Soy milk is a relatively new product to hit the big time. Apparently the consumption of soy milk in Canada is on the rise. Is soy milk a healthier choice than regular cow’s milk? Or are consumers the victim of expensive and tricky marketing?
[Soy milk seems healthier, but is it another thing that's too good to be true?]
Keep reading to find out the knitty gritty on how soy milk could cost you more than just money….
Sometimes when you see a new product claim to be healthy, you have to dig a little deeper. Don’t believe everything you read on the container. Be a skeptic when you go grocery shopping for weight loss.
The soy industry is making a lot of claims. For example, soymilk is popular among menopausal women for its claimed ability to reduce hot flashes and slow the effects of osteoporosis, and among middle aged men to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.
As you can imagine, this would drastically increase sales for soy producers.
As great as soy says it is, there is a darker side to soy milk.
Soy in its raw form is inedible. Soy has to go through a complicated fermentation process or a high temperature processing and acid washing to be usable by the human body.
Soy also contains enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid. Both of these can block good vitamins and minerals you get from the other foods you eat, potentially causing malnutrition.
The question is: Do the benefits of soy outweigh the dangers?
Soy milk is getting so popular that cows actually have to market their goods!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on Soy Milk
First, let’s start with…
The Good…
Studies have shown that where the consumption of soy is higher, like in the Orient, there is a lower percentage of breast, uterus, and prostate cancer.
Soy has been proven to help women through menopause and lessen the symptoms of PMS due to the high level of estrogen-like component, called isoflavones, it contains.
The Bad…
Asians do, however, have a higher rate of thyroid, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, and liver cancer.
The amount of phytoestrogens in soy milk is so high that it can cause infertility.
The Ugly…
Soy has been shown to cause thyroid cancer in laboratory rats. Hmm? Think there is a connection here?
A baby that is fed soy formula is given the same amount of estrogen as it would if you fed it five birth control pills per day!
If that isn’t scary enough, most soy is one of the most pesticide contaminated, aluminum laced, and genetically modified product you can eat.
The Final Verdict
If you are one of the few who used to swear by soy milk and you feel as if you have been violated by the soy industry, don’t beat yourself up.
There are many more products out there that are marketed as being a “healthier choice” but are actually worse than the original.
For example 100 calorie snack packs are tempting for those who are on a diet, but they still aren’t good snack choices.
A good trick to decide whether a food is healthier is to choose it in its most raw form. In this instance, soy milk isn’t available in its raw form, so stay away from it.
For more good information on how to choose good, natural foods, check out our Truth About Abs review.
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First of all, those are really great photographs in your article!
I do want to say that much of the soy-bashing going on is wildly overblown, and one has to wonder where all of it originates. For example, the phytoestrogens found in soy milk have actually been proven to be beneficial to health and protective against cancers of the reproductive organs. Thus the lower percentage of breast, uterine, and prostate cancer in Asian countries that you mentioned. And the relationship between soy and infertility is a myth. Rodent studies have shown decreased fertility, but the results of these studies have never been replicated in humans.
You also mentioned that Asians have higher rates of thyroid, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, and liver cancers. This is true, especially in Japan, but it is not connected to their consumption of soy products. Instead, the high consumption of tea, smoked foods, salted fish (and meat), and pickled vegetables appears to increase their risk of these cancers.
There is also a huge difference between consuming highly processed or isolated soy proteins and consuming fermented soy products like tofu and tempeh. The former should not be considered health food, but the latter has been consumed in Asian countries for thousands of years with no deleterious effects to human health.
Having said that, cow’s milk is the perfect food for baby cows, but certainly not for humans of any age. The saturated fat, cholesterol, and excessive protein found in cow’s milk has been conclusively linked to many chronic and life-threatening diseases including heart disease, stroke, breast cancer and colon cancer, diabetes, and even ostoeporosis. Given a choice between soy milk and cow’s milk, I’d always choose soy. But with so many other alternatives available, we’re not limited to just these two. Rice, oats, almond, and hemp seed milk are all terrific options. And I recently tasted a new milk beverage made from coconut called So Delicious. It is by far the best-tasting alternative to cow’s milk I’ve tried, and I cannot wait until it’s available here in Canada.
Eden,
thanks so much for your comment. The problem with a lot of health “facts” is that there are too many inconclusive studies, so our opinion is continually evolving for a number of issues, including Soy of course. Readers like you help me refine my facts.
Personally, I’ve heard a lot of bad things about cow’s milk, and I try to stay away. What’s your opinion on almond milk? I am currently a big fan, but that coconut alternative you mentioned sounds great. And what’s your take on cheese made from cow’s milk?
But if we are just talking about fat loss, opposed to healthy eating, I try to stay away from all milk as it quickly adds up to a whole lot of calories that you could allocate better elsewhere. A lot of people drink milk thinking they are being healthy, but slowly drink their way to an extra 10-15lbs a year.
I’m excited to taste So Delicious.
have a great weekend Eden.
I have been drinking soya milk for a number of years as I thought it was a healthy alternative to cows milk. Now at 30 I have thyroid problems and went through premature menopause at 28. I also have Rheumatoid Arthritis. It is only now, looking for reasons why this has happened to me, that I am discovering the negatives to soya milk and starting to wondering how different my life could have been without soya.
Maybe soyamilk is good for other part of our body. But for sure not for our Pancreas. I am 33 yrs old, evertime when I spend my time in Japan for more than 2 months, I start having problem with my Pancreas. Now I see the reason in frequent eating Tofu (from soyabean). Because everytime when I go back to my country (no soyabean consumed at all), my Panc.problem goes away.
Hi Ashley,
thanks for sharing. That’s a crazy history you have. Have you had any success at all in actually linking soya to your health problems? I would love to hear more about your
findings. Very sorry to hear about all that you’ve went through but hopefully if you do receive any conclusive results you can help a lot of people avoid the same fate.
thanks again for commenting.
Mike