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And Speaking of Food, What About the Lowly Soybean?

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 May 2005, 03:00 CDT

I was alarmed to read Nora McCoy's article Homestead Health: "Soy and your health; Can those little beans really be good for you?", March/April 2005 issue. I have been a vegetarian since age five and eat soy based foods almost daily, primarily in the form of tofu. As a 52-year-old woman who has a life partner who is 15 years younger, I have a certain amount of vanity about my youthful appearance and also want to continue being able to participate in vigorous sports activities with him. I also must maintain a significant level of mental acuity for my professional work and to juggle one's normal life issues, including caring for an aging parent and preparing for our planned eventual "country life."

So Ms. McCoy's assertions that soy in one's diet "is making people fat,""those who ate a lot of tofu ... look five years older" and causes "accelerated brain aging," sure caught my attention.

Even though she lists references at the end of her article, I could find no literature in a search of reputable medical publications that support any of her assertions about the negative impact of eating soy. Quite the opposite! From all the abstracted articles I read, studies show that soy based foods are excellent for weight loss and muscle gain. Many other health related benefits of eating soy were reported as well. I found no articles in any reputable scientific publication that reported any adverse effects of soy foods in humans.

I do not claim to have done an exhaustive search, or that there could be no adverse effects of eating soy. However I could find no objective evidence to support claims of adverse effects, other than Ms. McCoy's references from sources that I do not consider scientifically credible. Two of the references used by Ms. McCoy to supposedly support her assertions are from scientifically creditable sources: the journal Pediatrics and a report in the New York Academy of Science website. Neither of these two articles she cited even mention soy or imply an adverse health association with soy in any way.

I have some training and experience in looking for objective evidence, including a Master's Degree in Library Science, specializing in scientific and technical information, and I did a one-year post-graduate internship at our state's Health Sciences University where I researched medical literature for health professionals all over our state. So for the purpose of this investigation I turned to the National Library of Medicine's Medline (NLM) search engine that is now available to the public. All the abstracts I pulled up in the NLM database only report health benefits from eating soy. They gave me full confidence to continue eating soy-based foods on a daily basis.

I have no connection, nor ever had any, to the food industry, and now work as a quality manager in an electronics manufacturing company. My decision to stop eating meat at a young age was based on my love for animals, and all of my family members continue to eat meat. I did not understand Ms. McCoy's need to defend eating hormone implanted beef and what the relationship was to the rest of the article. Is she suggesting one eats hormone implanted beef instead of soyfoods?

It would be helpful to know what Ms. McCoy's professional credentials are and what her commercial interests are that might have led her to publish such claims. Or perhaps she has a personal experience that would explain her position.

I appreciate COUNTRYSIDE'S editorial policy that allows people of all backgrounds and persuasions to share their beliefs and experiences. It is incumbent upon us COUNTRYSIDE readers to exercise due diligence before we embrace any claims that are not supported by objective evidence.

Copyright Countryside Publications, Ltd. May/Jun 2005

Source: Countryside and Small Stock Journal

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