ābut could be significant if the average American were to replace the majority of their meat consumption with soy-based products.ā
Could you elaborate how you conclude that the effects of soy isoflavones could be significant if consumption were higher?
I read this summary article from the Linus Pauling institute a while ago and concluded, āokay, isoflavones donāt seem like an issue at all, and in some cases might have health benefitsā (and this matches my experience so far).[1] The relevant section from the article:
Male reproductive health
Claims that soy food/āisoflavone consumption can have adverse effects on male reproductive function, including feminization, erectile dysfunction, and infertility, are primarily based on animal studies and case reports(181). Exposure to isoflavones (including at levels above typical Asian dietary intakes) has not been shown to affect either the concentrations of estrogen and testosterone, or the quality of sperm and semen (181, 182). Thorough reviews of the literature found no basis for concern but emphasized the need for long-term, large scale comprehensive human studies (181, 183).
Unless there is some new piece of information that fairly moderately/āstrongly suggests that isoflavones do have feminizing effects, this seems like a non-issue.
A personal anecdote, not that it bears much weight, I have been consuming >15 ounces of tofu and >250 ml of soy milk nearly every day for the last four years, and I have noticed how āfeminineā or āmasculineā my body looks is almost entirely dependent on how much weight I lift in a week and my nutritional intake, rather than my soy intake.
Iām personally not super concerned about them either but I think the cultural connotations about soy being feminizing might be deep enough that many people wonāt be swayed and would rather not have to think about it if there was an option not to. Many people are understandably sensitive about physical effects of dietary changes and especially so for anything which has to do with the endocrine system and doubly so for the endocrine system with respect to sex hormones.
(Full disclosure here: a potential source of personal bias here is having been screwed over by something where the folk wisdom concern about something turned out to be true as opposed to the what many more well-respected health opinions online told me.)
Could you elaborate how you conclude that the effects of soy isoflavones could be significant if consumption were higher?
I read this summary article from the Linus Pauling institute a while ago and concluded, āokay, isoflavones donāt seem like an issue at all, and in some cases might have health benefitsā (and this matches my experience so far).[1] The relevant section from the article:
Unless there is some new piece of information that fairly moderately/āstrongly suggests that isoflavones do have feminizing effects, this seems like a non-issue.
A personal anecdote, not that it bears much weight, I have been consuming >15 ounces of tofu and >250 ml of soy milk nearly every day for the last four years, and I have noticed how āfeminineā or āmasculineā my body looks is almost entirely dependent on how much weight I lift in a week and my nutritional intake, rather than my soy intake.
Iām personally not super concerned about them either but I think the cultural connotations about soy being feminizing might be deep enough that many people wonāt be swayed and would rather not have to think about it if there was an option not to. Many people are understandably sensitive about physical effects of dietary changes and especially so for anything which has to do with the endocrine system and doubly so for the endocrine system with respect to sex hormones.
(Full disclosure here: a potential source of personal bias here is having been screwed over by something where the folk wisdom concern about something turned out to be true as opposed to the what many more well-respected health opinions online told me.)