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Soy and Reproduction: Breeding Disconten
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Scientists have known since the mid-1940s that phytoestrogens can impair fertility.Fertility problems in cows, sheep, rabbits, cheetahs, guinea pigs, birds, and mice have allbeen reported. Although scientists discovered only recently that soy lowers testosteronelevels, tofu has traditionally been used in Buddhist monasteries to decrease the libido,and by Japanese women to punish straying husbands.
Is This the Most Dangerous Food for Men? Soy’sNegative Effects
The unassuming soybean has silently infiltrated the American diet as what might just bethe perfect protein source: It’s cheap and vegetarian, and could even unclog our hearts.But there may be a hidden dark side to soy, one that has the power to undermineeverything it means to be male.James Price’s breasts had been painful and swollen. It looked as if gum balls wereimplanted underneath each nipple. The slightest touch triggered throbs.For Price, a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer who once flew attack helicopters inVietnam, these changes were more than just physically uncomfortable. “Men aren’tsupposed to have breasts,” he says today in a quiet Texas drawl. “It was like my bodywas feminizing.”A lean and wiry man, the breast development stood in stark contrast to the rest of hisbody. But it was not Price’s only symptom. His beard growth had slowed, he’d lost hairfrom his arms, chest, and legs, and he’d stopped waking up with morning erections. “Mysexual desire disappeared,” he says. “My penis — I won’t say it atrophied, but it was soflaccid that it looked very small in comparison with the way it used to be. Even myemotions changed.”The first three doctors Price consulted diagnosed him with gynecomastia, or the abnormalenlargement of the mammary glands in men. Tests further revealed that estrogen levels inhis bloodstream were eight times higher than the normal limits for men, higher even thanthe levels typically seen in healthy women. Price’s estrogen was so high, in fact, that thedoctors were at a loss to explain it. One physician became so frustrated he eventuallyaccused Price of secretly taking estrogen. “He thought I was a mental case,” says Price,still angry as he recalls the experience.Dispirited and in pain, he decided to try one more doctor, this time a fellow military man.He made an appointment with Lieutenant Colonel Jack E. Lewi, M.D., chief of endocrinology at the San Antonio Military Medical Center. During that first meeting,neither doctor nor patient had any inkling of just how long and complex this medicalmystery would prove to be. Dr. Lewi initially checked for “usual suspect” lifestylefactors known to trigger gynecomastia, from alcoholism to certain herbal ingredients, like
 
tea-tree oils and lavender. With those ruled out, Dr. Lewi was left with a more dreadedsuspect: an estrogen-secreting tumor.Over the next few months, Dr. Lewi ran multiple tests, checking Price for cancer of thetesticles, adrenal glands, chest, and lungs. The good news: When the final test came back negative, Price was in the clear on all fronts. The not-so-good news: Dr. Lewi still had noclue what was causing his patient’s hormones to go haywire. But he was determined notto be the fourth doctor to leave James Price in limbo.In the classes that Dr. Lewi teaches to medical students and residents, he has long offeredthis advice: If you’re not finding the right answers, you’re not asking the right questions.Though he’d asked Price about his lifestyle and habits innumerable times, he decided togo back once again, and this time to make his questions as specific as possible. “I said,‘Let’s go over your diet, meal by meal, and you tell me every single thing you eat anddrink.’ He said, ‘Sure, Dr. Lewi. I get up and usually have some cereal.’ I said, ‘Do youput anything on it?’ He said ‘Soy milk.’ ”Price explained that he’d developed lactose intolerance in recent years and had switchedto soy milk exclusively. It had, in fact, become one of his favorite drinks, a great thirstquencher in the Texas heat.Dr. Lewi suddenly felt his excitement building. He asked Price how much soy milk, onaverage, he drank each day.“He told me, ‘Probably about 3 quarts,’ ” recalls Dr. Lewi about the moment thatchanged everything.Over the past decade, soy foods and good health have become inextricably linked in thenational consciousness. According to annual U.S. consumer attitude surveys by theUnited Soybean Board, 85 percent of those polled in 2008 rated soy products as“healthy,” a significant increase from the 59 percent who in 1997 thought this was thecase. Many men, to be sure, are hard pressed to explain why soy is supposed to be sohealthy, but they take it on faith that they should embrace the bean.“It’s something you need to train yourself to like, you know, for the health benefits,” myfriend Larry, a distance runner, opined recently. “Tofu’s the modern equivalent of codliver oil,” added another buddy, Bill. Three times a week, his wife stir-fries tofu withchard. “It’s this gunk she calls superfood. I call it soylent green.” He pauses a beat beforeadding, “I guess I’m grateful she gets me to eat it.”
The dark side of soy…
 Long the foundation of a vegetarian diet, tofu provides protein with little of the saturatedfat and none of the moral indigestion that comes with meat. Moreover, in the past decade,research has emerged suggesting that scarfing down soy may also play an active role inextending our lives. In 1999, soy protein earned a highly coveted FDA-allowed healthclaim: Diets that include 25 grams — about a pound of tofu — a day may reduce the risk of heart disease. Add to this the number of studies showing that soy protein might also
 
help protect against prostate cancer, and suddenly the stuff starts looking like powerfulmedicine for men.Of course, most medicines have side effects. And when you consume soy protein, you’reactually courting the Mr. Hyde side of two natural drugs: genistein and daidzein. Both actso similarly to estrogen that they’re known as phytoestrogens (plant-produced estrogens).Soybeans couldn’t care less about human sex characteristics — genistein and daidzeinmay have evolved to act as chemical defenses against fungi and grazing animals. (Theyaren’t very effective deterrents, apparently, since soy meal is widely used to feedlivestock.) But when humans consume these compounds in high enough quantities, theymay experience gender-bending nightmares like James Price’s. What’s more, studies of these phytoestrogens in leading peer-reviewed medical journals suggest that even lowerdoses — such as the amount in the 25-gram soy protein target cited by the FDA — havethe potential to wreak hormonal havoc.
 Here are a few of the recent findings across the life stages of men.
 
Babies: Weaned On the Bean
 A whopping 35 percent of bottle-fed babies in the United States receive at least some of their protein from soy. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is taking steps tochange this: It recommends that all infants who cannot be breastfed be given cow’s-milk formulas as the first preferred alternative. Healthy full-term infants should be given soyformula only when medically necessary, the AAP’s 2008 report states. Babies with anextreme form of lactose intolerance fall into this category, but many others who sufferfrom colic and excessive crying are switched to soy formula despite a lack of provenbenefits.Paul Cooke, Ph.D., a reproductive biologist at the University of Illinois, has studied miceraised on enough genistein to make their blood levels comparable to those of humaninfants fed soy formula. Among other worrisome findings, he discovered significantshrinkage of the thymus gland, a key part of the immune system. “The thymus,” saysCooke, “is like a finishing school for white blood cells — it’s where they go to mature.”Whether the same effect occurs in human infants is difficult to say, but a 2001 study inthe Journal of the American Medical Association surveyed over 800 adults, ages 20 to 34,who were fed either soy-based or cow’s-milk formulas during their infancy. One of thefew differences to emerge was that the group raised on soy formula regularly used moreasthma and allergy medications in adulthood. Was this just a quirk of the sampling — orcould it represent a subtle impairment of immune function?“I don’t know the answer,” says Cooke. “But the point is I don’t think anyone knows.There are 20 million people in the United States alone who have consumed soy formulaas infants. When people ask me about doing experiments, I tell them we already are —with a large chunk of the country’s population.”For now, at least, the United States is gambling that widespread use of soy formula won’tlead to long-term consequences. In 2005, Israel’s health ministry recommended that soyproducts be limited in young children and, if possible, avoided altogether in infants. Inissuing such a caution, Israel joined France, New Zealand, and Australia in officiallyembracing a better-safe-than-sorry approach for the next generation.
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