Men who eat soya-based foods may be harming their fertility, doctors said yesterday, after a study found a link between soya-rich diets and lower sperm counts. The study showed men who consumed more than two portions of soya-based foods a week had, on average, 41m fewer sperm per millilitre of semen than men who had never eaten soya products. Read the full article by Ian Sample here.
Lots of talk these days about sex education and safe sex. That got The Naughty Nutritionist™ thinking about what it might mean to “Practice Safe Soy.” Here’s seven hot tips, with none too hot to handle
•Use soy as a condoment . . . err, condiment. Soy was traditionally eaten in Asia as a condiment, not as a staple food.
• Less is more! Stick to small portions of the Good Old Soys — Miso, Natto, Tempeh and unpasteurized Shoyu. Old -fashioned fermenting makes these foods nutritious, delicious and healthful. And few people are inclined to eat these foods to excess.
•Beware the seductions of Mr Tofu! He looks pure and white, and thinks it’s “hip to be square,” but the truth is he’s a bland cube without a leg to stand on! Seriously, he’s a precipitated product and not fermented. That means you can precipitate a health crisis if you do more than flirt with him occasionally. A few cubes in your soup, okay. A half pound slab, too much of him!
• Avoid udder alternatives! Soy milk is not the worst soy product in the marketplace, but it’s the one most likely to be consumed to excess. It’s certainly good that soy’s hormone havoc-producing isoflavones go missing in rice, hemp, almond milks, but those products too are high in sugar and propped up with dubious flavorings and additives.
• Don’t be a Pod Person! Enjoy a few edamame at your favorite Japanese restaurant if you will, but a whole bag for snacking in front of the TV? This is not a case of success from excess.
• Watch out for Ex Rated! That means don’t eating anything squeezed out of an ex-truder. You wouldn’t eat styrofoam packing materials or plastic toys, would you? Textured vegetable protein and some soy protein isolate products are manufactured using virtually the same technology. The difference is extrusion techniques for food put more flavorings and colorings into the mix.
• Fear the Hydra Monster! Hydrolyzed plant protein is usually soy. Hydrolyzed whey, corn, wheat and other products are every bit as bad.
For most of us, practicing safe soy is good enough. However, those who are allergic or sensitive to soy might need to stay soy celibate. Not necessarily, but here’s a few points to ponder:
• Allergic to soy? Know “where the soys are” and avoid them at all costs. Simple enough in theory, but well-nigh impossible in practice, at least for anyone who eats processed, packaged and fast foods. More than 60 percent of supermarket and health food store products contain soy ingredients. Nearly 100 percent of fast foods contain soy. Although most allergic people attempt to stay soy free by reading labels, a better way is to eat “real foods” and cook everything from scratch. That avoids the risks of mislabeled and cross contaminated products not to mention the ongoing frustration, exasperation and time wasting of label reading.
•Sensitive to soy? It’s possible you react poorly to modern industrially processed soy products, but can enjoy the occasional serving of miso soup, natto or tempeh. The operative word is “occasional.” And the way to go is real foods, whole foods and slow foods.
•Suffering from digestive distress, thyroid disease, reproductive disorders or infertility? At risk for cancer? You might want to carefully consider your soy intake. The Israeli Health Ministry last year urged women at risk for breast cancer to take it easy on the soy. Will the U.S. be next?
That’s it, folks. Go out, have fun, eat well, and always practice safe soy.
© copyright 2006 Kaayla T. Daniel. PhD, CCN
Practice Safe Soy
