Is soy bad for men?

Question

I've heard conflicting reports on it online and wanted to know the real scoop on it. Nowadays, there's soy in everything. I drink about two cups of soy a day (to replace milk) as I know cows are pumped with hormones and antibiotics to produce more milk. Are there any concrete medical reports or studies that confirm soy is safe or dangerous?

I've heard conflicting reports on it online and wanted to know the real scoop on it. Nowadays, there's soy in everything. I drink about two cups of soy a day (to replace milk) as I know some cows are given hormonal pills to produce more milk. Are there any CONCRETE and CREDIBLE reports (ie. Mayo Clinic) or confirmed research studies that confirm soy is safe or dangerous?

Answer 1

it counteracts testosterone

for most men that is good, it reduces violent tendencies and prostate enlargement

Answer 2

The amount of phytoestrogen in soy products, although widely touted for menopausal women, is quite small and should have no affect on testosterone levels in a healthy male.
Two cups of soy milk a day is actually not a very large amount of soy.

Answer 3

I'd *REALLY* like to steal SSTs answer!

Let me put it this way, I've quite literally eaten TONS of soyfoods since I first learned about them way back in the mid-'70s. SST's first line would easily apply to me as well. Krister got it right, followed immediately by the perfect answer to show how scared the meat industry is by soy, since all those links the anti-veg Mr.Meat gave you are to groups FUNDED by the meat industry! They've gone 'psycho' ever since Con-Agra and Dean foods not only started offering soy foods but reversed their loss of profits and market-share by doing so!

Look up what Harvard Medical has to say about soy if you want an independent take on soy. Their research was done without food industry funding and has been heavily subjected to *independent* 3rd party review! The anti-soy crowd can't (truthfully) say that.

BTW; my family has a history of early death, my doctors (including a PhD cardiac nutrition researcher) all agree that my being a veggie that eats lots of soyfoods is the reason I'm still here. My entire family has been participating in long-term projects on the subjects of life-span (and the genetic and other underlying causes of early death) for over 50 years. I've also participated in quite a few other studies (in other words I'm a human guinea pig) and if I'd ever suffered from my (on average) 1lb+ or so of daily soy consumption it would have been detected a LONG time ago.

The only time soy is going to be bad for a man (or anyone else for that matter) is if you are one of the folks that have an allergy to soy (a relatively small % of the population).

Answer 4

My wife is a Dietitian with a Masters in Nutrition and she says that soy does not have any effect on male hormones in a normal, healthy male.

It may or may not make a slight difference in a man whose testosterone is already compromised by disease such as pituitary deficiency. Even then, it's not very likely.

I have eaten tons of soy in the last 20 to 30 years, and I almost drove into a telephone pole yesterday staring at my young female neighbor working in her yard wearing little shorts. As a vegetarian "dirty old man" I find it difficult to believe my testosterone is deficient due to tofu or anything else.

Answer 5

soy has phyto-estrogens, but so do lots of other beans and plant products...

Cows can be given a growth hormone made by Monsanto to stimulate milk production increases and this has been thought to be possibly linked to increased human breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Milk and milk products do not have to be labeled as hormone treated.

Soy helps lower cholesterol, which can keep your veins and arteries clear (everywhere in your body).

Answer 6

Cows aren't necessarily pumped with hormones and antibiotics. The farmer I get my raw milk from doesn't use hormones, and doesn't use prophylactic antibiotics (although if a cow injures herself, he uses antibiotic salve, and if a cow is sick, he doesn't hesitate to treat her systemically.

He says most dairymen here in Lancaster County do the same as he does.

Yes, there are *many* medical studies that suggest soy is bad for you. For instance, if you add raw soy meal to a nutritious feed for chickens, they initially fail to thrive, and eventually all die.

I ran into a lot of research on soy problems when I worked in research for Central Soya. You can check out current research with the link below.

Answer 7

wow! I had no idea that soy could be bad for men. I put my boys on silk soy milk because I needed to get them on a gluten and milk free diet. but I will now switch to almond milk which is just as tasty as soy. I find silk soy to be the best tasting soy. rice milk is somewhat tolerable but it has little chunks of rice in it and it is not as tasty to me.

Answer 8

i switched to rice milk purely because i found soy milk to leave funky stuff on my teeth. the thick semi-sweet goopyness was not something i enjoyed. i think it could lead to cavities.

Answer 9

http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/03summary.htm
http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/infant.html
http://www.soyinfo.com/dangers.shtml

These are some of the many sites regarding the dangers of soy. Other cultures have known this for years and have used soy responsibly. Putting these veggie-head diets in the hands of kids and most of the adults in our Western culture is like giving them arsenic. They don't have the sophistication of the cultures that know the ins and outs of being responsible vegans and vegetarians.

Answer 10

I drink it on occasion. I'm glad I know that it lowers testosterone. I'll still drink it because it's healthy for you.

Answer 11

Too much of it and men have been know to have enlarged breasts. Too much soy is what gives veggie head men that kind of "emo" behavior as well as larger breasts. It kind of makes them like geldings and easier to control. It's also what makes them lousy lovers apart from the fact they spend a lot of time foraging for food.