Have you ever heard the term “cognitive dissonance”?  It’s basically where you have two thoughts that oppose one another.

Perhaps you’ve been going through this cognitive dissonance, if you’ve had the chance to see two articles that laud and revile the same thing:  soy.

In less than 24 hours, I came upon two different reports on soy:  one touted how healthy it was for women, particularly with regards to breast health.  But the other reviled it, headlining their piece with the words “the most dangerous food for men,” as it can cause males to grow female breasts (or what we’re now calling “moobs,” apparently).

The nay saying soy article appears in the June issue of “Men’s Health” magazine, and it profiles a Texas military man who began consuming up to three quarts of soy milk a day after switching from regular milk because of his lactose intolerance problems.  But after several years of soy swilling, he started to notice some things.  His chest was becoming bosomy, his emotions were running rampant, his libido was dead on arrival, and he experienced constant mood swings.  It was as if his body was “feminizing,” as he put it.

Doctors were quick to pinpoint soy as the culprit, as there’s some precedence to this feminizing of men who consume swaths of soy.

According to a 2008 study published in the journal Human Reproduction, when Harvard researchers had approximately 100 men undergo semen analysis at the start and conclusion of their study, those men who consumed the most soy-based products produced about 32 percent fewer sperm cells.

And studies in the Journal of Andrology and Urology have come back with similarly disturbing results with regards to soy, only those focused on male rats’ ability – or should I say inability – to maintain an erection after consuming large amounts of soy.

And it isn’t just sexual health that soy, apparently, adversely affects.  Other studies indicate that it can cause the thymus gland to shrink, and be something of a “brain drain” on those who consume large amounts of it in their 50s and 60s.

So after reading a scathing soy rebuke like this, one would think that soy should be sworn off, right?

Well, as I mentioned, another report on soy says quite the opposite.

In a study conducted by researchers from Vanderbilt University, which involved the analysis of food frequency questionnaires of women’s diets over a seven and a half year period, women who consumed the largest amounts of soy in their adolescent years and adult years had a significantly decreased risk of breast cancer.  They were able to determine this because over 500 women of the 73,000+ studied contracted breast cancer in the study period, and those who contracted breast cancer tended to consume small amounts of soy in their adolescent years.

But those women who consumed large amounts of soy in their adolescent years had a 59 percent reduced risk of breast cancer contraction before menopause.

The complete findings are published in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

How can one food be so good for women, yet so bad for men?

It’s not that simple.  Remember, the chemical properties that make up soy are estrogen-based, so they naturally have protective qualities that lean toward women (it’s no coincidence that the past articles I’ve written on soy have been about women’s health).

Should men swear off soy?  In a word:  no.

The problem with soy and men isn’t that men are consuming it, it’s that they’re consuming too much of it, and the wrong types of it.  Genetically modified soy products are everywhere, and I’m quite sure that the soy the man was drinking and finding in his foods and beverages were genetically modified.

Further, he was drinking and eating WAY TOO MUCH of it.  Three quarts of soy milk a day!  That’s overkill.  Moderation is crucial.

In fact, in the same “Men’s Health” article that slams soy, Colonel Jack E. Lewi, chief of endocrinology at the San Antonio Military Medical Center, said that soy can and should be enjoyed in moderation, but the “problem is when a thing like soy is touted as this wonderful panacea for health, and people end up going overboard on it.”

And that seems to be what happened with the “moob man” from Texas.

As with virtually all good things, soy should be enjoyed, but enjoyed in moderation.  Though women can afford to indulge in more soy than men – remember, the isoflavones that make up soy are estrogen-based – women shouldn’t go overboard on it, either.

Sources
menshealth.com
nutraingredients.com