(pictured: Avocado and Edamame Appetizer)
This is a fascinating abstract of a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. If anyone you know is a breast cancer survivor you should forward the link to this abstract.
As I mentioned yesterday there are a lot of soy haters that claim that soy increases the risk of breast cancer in some women. This large study (over 5,000 women) found that women that consumed soy (up to 11grams per day) reduced both their risk of death and breast cancer recurrence by almost a third.
According to the Journal, “The inverse association was evident among women with either oestrogen receptor–positive or –negative breast cancer and was present in both users and nonusers of tamoxifen,” they continued. “In summary, in this population-based prospective study, we found that soy food intake is safe and was associated with lower mortality and recurrence among breast cancer patients… This study suggests that moderate soy food intake is safe and potentially beneficial for women with breast cancer,” they concluded.
I am still going to avoid soy protein isolate but this gives me additional incentive to continue to include whole soy (tofu, edamame, and soy milk) in our diet.
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Thanks for sharing this info.I'm new to this whole soy eating and I agree there are alot of blogger, etc who are soy haters. I do eat some tofu and endamame...I looked up soy isolates and got the definition but does the label actually say this or how do I know which products I'm looking for are best or don't contain these?
ReplyDeleteThanks,Natasha
Natasha,
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you and thanks for commenting.
Soy protein isolate is found on the ingredient list of products I have looked at. I have seen it in soy protein powders, veggie dogs, veggie burgers, vegan "health" bars. In essence, it seems to show up in processed foods.
I hope that helps. If you have any other questions please don't hestitate to ask.
Alicia
The literature is full of examples of this kind of thing, but the soy haters refuse to see past that one article on rats that suggest there may possibly be some kind of problem maybe maybe if people eat three times their body weight a day in soy. I think it's just one of the many ways people bend over backwards to justify eating animals.
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more. The people I know that criticize me for eating soy are so rabid in their hatred of soy they can't see beyond it. At the same time they are critical of soy they have no problem eating red meat and cheese with apparently no concern at all. Seems crazy to me.
Alicia
My personal opinion is that people who are militant anti soy are doing so for an ulterior motive. They are either allergic/intolerant of soy and do not realize that they are, they are allergic to soy and are tired of it being in everything or they have had some bad reaction in thier body that they trace rightly or wrongly to soy. I have read some of this stuff and have seen an undercurrent of "its bad for me so it is bad for you as well".
ReplyDeleteI'm soy intolerant, but would never tell someone not to eat tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame or soy milk. Just becuase I can't eat something, doesn't mean that I should deprive others of it.
snugglebunny,
ReplyDeleteI can understand that you would think this is an intolerance issue with others since you have that problem but I don't think that explains everyone that is militant anti soy since I was referring to omnivores.
As difficult as this to imagine I have had omni's criticize my feeding soy to my husband (due to their perconceived idea that it would promote cancer). One person went on to tell me they only tried soy once and didn't like the taste or the texture and was glad to hear it was unhealthy so they never had to eat it again. Narrow minded? Absolutely.
Believing that meat and dairy is perfectly safe but soy causes cancer is something I have heard from more than one omnivore.
Alicia
What is soy protein isolate?
ReplyDeleteRose,
ReplyDeleteSoy protein isolate is probably something you don't eat much. It is a powdered soy product they make by processing the whole soy. The problem isn't the product itself it is the total amount that could be consumed if you eat a lot of processed food. It is added to many procesed vegan and vegetarian foods. It tends to be the main component in vegetarian protein powders.
Consuming too much soy protein isolate has had been linked to a increase in hormone dependent cancers (breast and prostate) in lab experiments.
If you need more info let me know,
Alicia
Thanks for info; that's good to know.
ReplyDeleteWe don't eat very much processed stuff, but I'm definitely keeping this in mind when I read the ingredients lists in the grocery store.
Rose,
ReplyDeleteSoy protein isolate is the primary reason I cut back on our TVP consumption. In the past I used TVP a couple times a month. I know having it a few times a year isn't going to do any harm, but I would never eat TVP everyday or even every month, just to be cautious. As we both know I am much more concerned about this type of thing than most people so I may be overreacting.
I was shocked when I started reading labels and discovered how many organic vegan foods contained it. Once you know how many places it is found it is easy to see how you could get too much if you were looking for it.
Alicia