The Potential Effects of Soy, and How it Might Decimate the Health of Your Unborn Baby and the Fertility of Future Generations
by Dr. Mercola
If you're pregnant or thinking of having a baby, you might want to take a look at some new research on the effects of plant estrogens, such as that found in soy, on a developing fetus.
According to Medical News Today, a paper published in Biology of Reproduction suggests that exposure to estrogenic chemicals in the womb or during childhood has the potential to negatively affect a woman's fertility as an adult.
This coincides with earlier research on neonatal effects of exposure to plant or environmental estrogens. In studies with mice, researchers found that causes of infertility included:
•Failure to ovulate
•Reduced ability of the oviduct to support embryo development before ovulation, and
•Failure of the uterus to support effective implantation of blastocyst-stage embryos
Soy Lecithin: How It Negatively Affects
Your Health And Why You Need To Avoid It
Soy Lecithin has been lingering around our food supply for over a century. It is an ingredient in literally hundreds of proceesed foods, and also sold as an over the counter health food supplement. Scientists claim it benefits our cardiovascular health, metabolism, memory, cognitive function, liver function, and even physical and athletic perfomance. However, most people don't realize what soy lecithin actually is, and why the dangers of ingesting this additive far exceed its benefits.
Lecithin is an emulsifying substance that is found in the cells of all living organisms. The French scientist Maurice Gobley discovered lecithin in 1805 and named it "lekithos" after the Greek word for "egg yolk." Until it was recovered from the waste products of soybean processing in the 1930s, eggs were the primary source of commercial lecithin. Today lecithin is the generic name given to a whole class of fat-and-water soluble compounds called phospholipids. Levels of phospholipids in soybean oils range from 1.48 to 3.08 percent, which is considerably higher than the 0.5 percent typically found in vegetable oils, but far less than the 30 percent found in egg yolks.
Out of the Dumps
Soybean lecithin comes from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a "degumming" process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown. The hexane extraction process commonly used in soybean oil manufacture today yields less lecithin than the older ethanol-benzol process, but produces a more marketable lecithin with better color, reduced odor and less bitter flavor.
Historian William Shurtleff reports that the expansion of the soybean crushing and soy oil refining industries in Europe after 1908 led to a problem disposing the increasing amounts of fermenting, foul-smelling sludge. German companies then decided to vacuum dry the sludge, patent the process and sell it as "soybean lecithin." Scientists hired to find some use for the substance cooked up more than a thousand new uses by 1939.
Today lecithin is ubiquitous in the processed food supply. It is most commonly used as an emulsifier to keep water and fats from separating in foods such as margarine, peanut butter, chocolate candies, ice cream, coffee creamers and infant formulas. Lecithin also helps prevent product spoilage, extending shelf life in the marketplace. In industry kitchens, it is used to improve mixing, speed crystallization, prevent "weeping," and stop spattering, lumping and sticking. Used in cosmetics, lecithin softens the skin and helps other ingredients penetrate the skin barrier. A more water-loving version known as "deoiled lecithin" reduces the time required to shut down and clean the extruders used in the manufacture of textured vegetable protein and other soy products.
In theory, lecithin manufacture eliminates all soy proteins, making it hypoallergenic. In reality, minute amounts of soy protein always remain in lecithin as well as in soy oil. Three components of soy protein have been identified in soy lecithin, including the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor, which has a track record of triggering severe allergic reactions even in the most minuscule quantities. The presence of lecithin in so many food and cosmetic products poses a special danger for people with soy allergies.
I don't think that oncologists are nearly as likely to warn about soy as there are to warn about alternatives to their cut, poison and burn treatments.
I am not sure how linking to studies about breast cancer survival rates relates to the original "worthless" post which warned about possible dangers to infants, including a risk of lower fertility. But hey, I guess someone has to carry the banner for mostly GM and herbicide laced soy these days now that soy's number one proponent has left the building.
The biggest threat to infants are foolish parents.
Breasts serve a purpose no explanation needed here.
Whole foods are not drugs and do not have drug like effects.
One can get organic soy if they so desire.Posting propaganda from a web site selling the most expensive whey protein on the market.No conflict of interest on the Mercola for profits web site.
The latest studies are relevant and cherry picking old studies is a waste of time.Especially when you find the words may and other sources.Living may cause death if one lives long enough.
Farming practices are as they are and it is all about the money.Bitching about this is pointless so I just don`t.
Asian cultures have consumed soy based foodstuffs for many years. Other than conscientious efforts to limit population growth in these very populous countries, is there solid evidence that these populations have increasing infant mortality or are suffering from infertility?
There has been a dearth of studies thus far on soy and fertility, though many researchers have cited the need for more studies on the subject. Also, it is a bit difficult to compare Asian diets with American diets because they vary in many areas. For example, the soy in the US is 85% GMO but not nearly that high in Asia.
In much of Asia, fermented soy makes up a considerable amount of the soy intake. Asians also consume a huge amount of white rice - but you don't see any natural health experts recommending that as a healthy food. Maybe that is because we don't have the huge agribusiness firms dominating the market with GMO rice. Yet.
According to William Wong ND, PhD, Member World Sports Medicine Hall of Fame:
*Overall soy consumption in Japan is much higher than in China. While China has imposed strict laws to control population growth, Japanese fertility has dropped so precipitously that the number of in vitro fertilizations has skyrocketed.
*It is widely known throughout Asia that when a woman does not want to have sexua| relations with her husband any more, she feeds him more and more tofu.
*Monks in monasteries needing to be celibate are urged to eat more tofu and soy products.
*In Asia, it is common knowledge that soy reduces sexua| urge and ability.
As Dr Wong puts it: "The propaganda and contrived studies showing that soy is such a fantastic food arises from the huge agribusiness firms that grow most of the world’s soybeans, Monsanto and Archer Daniel Midland."
The human species is not threatened by a shrinking population the last time I checked.
Get enough of them on the Western SADS diet and keep dumping toxins into the environment and that will likely change. In 1960 a good sperm count was considered to be 120 million sperm per milliliter of seminal fluid. Anything lower than that and a man was considered to be only marginally fertile. These days, things have become so bad that a man is considered fertile if he has only 20 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate!
Life is all about balance and ginseng and v!agra trumps tofu.
Try some DHEA in place of the v!agra. You might be pleasantly surprised. Interestingly, one of several positive side effects (depending on whether you are the male or the female partner, perhaps) reported for supplemental oleander extract is increased male libido.
...the soy in the US is 85% GMO but not nearly that high in Asia.
Comment: Plant derived xenoestrogens have long been known to be in soy even before GMO.
*It is widely known throughout Asia that when a woman does not want to have sexua| relations with her husband any more, she feeds him more and more tofu.
*In Asia, it is common knowledge that soy reduces sexua| urge and ability.
Comment: "widely known" and "common knowledge" is the language of urban legends
A little less fertility in this world might not be a bad thing. I've traveled to India.
...the soy in the US is 85% GMO but not nearly that high in Asia.
Comment: Plant derived xenoestrogens have long been known to be in soy even before GMO.
That comment was aimed at GMO dangers, not xenoestrogen content.
*It is widely known throughout Asia that when a woman does not want to have sexua| relations with her husband any more, she feeds him more and more tofu.
*In Asia, it is common knowledge that soy reduces sexua| urge and ability.
Comment: "widely known" and "common knowledge" is the language of urban legends
True. They are also the language of those reporting on observed and historical use - not to mention the language of mainstream denialists who support things like mainstream drugs and GMO soy products.
A little less fertility in this world might not be a bad thing. I've traveled to India.
No doubt, but not if less fertility came at the expense of less overall health.
I don't think you can automatically label every single GMO item as bad, but it is easy to label the concept of GMO as bad. We have quite the track record of creating items which are not normally found in nature and the record is not a good one. The most logical reason is that mankind has developed over all the many millenia to utilize and be compatible with nature - and items not found in nature are recognized by the body as toxins.
That is why we see over 95% of all prescribed and over the counter medications have side effects (and why drugs are 62,000 times more likely to kill you than supplements). That is why we have so many problems due to the chemical toxins and industrial compounds we have spewed into the air we breathe, our soil, the food we eat and the water we drink. And that is why we are seeing study after study reveal the harm in many GMO created items - such as the ones which create their own pesticides and the ones that withstand being laced with dangerous herbicides.
Plus there is this to consider: we really don't know what the consequences could be from GMO foods. All it takes is just one GMO item to have unforeseen catastrophic consequences for the lives of millions, or even billions, to be at risk - and once you let the GMO genie out of the bottle it is next to impossible to put it back in.
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How soy may decimate the health of your unborn baby and future fertility 
The Potential Effects of Soy, and How it Might Decimate the Health of Your Unborn Baby and the Fertility of Future Generations 
