Anyone here drink soymilk? what are your thoughts on it?

This is the critical view, iirc this is from guardian's article so one may want to look for additional support for or against the position expressed:


"We discovered quite quickly," he recalls, "that soya contains toxins and plant oestrogens powerful enough to disrupt women's menstrual cycles in experiments. It also appeared damaging to the thyroid." James's lobbying eventually forced governments to investigate. In 2002, the British government's expert committee on the toxicity of food (CoT) published the results of its inquiry into the safety of plant oestrogens, mainly from soya proteins, in modern food. It concluded that in general the health benefits claimed for soya were not supported by clear evidence and judged that there could be risks from high levels of consumption for certain age groups. Yet little has happened to curb soya's growth since.

In fact, it had been known since the early 1980s that plant oestrogens, or phyto-oestrogens, could produce biological effects in humans. The most common of these were a group of compounds in soya protein called isoflavones. Food manufacturers had variously marketed soya foods as an antidote to menopausal hot flushes and osteoporosis, and as a protective ingredient against cardiovascular disease and hormone-related cancers. Large quantities of mainly industry-sponsored scientific research have been produced to back up these claims.

The hypothesis behind the health claims is that rates of heart disease and certain cancers such as breast and prostate cancer are lower in east Asian populations with soya-rich diets than in western countries, and that the oestrogens in soya might therefore have a protective effect.
Fitzpatrick, however, looked into historic soya consumption in Japan and China and concluded that Asians did not actually eat that much. What they did eat tended to have been fermented for months. "If you look at people who are into health fads here, they are eating soya steaks and veggie burgers or veggie sausages and drinking soya milk - they are getting over 100g a day. They are eating tonnes of the raw stuff."

Mass exposure to isoflavones in the west has only occurred in the past 30 years due to the widespread incorporation of soya protein into processed foods, a fact noted by the Royal Society in its expert report on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in 2000. When the independent experts on the scientific committee on toxicity trawled through all the scientific data, they concluded that soya milk should not be recommended for infants even when they had cow's milk allergies, except on medical advice, because of the high levels of oestrogenic isoflavones it contains.

On breast cancer, they decided that "despite the suggested benefits of phyto-oestrogens in lowering risk of developing breast cancer, there is also evidence that they may stimulate the progression of the disease". The lower risk of certain cancers among Asian populations might be due to other factors - their high consumption of fish, for example. They advised caution.

What the committee also pointed out was that the way soya was processed affected the levels of phyto-oestrogens. Traditional fermentation reduces the levels of isoflavones two- to threefold. Modern factory processes do not. Moreover, modern American strains of soya have significantly higher levels of isoflavones than Japanese or Chinese ones because they have been bred to be more resistant to pests. (One way to tackle pests is to stop them breeding by making them infertile. It turns out that unfermented soya did play one role in traditional Asian diets - it was eaten by monks to dampen down their libido.)

"We looked in detail at the claimed health benefits for adults for soya consumption and concluded there was not sufficient evidence to support many of them. There may be benefits but there are also risks. The groups of adults of particular concern are those with a thyroid problem and women with oestrogen-dependent breast cancer. It worries me that soya is being pushed as a health food by a big soya and supplements industry. We ought to be taking a more cautious approach."

Executive chef Mark Edwards hands me a teaspoon of one of his soy sauces. Cool from the fridge, it is thick, rich, dark and sweet, yet remarkably clear from its long fermentation. The miso that he uses to marinade his famous black cod for three days is dense and strong from its lengthy brew too. Muslin cloths envelop delicate curds of tofu, made fresh each day and added in small cubes to miso soup.

Soya is used in traditional oriental diets in these forms, after cultures, moulds or precipitants have achieved a biochemical transformation, because in its raw form the mature bean is known not only for its oestrogenic qualities but for also its antinutrients, according to the clinical nutritionist Kaayla Daniel, author of The Whole Soy Story. The young green beans, now sold as a fashionable snack, edamame, are lower in oestrogens and antinutrients, though not free of them. But raw mature soya beans contain phytates that prevent mineral absorption and enzyme inhibitors that block the key enzymes we need to digest protein.

Daniel's detailed examination of the history of soya milk, however, suggests that soya milk was made not to drink, except in times of famine, but as the first step in the process of making tofu. After the long, slow boiling of soya beans in water to eliminate toxins, a curdling agent was added to the liquid to separate it. The curds would then be pressed to make tofu and the whey, in which the antinutrients were concentrated, would be thrown away.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2012 03:06PM by chat.

thanks, problem is there is as many positive articles out there as there are negative ones. I think personal testimony is best. I wonder how many articles are written about all the guys who -dont- get erectile disfunction who drink soymilk?

Well, my personal testimony is sort of in my post above. The article from which i quoted was enough to raise a reasonable doubt. I don't want to be a guinea pig and experiment on myself, and therefore until I have time to properly research whether the negative issues attributed to drinking soy milk are true, I avoid drinking it.

I'm sure somebody will come here shortly and testify that their erection is just fine. It may be good enough for you, but it's unlikely to be good enough for me. Which is normal since after all we are all different

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2012 04:22PM by chat.

I drink soy milk every day and my erections have never been better! Er...um...wait a minute--I am woman, hear me roar...

There may very well be something with the thyroid. After all, they feed it to livestock to fatten them up...that and corn.

I plan to cut way down on soy (she says, munching on a veggie burger and sipping a soy-based smoothie ). But what to replace it with? Not crazy about almond mylk...I did like sesame mylk (although the seeds are always a little bitter, which I am not thrilled about). I was talking to a fellow gardener yesterday and she told me of a nearby community garden where they're raising goats. I had already had the pleasure of meeting said goats--too cute. They eat-weed the garden and nearby parks. Supposedly the owner is going to be making goat milk products. Maybe I will start drinking a little goat's milk, too. I am not sure but I do like consuming milky substances...(Sorry for the non-vegan reference but if someone can recommend a vegan alternative, I am all ears.)

[jacknorrisrd.com]
[www.veganhealth.org]

BW are you looking for a nutritional supplement or are you after that milky taste? I find a lot of nut/seed milks bitter. There must be a way around that though, perhaps it's just a question of soaking and/or sprouting long enough and straining carefully, plus adding in something sweet. A date or two.
Have you tried cashew milk? That's the only one that has a nice flavour on it's own IMO. It's not raw unless you're spending big bucks on the really raw cashews but it's gotta taste better than goat milk (gag). Have you had goat milk? Oh man, I could never get past that goaty flavour. We've got 2 milkers on the farm but there's just no way I'm drinking that.

About sweetening the nut milk, have you guys tried a bit of apple juice? I would say, blend an apple together with nuts/water and then strain the milk.

I haven't tried it myself, but the only soy milk I ever tried was the one with added apple juice, and it was delicious! Not sweet as such, just pleasant.

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

I know that goat milk is rather...goaty. It's weird but I can deal. I love the smell of goats and so it's just the taste of that smell, if that makes any sense.
I want a milky taste, yes. Not the nutrition but on that front, I don't like the high fat of nut or seed milk. I am not a low-fat type but it seems too dense for my liking. The soymilk I buy tastes rather light.

Regarding cashew milk, I don't think I've tried it but aren't cashews really legumes anyhow? They seem somewhat sketchy to me for some reason. Like pretending to be a nut but not really...Ew, I don't like raw ones (what passes for them anyhow). I DO like roasted cashews. Turn me in to the raw police

Funny, I really like the raw ones. Or the fake raw ones anyhow, the non-roasted kind. Same with pistachios, I've always preferred them raw.
Cashews blend up perfectly, no pulp at all. They make a really great creamy, cheesy substitute if you use less water and add a bit of lemon and some nutritional yeast etc. Amazing really.

I take it you were visiting with baby and mommy goats? There is no way at all that you would like the smell of a billy goat, I can tell you that right now. The stink, holy Maude, it's un-freaking-believable. Billy goats can't be raised as meat animals because the stench of them permeates their entire being. You can smell them from across the road. They like to pee on their own faces too. There's nary a stranger animal than a billy goat.

WanderRA,

I consume soy milk in small amounts, less than a cup a few times a week. I eat a small serving of tofu maybe twice a month. Did a real mischief to me thyroid overconsuming soy--two to three servings a day--back when I was cooked vegan. Am very careful now to not "worry" about protein, the driving concern behind my soy overconsumption back then. I think if it's limited, then it's OK for most people, according to all the data[the Guardian article isn't comperhensive in its scope]. The exception would be people with active estrogen dependent cancers, as the effect of soy estrogens on these cancers has not been determined.

Cashews make a wonderful, creamy, neutral tasting milk substitute, banana who, realy they do

I would only ingest fermented soy.

From Susun Weed, in Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way:

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4. Eat less tofu and soy beverage; eat more miso and tamari

While it is true that if you begin eating soy foods as a child and continue throughout puberty the breast tissues you create during your adolescence will be highly resistant to cancer until after menopause. However, if you begin eating unfermented soy (tofu, soy milk, and the like) after puberty, your risk of breast cancer increases. (Science News, 4/24/1999)

The active ingredient in soy - isoflavone - when given to breast cancer cells in petri dishes causes them to grow rapidly. (Extracts of dong quai and licorice have a similar effect.)

Miso and tamari - fermented soy foods - are the exceptions. Both are strongly cancer preventative, no matter when you start eating them. Animal studies have found both miso and tamari highly effective in preventing cancer, even in mice genetically programmed to get breast cancer. And the more you eat, the more you lower your risk of cancer.

For breast health, I use miso and/or tamari every day. I occasionally eat tofu or edemame. I drink no soy milk, and eat no other soy products of any kind.

Have you ever tried 'oat milk'? Depends on the brand, but the one I substituted soy milk for is from 'vitasoy' and it tastes almost exactly like the soy milk I used to use which wasn't a 'vitasoy' soy milk.

jalan

hemp milk