Most people view soy as the quintessential hippie food. And sure, stuff like tofu and veggie burgers are most often consumed by flower children.
And a longstanding belief about soy is that it’s bad, because eating too much of it lowers testosterone in men and has an estrogen-like effect.
Now, no guy wants to grow man boobs. So here’s some great news. A new report seems to disapprove the rumor.
Published ahead of printed in the journal Fertility and Sterility, researchers reviewed the findings of 15 studies and found despite the claims that soy lowers testosterone levels. Soy consumption had no significant effect on testosterone.
The scientists point out for some of the studies the amount of soy consumed exceeded that of a typical diet, such as the Japanese, which might explain the problem. No diet should be super heavy in just one food. Obviously, that might throw things out of whack!
It’s important to note. Compounds in soy—like isoflavones, mentioned in this research—have been linked to improved bone density in women and many other benefits. Soy is cool, very cool.
Via Food Navigator.
The problem is, with all the concentrated soy protein isolates popping up, many people in the US are consuming much more soy than is typical in japanese diets.
A little tofu here and there is probably ok, but 4 big scoops on concentrated soy protein isolate in your morning smoothing may not be.