So You're a Soy Boy
The Insult
The classic insult thrown at vegan men, calling them a Soy Boy. This is due to the belief of a myth that soy not only contains estrogen, but that it contains such a large quantity of it that it turns men into women, or at the very least makes them more feminine. What this means to those using the insult is that they would be weaker, smaller, more emotional, and less “manly.” There is a lot of psychology, trans-phobia, and misogyny in those statements, none of which I am qualified to touch on. Instead, I’m going to focus on showing how soy does not cause that to happen, nor does it actually contain estrogen. We’ll also look at some of the positive health effects of soy.
Firstly a logical thought experiment. If it were true that soy “feminized” men then surely there would be overwhelming evidence of such occurring in the country with the highest soy consumption in the world, Japan. Unfortunately for those who want to believe in the myth there is no scientific data: Japanese men are not less man than any other on the planet.
Before diving into what is in soy, what is it? Soy is a legume, a bean. It is not too common in the west to find mature whole soy beans, you can find less mature ones in the frozen isle called edamame. Soy can be turned into soy milk and tofu. It is a great source of protein and fiber. After reading this post I hope you will agree with me that, baring an allergy to soy, based on the evidence there is no reason to avoid soy and it is even beneficial to have some in your diet.
What is in Soy?
Does soy contain estrogen? No. Estrogen is an animal compound produced by mammals. However, soy does contain phytoestrogen, phyto meaning plant in Greek. Plants use this as an antimicrobial and as a way to attract good pollinator insects. Phytoestrogen isn’t exclusive to soy plants, it’s produced by a large variety of plants, like broccoli, coffee, and oranges to name a few. Phytoestrogen is a broad category, and the type in soy is known as isoflavones. This is an estrogen-like compound but it does not interact with your body in the same way, it’s around 1000x less potent than estrogen, and your body does’t know how to use it in the way it knows how to use mammalian estrogen (the estrogen we know a bit more commonly). So where does the idea that soy contains estrogen come from? Soy milk has existed for a long time, but in the 90s it experienced a rise in market share in the United States. This terrified the dairy industry and they created the myth for it to spread it around and scare people off of soy. Ironic considering there is estrogen in dairy - more on that later.
Soy and Women
Did you know that the Japanese language has no word for hot flashes? It‘s just not a common enough thing to have a dedicated word. What could be the cause? Considering what this post is about I’m certain you guessed it, soy plays a large role.
In a proper, randomized, double-blind trial with placebo, the phytoestrogen found in soy reduced the frequency of hot flashes, as well as their severity. To an amount comparable to estrogen hormone therapy, a common treatment for menopause symptoms. It did take three months for the soy to start working, but it comes with none of the side effects that hormone therapy would; like blood clots, and an increase in risk of certain cancers.
In fact, soy can reduce your risk of getting cancers. Certain cancers, like breast cancer, can be caused by an excess of estrogen. But, when you consume phytoestrogens, they bind to your body’s estrogen receptors, and they do nothing since your body doesn’t know what to do with them. With that, they end up in the way of actual estrogen, which then can’t bond with those receptors. Studies have shown that women who drink a cup of soy milk a day are 30% less likely to get breast cancer for this reason.
To the same effect, a meta-analysis study found that the women who ate the most soy products had a 48% reduced risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Soy and Men
It‘s great to know that soy is beneficial to women, but this is post about Soy Boys. What does soy do to men?
To start, men can also get breast cancer. So, they can receive the same protective benefits that women enjoy from soy.
Specific to men though, is prostate cancer, and soy can help. One study found that those who consumed soy had the lowest chances of getting prostate cancer, it even reduced the risk of spreading to other parts of your body. Another study found an almost unbelievable 70% less chance of getting prostate cancer in men who drank soy milk. This should be taken with a grain of salt though as the study was looking at Seventh Day Adventists who eat a mostly plant based diet for religious reason; it could just be that eating healthier had an effect. But soy certainly didn’t make anything worse
Estrogen and Dairy
Remember earlier how I said it was ironic that the dairy industry caused a panic over soy containing “estrogen”? Well, what’s in milk? Milk contains mammalian estrogen that your body has no problem using, it’s the same compound from a cow as it is from a human.
To produce milk, just like humans, cows have to have recently given birth. They do not just produce milk all the time. To ensure a constant supply of new milk and new dairy cows, they are kept constantly pregnant. This means that while they are producing the milk you will consume they are pregnant, and pregnant mammals produce a lot of estrogen. Even without this there would still be some in the milk but there is just even more because of how the industry works.
