saturated fat is not necessarily a bad thing. I guess this makes soy a low calorie food, so I won’t fault it for that.

In summary we have soy, high in protein, but trypsin inhibitors limit their breakdown; It’s got a lot of vitamins and minerals, but phytic acid renders the majority of them useless; It’s rich in omega-3’s, but unfortunately only ALA which must be converted by the body in order to be used; and its claims of lowering cholesterol levels is sorry at best. I think we should label Soy the food that has all the good stuff that your body can’t use, and it could fuck with your thyroid, lower sperm counts in men, and induce unwanted estrogen production. With all this being said, I still may have a tiny sliver of my heart still accepting of sprouted soy (the verdict is still out), but as of right now I recommend avoiding it completely because there are better alternatives.

New Research on why you should avoid Soy. By Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig:

http://www.mercola.com/article/soy/avoid_soy.htm

Osteoporosis - This one is for the Ladies... And everyone else

I stumbled across another blog today, called Nephropal and I like it so much I put the link in the recommended reading section on the right of this blog. To put it simply, Nephropal focuses on Health and Medicine from an evolutionary viewpoint, the blogger/bloggers do a wonderful job of making very complicated subjects understandable to all the normal people, like me.

Anyway they had a great post on Osteoporosis, and calcium absorption. My basic take was that diets high in sugar(specifically fructose) in combination with Vitamin D deficiency has a detrimental effect on calcium absorption, and thus sets one up for Osteoporosis. Women in particular should take note as calcium deficiency is often more of a problem, especially during pregnancy. So eat less fructose (and sugar in general), get more vitamin D (especially during winter months), and make sure to do some load bearing exercise to help keep bone density (They also mention this as being important). So read on...

http://nephropal.blogspot.com/2010/01/fructose-vitamin-d-and-calcium.html

Whole Foods, Fit Employees getting bigger discounts?

Check out this article in the Seattle Times today. It covers Whole Foods new policy to give an extra 10% discount to employees who's body mass index (BMI) is less than 3o. I am not totally sure what I think about this just yet... The following questions arise: Is BMI really an accurate measure for health or fitness? It gives incentive if your BMI is below 30 but what about if you are hovering around 15 and are way too skinny? Perhaps that is when they should offer even more of a discount to encourage more eating :)

Now that I think about it I kinda like the idea. If my company offered some sort of incentive I would score, my BMI is 22 (Which is about the lowest it has ever been).

Anyway, I thought you might find this interesting

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nicolebrodeur/2010986841_nicole05m.html