Originally posted by Astarfaraway
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reply to post by Astarfaraway
Well, ok, my son who I spoke of, who's a weight lifter, and has been for about the past 10 years, and he's 24 now...he and his wife just had a baby
boy. And they didn't have any troubles conceiving a child, none whatsoever (in fact just the opposite, baby happened a little too soon!)...and my son
has been even more devout at eating vegetarian and SOY FOODS for all of his life (but just to be clear, he does eat some fish and dairy now and then)
Yes, I'm sure there are harmful chemicals in the environment that can cause a low sperm count, but please, give me a break about soy doing it...how
long have the Asian people been consuming soy foods? Thousands of years? And they're still here?? How can that be???
Ummm, listen, like you, I'm also vegetarian. But just to clear up a bit of confusion, there ARE natural estrogens in soy, just like there are in yams
and other foods.
If you don't believe me, look at this marketing fact from the makers of Estroven. Estroven is an all natural estrogen supplement for women who are
going through menopause, but don't want to take synthesized estrogens. The makers of estroven use natural estrogens from soy, black cohosh and other
herbs to help stop the hot flashes.
See, this is from the Estroven website:
Estroven® products are all-natural, herbal supplements made with natural ingredients to provide natural menopause symptom relief. Black
cohosh plus soy isoflavones are combined with essential nutrients like calcium, folic acid, and B-vitamins. These work naturally in the body to reduce
hot flashes, night sweats, and other menopausal symptoms. Hundreds of thousands of women trust Estroven® products every year, and pharmacists
recommend them 3 to 1 over other brands of menopause supplements.
Soy can also disrupt the human hormone balance by binding to thyroid hormone. In fact, people with inactive thyroid glands should not eat too much soy
based foods. Estrogens do the same thing....f estrogen binds about 25% percent of free thyroid hormone in the body....not sure how much free thyroid
hormone that soy binds, but there are natural estrogens in soy.
(The reason I know all this stuff is because I'm a pharmacist with a special interest in natural medicine.)
Soy isn't bad....you just have to eat it in moderation. And I think it's best to eat it in it's natural form, not it's processed form. But that's
just my personal opinion.
If your son has had no ill effects from eating tons of soy, that's great! But there are natural estrogens in soy. And yams. And other foods.
[edit on 19-9-2009 by nikiano]