Are you a woman who eats soy, drinks soy milk, munches edamame or takes soy isoflavones as a supplement thinking it will help you with hot flashes, night sweats and other inconvenient and uncomfortable menopausal or perimenopausal symptoms?
As it turns out, the risks of soy to hormone health are significant. It is not the middle aged health panacea for women that is is promoted to be! If your doctor is harping on the benefits of soy to alleviate your discomfort, find a new doctor!
Studies show that even small amounts of unfermented soy has the potential to disrupt female hormonal balance. This amount is only 45 mg isoflavones – a bit more than a single cup of soymilk!
“Women taking soy isoflavone tablets to alleviate hot flashes and prevent bone loss at the time of menopause might want to reconsider,” says Silvina Levis, M.D., the director of the osteoporosis center at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine.
A recent study published in the August 2011 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine examined 248 menopausal women over a 2 year period to see if 200 mg of isoflavones per day were a help in alleviating the symptoms of menopause including bone loss.
200 mg per day is equivalent to twice the highest intake through food sources in typical Asian diets.
At the end of the 2 year period, women taking a placebo versus women taking the isoflavone supplement showed no differences in bone loss or menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats.
In fact, nearly half (48%) of the women taking isoflavones experienced hot flashes compared with just 31% of women who took the placebo!
Yes, you read that right. Soy actually makes hormonal problems worse, ladies! Even worse, soy consumption causes precancerous breasts over time as identified via breast thermography imaging.
Stay. Far. Away.
Studies Showing That Soy Messes Up Your Hormones
Soy Wake Up Call #1
A 1991 study found that eating only 2 TBL/day of roasted and pickled soybeans for 3 months to healthy adults who were receiving adequate iodine in their diet caused thyroid suppression with symptoms of malaise, constipation, sleepiness, and goiters (Nippon Naibunpi Gakkai Zasshi 1991, 767: 622-629)!
Still think munching on edamame is a healthy habit?
Soy Wake Up Call #2
Six premenopausal women with normal menstrual cycles were given 45 mg of soy isoflavones per day. This is equivalent to only 1-2 cups of soy milk or 1/2 cup of soy flour! After only one month, all of the women experienced delayed menstruation with the effects similar to tamoxifen, the anti-estrogen drug given to women with breast cancer (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1994 Sep;60(3):333-340).
Soy Wake Up Call #3
Dietary estrogens in the form of soy foods were found to have the potential to disrupt the endocrine system with the effects in women similar to taking the breast cancer drug tamoxifen (Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 1995 Jan;208(1):51-9).
Soy Wake Up Call #4
Estrogens consumed in the diet even at low concentrations were found to stimulate breast cells. The effect is much like the pesticide DDT which increases enzymatic activity leading to breast cancer. (Environmental Health Perspectives 1997 Apr;105 (Suppl 3):633-636).
Soy Wake Up Call #5
The soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein appear to stimulate existing breast cancer growth indicating risk in consuming soy products if a woman has breast cancer. (Annals of Pharmacotherapy 2001 Sep;35(9):118-21).
Soy Wake Up Call #6
Direct evidence that soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein suppress the pituitary-thyroid axis in middle-aged rats fed 10 mg soy isoflavones per kilo after only 3 weeks as compared with rats eating regular rat chow. (Experimental Biology and Medicine 2010 May;235(5):590-8).
Soy Bottom Line
In conclusion, soy messes with your thyroid and disrupts the delicate balance of breast tissue and it doesn’t take very much soy at all to start the snowball down the hill to hormone imbalance with only a cup or so of unsweetened soy milk per day representing a significant risk.
Think you don’t eat much soy?
Next time you go shopping, just for grins check the label on everything you buy.
Surprise!
Soy is in EVERYTHING!
The scary truth is that if you eat processed foods (even organic), you are eating plenty of soy. Worse, you are probably consuming far more than you know even if you don’t drink soya milk or eat soy protein bars.
If you are still unconvinced and need more information, check out this article on the over 170 studies on the adverse effects of soy isoflavones from 1950-2010.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
References
Soy No Help for Hot Flashes, Bone Loss
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Studies are too conventional for me-internal medicine usually promotes the pharmaco mafia. Hot flashes are caused from a variety of reasons, using only soy is too simplistic.
@Gabriella – yes fermented soy (miso, tempeh, natto and traditionally brewed soy sauce) in small amounts is fine. But “small” being the operative word here – unless of course being hypothyroid is your goal.
Soy that has been genetically modified and chemically processed is not safe but like all products there is no truth that it is not a wonderful healthy food when processed and grown the right way – supported by thousands of studies. Know your company and product through research – an amazing health food myself, family and friends could not live without!
It works for me because every time I go without it, the symptoms flare up. I don’t need a study to tell me that. And I’ve known too many “studies” to be lies pulled together to get people to do something that the corps want them to do instead of what they are doing.
It may “work” to reduce your symptoms, but it’s not good for your body (unless the soy you’re consuming is miso and soy sauce.)
Good point Gabriella. Just like synthetic medications may “work” to relieve symptoms, but they are taking a much bigger, long-term toll on the body.
This is completely wrong. I have been taking and using soy for about 10 years and it has completely gotten rid of my menopause symptoms. I no longer have night sweats or hot flashes. But let me be off soy for a week and they come back with a vengeance. My understanding has always been that soy only works for 1 in 4 woman and I thank God that it works for me.
Soy doesn’t work for anyone. Are you going to argue with 170 studies? Buddhist monks have used soy for centuries to reduce testosterone levels to reduce libido. The hormone disrupting effects of soy have long been known for centuries. I would really be concerned about your long term health given what you are doing.
I don’t understand how something proven so many time to be bad for you can be so prevalent in the food supply. Is soy easy to grow in bad soil therefore greater profits?
It’s cheap, cheap, cheap. Soy protein is also the discarded, garbage byproduct of producing soy oil which is used in fast foods and processed foods galore. Why throw it away when you can convince people that it’s healthy and put it in everything and make boatloads of corporate profits doing so?
It’s also a big market for Monsanto. I don’t remember exactly but I believe over 90% of the soybeans grown in the US were GMO.
I believe I learned recently that there are NO non-GMO soy crops left in the States. For that reason alone I would want to avoid it!
Soy a Big Fat Zero for Menopause Symptoms – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/HvhxUH1x
Great article! So, just to clarify, soy in its pure form of raw edamame, is BAD, and Only forms of soy that are fermented, are GOOD?
The reason I ask, is because I was told that just processed soy was bad, so that meant that I could still eat soy that was NOT processed (or so I thought).
Please help! I have a freezer full of edamame that claims to be non gmo. Should I toss it?