Nutrition: Soy Pros and Cons

Nutrition: Soy Pros and Cons - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Soy is a hot topic right now. There are very few things on the planet that are all good or all bad. Soy is one of those ones that straddles the line. There are things that are good about it and things that are not so good about it when it comes to human consumption. Soy has a lot of things in it that are actually really good for ruminant animals, for cows, for example, really good for them. They can breakdown all of the bits and pieces that are in soy. Our system really cannot do that, so we have to rely on forms of processing soy to breakdown some of those more dangerous pieces. The best way to do that, for the human body, is by fermentation. So, when you look at a lot of the cultures and countries that use soy, you are going to find that the vast majority of the soy that they use is actually in the fermented form. You will see miso, soy sauce, tempeh, those are the sorts of things that the human body does much better with when you are looking at getting enough protein, if you are a vegetarian, or using it for some of it is benefits that have to do with cardiovascular health or have to do with hormone health. When you look at unprocessed or raw types of soy and, actually tofu, even though it is processed, falls into this category because it is not cooked, you end up really stressing out the thyroid, and you can really stress out the kidneys, as well. There are certain types of elements in there that can cause a thyroid disorder and that can cause kidney stones. So, if you rely heavily on soy, I would say stick towards more of that fermented side, rather than using a lot of the raw sort of soy products. Soy milk is not a food. I highly recommend you find something else as a milk replacement if you cannot do dairy. There are lots of ways. If you go on the Web, like you are right now, put in homemade almond milk, or homemade cashew milk, and you will find ways to make nut milks in your own kitchen. It is so simple. But, I would start looking in that category, rather than using soy milk. There are certain considerations when you are raising small children and using a lot of soy. We are finding that there is a lot of estrogenic properties that are coming into our food supply from a lot of different areas. One of those areas is soy. It is not a big problem if you minimize the soy intake. If it is something that you use, again, a lot of, you can be pushing your children toward earlier maturation for girls and for more of a feminization of boys. So, you want to be a little bit careful there. You do not want to overdo the soy. And like anything, your really do not want to overdo a good thing. It becomes a bad thing. So, it is good to be confused about soy, it is good to be asking questions about soy. It is good to read the research about soy. It is not great and it is not evil. It is somewhere in between, and it also depends on how it interacts with your biochemistry. Ask a professional. See if it is right for you, and see if that is something that you can utilize correctly as a protein. And really spend some time with it. Get to know it.