Okay – it’s time for a little lesson in soy and hormones. I’m going to try and keep this as simple as possible:

We’ve all heard of estrogen and testosterone and know that they are the sex hormones for the two different genders. But there is a BIG difference between the two. Namely, testosterone is ONE hormone. ONE chemical compound. Estrogen should be plural because they (estrogens) are a GROUP of hormones/compounds. Okay, so what?

We have specific receptor sites in our body that recognize different compounds. The testosterone receptor is very specific because it only has to recognize ONE compound (testosterone). However, the estrogen receptors are varied. They have to recognize a GROUP of compounds. Therefore, they are not as specific. So they are more likely to recognize a compound that may not be a true, natural estrogen. You may have heard of Phytoestrogens (a class of estrogen-like compounds found in plants) and/or Xenoestrogens (industrially made compounds such as PCB, BPA and Phthalates that have estrogenic effects). These are substances found outside of the body and mimic estrogens. In other words, phytoestrogens and xenoestrogens are recognized by your estrogen receptors. So your body thinks there is MORE estrogen than there really is. Playing with hormones is not a game you want to play.

If you’ve been following, you’re probably able to figure out on your own that soy is high in phytoestrogens. Now this should make sense to you why women are told to take soy during menopause to treat hot flashes. With the added phtyoestrogens, their bodies think there is more estrogen than there really is (Menopause is a natural decrease in estrogens). Unfortunately, that is NOT something that should be in our bodies. Better forms of soy are tempeh and miso because they are fermented. During the fermentation process, the phytoestrogens are broken down. If hot flashes are a big problem, come talk to me. We can take care of that in a much more healthy and natural way.

Finally, I want to touch on the point of children being raised on soy. BAD IDEA!!!! You are introducing sex hormones to a sexually immature being. It’s no wonder girls are going through puberty at such an early age. If you feed your children soy, you’re essentially feeding them birth control pills.

Check out this video from an interview of Dr. Kaayla Daniel – a board-certified nutritionist and author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food. The interview is done by Dr. Mercola whose site you may want to check out: Mercola.