Does eating soy really give you men enlarged breasts?
The 4 things you need to know about soy
Eating soy has been a controversial topic over the last decade. So much so that when educating people on various sources of protein when I get to soy their reaction is as if someone just died.
But why are so many people disturbed by the thought of consuming soy?
Any reputation whether it's a person or product trust is hard to build but is easy to destroy. In the case of soy during its coming out party it received negative press. We all know how hard it is for someone or something to recover from a bad first impression. Unfortunately, for soy it has been charged, tried and found guilty and sentenced to death. But before we put soy to death completely, wouldn’t it prudent to take another look just to make sure we are not killing off something purely innocent, because, we all know humans get things right 100 percent of the time–right?
Does it really matter, do we really need to care about soy?
Decades of research from the 1970s to the present have shown associations between soy consumption and improved health, including:
A 4% to 6% reduction in LDL cholesterol, which could lower the risk of cardiovascular events by 4% to 12%
Decreased risk of breast, prostate, and endometrial cancer
Reduction of menopause symptoms
Improved microbiome
Better bone density and turnover
Now more than ever, as a society can we afford to turn down these positive health outcomes? We all know that instead of getting healthier mankind in general is in a steady state of health decline, so not considering soy could be counter beneficial to our health.
But why does soy get such a bad wrap?
Let us look at the charges against it.
It has a feminizing hormone estrogen which gives men enlarged breasts.
It lowers your sperm
It causes thyroid problems
It is Genetically modified and uses pesticides
Does the research support these claims?
In the last 30 years of extensive research on soy here are the things we now know that may not have been clearly understood before.
Feminizing because it has estrogen which gives men boobs
If that was true there would be subjective evidence that would be clearly visible, showing a large population of Asian men with enlarged breasts (gynaecomastia) since they consume more soy products than Westerners. However, there is no visible evidence of this.
Why do some have this claim?
The estrogenic activity of soy was misunderstood. It is now known that the three major isoflavones in soy known as phytoestrogens are weak in its estrogenic effects, determined intelligently by your body whether to use these compounds to produce pro- or anti-estrogenic effects by binding to estrogen receptors whenever needed. Our bodies are smarter than we give it credit for. For this reason, phytoestrogens are referred to as selective estrogen receptor modulators.
It lowers your sperm.
Where did this claim come from? The media picked up a study done by Harvard School of Public Health in Boston which looked at 99 men who went to a fertility clinic. In the abstract of this study it made an erroneous statement suggesting that higher intake of soy foods and soy isoflavones is associated with lower sperm concentration. It forgot to point out the fact that the men with lower sperm concentration were obese or overweight which usually have higher estrogen to begin with and also that their sperm was still regarded as normal. Other studies have come out since then showing that soy protein of low or high isoflavone content does not adversely affect semen quality in a sample of healthy adult men.
It causes thyroid problems
Why this claim? A meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials found that although soy supplements raised thyroid stimulating hormone levels slightly, they did not have any effect on actual thyroid hormone production. Another study found that soy may interfere with thyroid hormone medication used to treat hypothyroidism. In one randomized double-blinded trial, 60 patients with subclinical hypothyroidism were given low or high-dose phytoestrogen supplements; the risk of developing clinical hypothyroidism was increased in the higher phytoestrogen group. The authors suggested that female vegetarian patients with subclinical hypothyroidism may need more careful monitoring of their thyroid function and that further investigation is necessary. This is a classic situation where one man's food is another man's poison which may be exacerbated due to a person's individual weak links. Before someone consumes any food including soy they might want to test not guess to see if they have underlying risk factors or weak links that might make adding a certain food detrimental to their health.
It is Genetically modified and uses pesticides
This is true only if you are eating food bought for livestock. Major food producers use non-GMO and organic soy for human consumption. The GMO crops are primarily fed to livestock who will then be fed to humans. To be safe, eat organic soy. The use of genetic engineering, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is prohibited in organic products.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18650557/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20378106/
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(09)03594-8/fulltext
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/soy-foods-low-sperm-link/
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/96/5/1442/2833679
https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/96/5/1442/2833679
https://foodinsight.org/sound-science-history-of-soy-and-health/
https://www.fda.gov/food/agricultural-biotechnology/gmo-crops-animal-food-and-beyond