New research on soy

So have you ever been asked a question or wondered the question about whether soy is good? You know, it's a big controversy these days, soy. You know, it seems like we've gone through this interesting transition. In the 60s, soy was kind of like an un American food for some reason. And we had a kind of a xenophobia about soy. Then it started to rise in its popularity as we understood all the health benefits to the heart and to the blood vessels and to the brain and to the bones. So soy became a big topic of positive news. And now suddenly, the pendulum starts swinging back, and people say, oh, soy is like an estrogen and it's going to cause cancer and it's going to lower testosterone in males. So there's this huge amount of controversy around soy. So what's the story? Well, I had the privilege just recently to interview Dr. Edward Lippart, who is at Brigham Young University, a researcher there in neurosciences, who is a colleague and associate with many of the other top researchers in the world, Ken Setchell, Steve Barnes, and others in the soy area. And the explanation that he provided is really fascinating. Soy is a very magic food that has all sorts of principles. It has protein, it has carbohydrate, it has fat. We know about soy oil, for instance. But it also has a rich array of probably hundreds if not thousands of these phytochemicals. Some of these are called soy isoflavones, like genistein and daizine. Others are metabolites of those that have names like equal. And these compounds that are present in soy have a remarkable effect in modulating function. They're not like drugs. And in fact, as Dr. Alecreuts, the person who coined the term phytoestrogen some 25 years ago, said, I wish I wouldn't have called these estrogens because it implies they have like 17 beta estradiol activity. They're really modulators of activity of estrogen and other hormones. They influence both estrogen receptor alpha and estrogen receptor beta. They modulate signals in different cells and different tissues in different ways. They're not drugs. They're intracellular signal communicators. They modulate function. So the most recent evidence indicates that these compounds and soy have a favorable effect on bone integrity, a favorable effect on mood. For instance, studies have indicated in women in perimenopause and often have dysphoria or mood disturbances that these soy molecules have a beneficial effect on modulating mood. We know it has a positive effect on prostate health. In males, these molecules have positive effect on wound healing and on skin integrity. They have a positive effect on the vasculature as it relates to heart function and vascular endothelial function. So we have to put everything in kind of context and too much of anything is going to be dangerous, Even air and water, you can get too much of it and it becomes toxic. So in the case of soy, it's in moderation. It's the appropriate type of soy. Fermented soy may be the best of all, it turns out, because it contains many of these secondary metabolites that have additional benefits beyond the soy of itself, things that would then have positive additional physiological effects. So fermented soy, natural soy, soy that has not been chemically modified is a favorable component of the diet that has not estrogenic effects, but cell regulating effects in everything from brain health to heart health to prostate and breast health and bone health. So I think we need to put the story in the appropriate context and we'll talk more about that as we move down the line here with this extraordinary chapter in nutrition.