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I read an interesting article the other day and the author stated with confidence that the use of soy was causing homosexuality. I will tell you right from the start that I think this is absurd and completely unsupported by anything I have read. These types of articles, however, underline the problem in natural medicine as punctuated by the soy controversy. This problem is that you will hear from some that soy is good for you and from others that soy is dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that it can change your sexuality!
I will address the soy issue in a moment, but first I want to give you some guidance about who to believe when you read opposing views. Those who are familiar with my writings know that I advocate questioning everything. There are many very well intentioned idiots out there. And, there are well intentioned intellects who make mistakes. I am capable of falling into either category, at times.
The issue is how do you determine which opposing view do you embrace? My suggestion is that you look past the claim to see how they came to their conclusion. Do they utilize numerous studies or do they utilize someone else’s well-written, yet, unsupported point of view? You will find the later to be true more times than not. Another suggestion is to determine whether the supportive arguments used to defend their position make sense and are logical. Thus, a claim that may seem to be outlandish may start to make sense. An example would be like telling someone who was just prescribed an acid-lowering drug that they needed to take acid instead. One position is that the problem is too much acid and the other that there is too little acid. By looking at the supportive arguments, your ability to determine what makes sense to you will become clearer. You can read about this topic in: Heartburn Hell: Putting the fire out naturally.
Now, back to the soy issue. I can tell you that, like almost anything else, there are positive and negative studies on soy. No one can claim with good conscious that soy is either all good or all bad. That much I know for sure. The issue as raised by the controversial title of this article is that taking soy causes boys to become girly. The other closely related issue is that soy causes girls to reach puberty at an earlier age. There is NO good evidence for either of these claims and recent studies suggest the opposite. If you disagree with me, send me the study and I will share it in my next issue of Health Zingers.
To support my point of view here are the references for two recent articles.
Effects of chronic exposure to soy meal containing diet or soy derived isoflavones supplement on semen production and reproductive system of male rabbits.
Anim Reprod Sci. 2007 Feb;97(3-4):237-45. Epub 2006 Mar 13.
Conclusion: We conclude that chronic dietary treatment with soy based diet or soy isoflavones have no adverse effects on the observed reproductive patterns of male rabbits.
Infant feeding with soy formula milk: effects on puberty progression, reproductive function and testicular cell numbers in marmoset monkeys in adulthood.
Hum Reprod. 2006 Apr;21(4):896-904. Epub 2006 Feb 13.
Conclusion: Infant feeding with SFM has no gross adverse reproductive effects in male marmosets…
Again I state that there is NO solid evidence for the claim that soy is causing our children to reach puberty at an earlier age. I also think that you can safely assume that your daily soy latte will not cause you to become a homosexual any time soon.
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