Oestrogens in soya?!
Answers: Is there any danger in consuming soya on a daily basis (I use soya milk and regularly eat tofu or soya beans) - I am also on the pill and am starting to be a bit concerned about the amount of hormones soya may provide. (Please don't tell me to replace it with dairy because I won't). Thanks
Presumably you are worried about the risk of breast cancer from eating too much soys. Well, you can relax as far as the soya is concerned, though I'm not sure about the pill. There is no evidence to support fears that soya foods could lead to breast cancer, a study (U of Toronto) has concluded. They found the women eating soya actually appeared to have less oestrogen in their urine than those eating a normal low-fat diet. Professor David Jenkins, who led the study, said: "The concerns have been whether soy oestrogen might lead to hormone dependent breast cancer, or abnormal sexual development in children, yet we found no evidence of this.
Soya products are eaten in large quantities by oriental women and there is no evidence that eating soya has raised their incidence of oestrogen-dependent breast cancer. But talk to your doctor about the level of oestrogen in your pill if you are concerned.
Honestly, the dangers of soya tend to be squawked about by less reputable journals, or worse, magazines.
Plant estrogens are very, very weak and have little effect, and plenty of other plants have phytoestrogens in them. Nuts actually have more than soy do, per gram. Soy may have some effect on men, but the academic papers on the subject are at odds with one another, so you can't jump to any conclusions. Chinese and Japanese people eat soy daily. Okinawans have the longest lifespan of any in the world.
If you're really concerned, switch to rice milk or add a little seitan to replace some tofu.
i agree with drusilla. I used to eat a lot of soy and now i'm not so sure about it anymore.
there is no danger in consuming soya on a daily basis so please dont worry