Soya good or bad for you

Soya: good or bad for you?

by Joethedumber on May 5, 2009

There was an awkward pause on the phone the day before my last dinner party. A friend called to check details of my promised Chinese extravaganza. "Because the thing is," she mumbled, "we're trying for a baby and I read that tofu can lower men's sperm counts. So would you mind keeping it off the menu, just to be on the safe side?" This was news to me. I'd come to think of tofu – of all soy products – as health-boosting "superfoods". Weren't they meant to lower cholesterol, help with menopausal symptoms and help us resist all sorts of cancer? "Oh no," said another guest the following evening. "I heard that soy causes cancer and alzheimer's as well as interfering with fertility."

Our confusion is understandable. Over the past decade a range of scientific studies conducted around the world have concluded that these tasty little East Asian beans (and the many products derived from them) might help prevent or cause all manner of life-threatening or undesirable...Read More >>