SOY
For many people, the most shocking new revelations about soy are not
the increased risks of breast and other cancers [1-2], the link to
childhood leukemia [3-6], the failure to prevent heart disease [7-8],
infertility [9-10], or thyroid damage, with its symptoms of weight
gain, fatigue and depression [11-13]. What really startles many of us
is soy's impact on male sex organs, estrogen overload, testosterone
suppression, and premature female puberty [14].
The root sex problem is that soy is loaded with isoflavones, plant
estrogens that operate like human female estrogen, which occurs
naturally in our bodies, male and female. These "phytoestrogens" cause
serious developmental problems. They're only 1/1,000th to 1/1,200th the
potency of human estrogen, ounce for ounce, but it's common for babies
to consume them in such large quantities that they overwhelm their
bodies' delicate testosterone-estrogen balance, leaving their victim –
male or female – with a wild variety of lifelong symptoms, sometimes
even disfigurement [15-19].
Toxicologists estimate that an infant fed exclusively on soy formula is
getting the equivalent of three to five birth control pills — per day
[20]. One study found that soy-fed percent of U.S. girls are now
growing breasts or pubic hair before age three. By age eight, either of
these two abnormalities is appearing among 14.7 percent of white girls
and a staggering 48.3 percent of black girls [22]. Why so many black
girls? Probably because they are more likely to be given soy infant
formula. They are being robbed of their girlhood. Soy formula-fed girls
are also more likely to have lifelong menstrual problems (primarily
longer and more painful periods), hormonal changes associated with
infertility, and other health problems. If this isn't a national
medical emergency, I don't know what is.
The situation is just as bad for boys. Boy babies fed soy formula may
go into puberty late — or not at all. Some of these boys are so
feminized that their breasts grow but their penises don't. Some mature
into adults with penises not much bigger than the ones they were born
with! Others might look normal and go through puberty on time, but
can't father children because their sperm are too few in number (or
poor swimmers and/or unable to fertilize eggs) [23]. Sperm counts
dropped 50 percent between 1939 and 1990 and are continuing to go down
at the rate of 2 percent per year [24]. (Another national emergency.)
Men make sperm throughout their lives, of course, but production
ability can be seriously hurt by soy during the first trimester of
pregnancy, during infancy, and early childhood [24-25].
It's not just the sex organs that are affected during the key
developmental phases of pregnancy and infancy. The brain, too, can be
irrevocably changed by excess estrogens, which suppress testosterone.
That may contribute to altered sexual behavior and sexual preference.
Estrogenized males of many species are more likely to suffer from
ADD/ADHD and even to perform more like females on tests [26-28]. Soy
won't hurt a grown man the same way. It's apt to flatten his libido,
but won't affect the size or shape of his sex organs. (Against my
better judgment, I took a national TV interview last week. They handed
a bowl of soy stuff to a guy in the studio audience. After he had
munched for thirty seconds, the host asked him, "Well, you startin' to
feel kinda swishy yet?" Good comedy, but highly misleading.) However,
soy can cause gynecomastia (female-looking breasts) within months. A
recent study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed
that men eating whopping amounts of soy experienced breast enlargement
and even some nipple discharge [29]. They ate a lot more soy than most
of us would, but it serves as fair warning. Moms eating soy during
pregnancy are putting their babies at risk because isoflavones swim
right through the placenta [30-31]. This can mess up hormonal balance,
especially during the first three months, when male fetuses are in a
crucial developmental stage and absolutely must have adequate
testosterone. Those that get plant estrogens instead of mom's
testosterone are at risk for birth defects like cryptorchidism
(undescended testicles) and/or hypospadias, in which the opening of the
penis is underneath instead of at the tip [32]. Although undescended
testicles can be corrected fairly easily through surgery, hypospadias
is far more serious. In worst case scenarios, it can require as many as
10 separate operations. Even then, the boy may not grow up to be an
adult male with full sexual function. His penis typically never gets
longer than one and a half inches [33].
Hypospadias is on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, and now occurs in
one out of 125 births [34]. This coincides with the greater numbers of
industrial chemicals in the environment, but also with the growing
popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets. A British study in 2000
showed that vegetarian mothers are five times more likely to give birth
to a boy with hypospadias than mothers who eat a varied diet [35].
Sadly, vegan moms-to-be think they are eating healthfully when they
swig soy milk, nosh on soy nuts, and eat veggie burgers. The tragic
result can be undescended testicles, hypospadias or even homosexuality.
No study says that soy dooms a child to homosexuality, but it's not
hard to believe that at some point during pregnancy babies are
hardwired for sexual preference. (See the Psychological Medicine
article in endnote 27 below.)
Pediatricians are seeing so many over-estrogenized boys today with
breasts, delayed puberty and /or behavioral problems that they've come
up with the terms "Developmental Estrogenization Syndrome" and
"Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome" [36].
Right now, no evidence indicates that soy during childhood or adulthood
is likely to change sexual preference. The danger zone is the first
three months of both pregnancy and infancy, when male physiology and
brain circuitry are still developing. In other words, a girl-chasing,
football-playing college boy won't go gay even if he becomes a
vegetarian or snacks all day on soy energy bars. (He might develop
thyroid or other health problems or lose most of his libido, though.)
My larger concern is that the increasing number of less robust
15-year-olds who are already "struggling with their sexual identity"
will be shoved over that thin line into homosexuality. No, they won't
wake up some morning with floppy wrists and a nasal lisp, but they may
begin to gravitate toward social circles where they feel more
comfortable — and less expected to be rowdy or brag about a string of
sexual conquests. And once a teen is ensconced in a homosexual milieu,
breaking free from it could mean abandoning his best friends. Does the
idea that soy can cause so much trouble sound like Rutz sensationalism?
Don't just take my word for it. Here's what government health experts
in Israel and France have decided: The Israeli Health Ministry has
looked long and hard at the evidence and concluded that its citizens
won't "be fruitful and multiply" if they eat too much soy. It has
warned that babies should not receive any soy formula, that children to
age 18 should not eat soy more than once a day (to a maximum of 3 times
a week), and that adults should beware because of breast cancer and
adverse effects on fertility [37].
The French, meanwhile, intend to maintain their reputation as ardent
lovers. Food manufacturers in France will soon have to remove those
dangerous plant estrogens from soy formula and to put warning labels on
soyfoods and soy milk. French Food Agency experts see the biggest risks
as being to children under three and women who have been diagnosed with
or have breast cancer in their families [38]. The British Dietetic
Association also warns parents to avoid soy formula [39]. Lots of
Americans accept everything our FDA and NIH say as gospel. Those poor
souls are now in danger because their trusted government watchdogs have
yet to bark any warnings about soy. However, Daniel Sheehan, PhD, one
of the FDA's top toxicologists, has warned that that infants fed
soy-based formulas have been placed at risk in a "large, uncontrolled
and basically unmonitored human infant experiment." Do you really want
to put your child into that experiment? Next week: More news about soy
— all documented, all bad. Fallon, S, Daniel KT, Sanda W. Responses to
Docket 2004Q-0151 Solae Company Health Claim on Cancer. Documents
submitted to the FDA, June 14, 2004, January 20, 2005 and April 11,
2005. Posted at www.westonaprice.org under "Soy Alert."
Daniel, Kaayla T. The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's
Favorite Health Food (New Trends, 2004).379-394. Overview of how soy
can cause, contribute to or accelerate the growth of cancers, including
131 references. Includes about 200 real-life horror stories that will
make you run screaming into the kitchen and toss out anything with soy
on the label!
VERY INTERESTING!
DON'T TRUST THE FDA,THEY SAID THALYDAMIDE WAS SAFE,THE KIDS WERE BORN
WITHOUT ARMS,LEGS,FLIPPERS INSTEAD IN THE 60'S!
DRLEIGH@WEBTV.NET
HAPPY NEW YEAR!