Vegans- What are your thoughts on eating soy ?

Iammelting
Iammelting Posts: 64 Member
edited October 2 in Food and Nutrition
What are your opinions on eating soy ? Ive made a few recipes using tofu etc and I am a little concerned since Ive read its so bad.
I eat gluten free and vegan so I was usign tofu to get some protien but wonder what your thoughts are ?

Replies

  • ohskinnyme
    ohskinnyme Posts: 24
    What's bad about it?
  • mabug01
    mabug01 Posts: 1,273 Member
    I'm wondering this, too. I eat vegan (mostly), and my trainer has advised me to eat more protein (she used to be vegan). My diet doctor doesn't like soy, he thinks tofu should be used for special occasions and seitan should never be used. But, how do you get more protein without adding soy in some way? I've never tried the brown rice protein powder, has anyone tried that?
  • bethgarzonie
    bethgarzonie Posts: 40
    Be careful with soy. It promotes female hormones. Too much is not ok. As a breast cancer survivor, I am not allowed soy. FYI
  • nygiantschick
    nygiantschick Posts: 289 Member
    I'm vegan and I eat soy-tofu/tempeh. I just make sure to get organic so I limit the genetically modified stuff and I limit the amount I eat eat week since it can mimic estrogen and too much can screw with your hormones. Some people have no problem with soy and some people have a sensitivity to it. If you aren't sensitive to it, just eat it in moderation and use beans and legumes to supplement for more protein. I love all kinds of lentils and chickpeas. Quinoa (a grain/seed) is awesome because it is a COMPLETE protein (meaning it contains all the necessary amino acids which are the building blocks for protein so your body can generate its own). Hope this helps.
  • QueenHanifa
    QueenHanifa Posts: 180 Member
    get most of your protein from beans,and very little soy also rice protein
  • UrbanRunner81
    UrbanRunner81 Posts: 1,207 Member
    I am not vegan, well I eat vegan most days but a vegetarian. I get most of my protein from beans.

    I stay away from it or eat very little. It has estrogen in it, too much of it is not good. Also stay away from non-organic soy if you do eat soy. It is full of pesticides and most likely a GMO.
  • Larius
    Larius Posts: 507 Member
    Be careful with soy. It promotes female hormones. Too much is not ok. As a breast cancer survivor, I am not allowed soy. FYI

    Well put. That's a lot of risk for something that doesn't even taste good.
  • ejohndrow
    ejohndrow Posts: 1,399 Member
    I think it's more up to the individual and how their body takes to it, I used to eat soy daily as a vegan and the only thing it did for me was help me lose weight. Asian countries such as Japan use soy daily in their cuisine and there is not a higher rate of cancer-there is actually a lower rate since their food is much healthier. I personally don't believe in this bad rap that soy gets-yet I can't argue with bethgarzonie-if you aren't allowed it for medical reasons, then apparently there is something to it. Or maybe it's the fact that our bodies are not used to soy and there is a bit of an intolerance there-kind of like when a lot of people such as Native Americans and African Americans especially are lactose intolerant-yet as a group caucasions aren't quite as often.
  • Jade_Butterfly
    Jade_Butterfly Posts: 2,963 Member
    I'm wondering this, too. I eat vegan (mostly), and my trainer has advised me to eat more protein (she used to be vegan). My diet doctor doesn't like soy, he thinks tofu should be used for special occasions and seitan should never be used. But, how do you get more protein without adding soy in some way? I've never tried the brown rice protein powder, has anyone tried that?

    Nuts, beans, lentils, and quinoa for starters are good sources of protein.
  • Jade_Butterfly
    Jade_Butterfly Posts: 2,963 Member
    OP. . . I see no problem with eating soy. . It is all about balance and moderation in anything. . You don't have to eat soy every day. . As I said in my previous post there are other ways to obtain protein. .

    My advice go online do some research. . Here are several informative sites.

    http://www.massgrown.org/high_protein_vegetables.html

    http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/277947-what-fruit-and-vegetables-contain-protein/

    Good luck in your fitness journey.
  • LoveHoodies
    LoveHoodies Posts: 65
    Try tempeh, can be used in place of tofu. It is still soy, but not nearly as processed and is more nutritionally rich.
  • _GlaDOS_
    _GlaDOS_ Posts: 1,520 Member
    I am not a vegan. I eat a mostly vegetarian and vegan diet. I also work in cancer research. Some of the information here is just plain incorrect.

    Soy does not "contain" estrogen. They contain what is called "phytoestrogen", which is a compound that we believe may act like estrogen in the body. If they do act like estrogen, they do it very poorly and are nowhere near the strength of the actual estrogen in our bodies.

    The research on the link between soy and hormone receptor positive breast cancer is mixed, and the data linking it with breast cancer is fairly weak. FYI, there are many different types of breast cancer. Hormone receptor positive breast cancer means that the tumor is affected by hormones, such as estrogen and/or progesterone. Studies on Asian women, who consume nearly 10 times as much soy as we do in the United States (which is surprising, considering every processed food we have now seems to contain soy), show no link between breast cancer and soy, and the rates of hormone receptor positive breast cancer among Asian women is incredibly low. The general reason why oncologists recommend women who have *had*estrogen receptor positive breast cancer do not eat soy is because their tumor was already affected by estrogen, and since soy contains those phytoestrogens, it's basically only a precautionary thing, to prevent recurrence, for which there is no strong data for...

    Here is the thing about the United States. We inject hormones in our meat. We have hormones in our dairy. Over 90% of the soy grown in our country is genetically modified, and therefore sprayed with thousands of chemical pesticides that we know for certain affect the our endocrine system (hormones). We have awful regulations over our environment and our food that rarely takes into account the health of consumers. And we don't even know yet if the actual genetic modification of these foods is harming us.

    I could go into great detail about genetically modified foods, but that would make this post even longer than it already is. The real suggestion I have is not to avoid soy, but to limit it (because there are other great sources of protein out there), and if you do want to eat soy products, make sure they are not genetically modified. How do you do this? Well since we refuse to let consumers decide by labeling these products, you can go here for now: http://www.nongmoproject.org/industry/search-participating-products. On the website you can search for brands and foods that are certified non-gmo.
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
    Be careful with soy. It promotes female hormones. Too much is not ok. As a breast cancer survivor, I am not allowed soy. FYI

    Yes, it is very estrogenic and it is goitergenic (meaning it can cause goiters and affect the thyroid).

    My doctor firmly believes my days as a vegetarian and eating tofu and other soy products is what caused me to develop hypo-thyroidism with the autoimmune disease hashimotos thyroiditis. And is one of the causes of me being infertile............
  • Jade_Butterfly
    Jade_Butterfly Posts: 2,963 Member
    I am not a vegan. I eat a mostly vegetarian and vegan diet. I also work in cancer research. Some of the information here is just plain incorrect.

    Soy does not "contain" estrogen. They contain what is called "phytoestrogen", which is a compound that we believe may act like estrogen in the body. If they do act like estrogen, they do it very poorly and are nowhere near the strength of the actual estrogen in our bodies.

    The research on the link between soy and hormone receptor positive breast cancer is mixed, and the data linking it with breast cancer is fairly weak. FYI, there are many different types of breast cancer. Hormone receptor positive breast cancer means that the tumor is affected by hormones, such as estrogen and/or progesterone. Studies on Asian women, who consume nearly 10 times as much soy as we do in the United States (which is surprising, considering every processed food we have now seems to contain soy), show no link between breast cancer and soy, and the rates of hormone receptor positive breast cancer among Asian women is incredibly low. The general reason why oncologists recommend women who have *had*estrogen receptor positive breast cancer do not eat soy is because their tumor was already affected by estrogen, and since soy contains those phytoestrogens, it's basically only a precautionary thing, to prevent recurrence, for which there is no strong data for...

    Here is the thing about the United States. We inject hormones in our meat. We have hormones in our dairy. Over 90% of the soy grown in our country is genetically modified, and therefore sprayed with thousands of chemical pesticides that we know for certain affect the our endocrine system (hormones). We have awful regulations over our environment and our food that rarely takes into account the health of consumers. And we don't even know yet if the actual genetic modification of these foods is harming us.

    I could go into great detail about genetically modified foods, but that would make this post even longer than it already is. The real suggestion I have is not to avoid soy, but to limit it (because there are other great sources of protein out there), and if you do want to eat soy products, make sure they are not genetically modified. How do you do this? Well since we refuse to let consumers decide by labeling these products, you can go here for now: http://www.nongmoproject.org/industry/search-participating-products. On the website you can search for brands and foods that are certified non-gmo.

    Love this post. . thank you my friend. . . Great information.
  • sinclare
    sinclare Posts: 369 Member
    I am not a vegan. I eat a mostly vegetarian and vegan diet. I also work in cancer research. Some of the information here is just plain incorrect.

    Soy does not "contain" estrogen. They contain what is called "phytoestrogen", which is a compound that we believe may act like estrogen in the body. If they do act like estrogen, they do it very poorly and are nowhere near the strength of the actual estrogen in our bodies.

    The research on the link between soy and hormone receptor positive breast cancer is mixed, and the data linking it with breast cancer is fairly weak. FYI, there are many different types of breast cancer. Hormone receptor positive breast cancer means that the tumor is affected by hormones, such as estrogen and/or progesterone. Studies on Asian women, who consume nearly 10 times as much soy as we do in the United States (which is surprising, considering every processed food we have now seems to contain soy), show no link between breast cancer and soy, and the rates of hormone receptor positive breast cancer among Asian women is incredibly low. The general reason why oncologists recommend women who have *had*estrogen receptor positive breast cancer do not eat soy is because their tumor was already affected by estrogen, and since soy contains those phytoestrogens, it's basically only a precautionary thing, to prevent recurrence, for which there is no strong data for...

    Here is the thing about the United States. We inject hormones in our meat. We have hormones in our dairy. Over 90% of the soy grown in our country is genetically modified, and therefore sprayed with thousands of chemical pesticides that we know for certain affect the our endocrine system (hormones). We have awful regulations over our environment and our food that rarely takes into account the health of consumers. And we don't even know yet if the actual genetic modification of these foods is harming us.

    I could go into great detail about genetically modified foods, but that would make this post even longer than it already is. The real suggestion I have is not to avoid soy, but to limit it (because there are other great sources of protein out there), and if you do want to eat soy products, make sure they are not genetically modified. How do you do this? Well since we refuse to let consumers decide by labeling these products, you can go here for now: http://www.nongmoproject.org/industry/search-participating-products. On the website you can search for brands and foods that are certified non-gmo.

    Thank you for this post. and the link to the nongmoproject.org. what a great resource!
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    I read ,and think it's sound advice, that your body knows what to do with soy as it grows, meaning edamame. Tofu's not that bad either. But when you get into things like soy milk and soy bars, then it becomes more problematic.
  • Kristhin
    Kristhin Posts: 442 Member
    I love soy. I eat it every day almost and I'm fine. I say buy non gmo and and eat up! Seitan is not soy, its wheat gluten.
  • KevDaniel
    KevDaniel Posts: 449 Member
    I eat soy all the time.. I prefer almond milk and tofu items, but there is plenty of soy mixed in with my diet.. and soy nuts.. yum!
  • _Ben
    _Ben Posts: 1,608 Member
    As a meat eater, I gotta say, Soy is pretty great. Just the same as I wouldnt eat a hamburger everyday, it may not be the best to eat soy everyday. But soy is great in stirfries and tacoes, and is extremly healthy for you. Many foods eaten to great excess can cause problems, and you can find studies on pretty much anything. I bet you you can find a study on apples causing cancer. Used properly, you should be just fine.
  • javamonster
    javamonster Posts: 272 Member
    I am not a vegan. I eat a mostly vegetarian and vegan diet. I also work in cancer research. Some of the information here is just plain incorrect.

    Thank you!!! I agree 100%. As a phytoestrogen, soy actually competitively inhibits the uptake of estrogen at the receptor site, which is where the protective factor comes from. The arguments against soy consumption are pretty weak. Spent a lot of time studying soy in school, and the misinformation out there is unbelievable.

    And for the Canadians out there, remember that we have stricter regulations when it comes to the use of antibiotics and growth hormones. I agree the verdict is still out on GMOs, but we were eating GMO stuff long before the hype came along, so hard to really gauge whether or not they are harmful. Too many other harmful factors in our environment, so IMO there are more important things to worry about!
  • flipsit
    flipsit Posts: 111
    I eat soy regularly but not excessively. I'm happy to eat it in moderation.
  • yogavegan
    yogavegan Posts: 116 Member
    i've been vegan for about 6 years. like anything processed, i believe soy should be kept to a minimum and enjoyed as a treat. i try to eat more tempeh than tofu, because its fermented and my tummy likes it better. when i eat too much soy, i get headaches and feel lethargic.

    eating a lot of highly processed soy-meat analogs is not really any healthier than eating highly processed meat products. there is a lot of information in support of soy and against soy. i dont really know what to believe, but i think, with anything, moderate intake is best.
  • gingerb85
    gingerb85 Posts: 357 Member
    I try not to overdo it on the soy. I might eat tofu once a week at most and rarely ever eat processed foods (with or without soy). I am not a fan of "fake meats" and would prefer to get my protein from grains and beans.
  • electriq
    electriq Posts: 359 Member
    I eat soy only very occasionally. I'm semi vegan, semi vegetarian (I eat fish sometimes). My preferred vegan sources of protein are quinoa (can't emphasize this enough, an awesome awesome super grain), LSA (Linseed, Sunflower seed and almond mix which forms a complete protein) and Sacha Inchi.
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