I have never been a fan of soy products for either men or women and have long advocated avoiding them like the plague.  This is especially true for non Asians who have great difficulty in digesting soy proteins.  In short, the moral of the soy story is that you shouldn’t believe anything that powerful vested interest lobbies (notably the soy lobby) have to tell you.  They really do not care about your health or well being, instead only preferring to keep an eye on their balance sheet and P&L figures.

If you really want to learn about soy products then I suggest you buy “The Whole Soy Story” By Kaayla Daniel (New Trends Publishing).  It’s pretty depressing reading, but nevertheless highly informative and enlightening.
A more light hearted look at soy can be found below.  I have taken the liberty to copy and past a recent Charles Poliquin blog, and would recommend all of you who are on Facebook to join his group (as well as our our London Personal Trainers one!) in order to keep up to date with the latest findings in our constantly evolving world of health, fitness, fat loss, and BioSignature Modulation.

From Charles Poliquin:

HCFC: I am not very clear on quantities, how much should meat and nuts should I eat?
Charles Poliquin: For a start, a side of beef plus 3 kilos of pistachios.
HCFC: Really?

Charles Poliquin: Just kidding. For the meat, there is a formula developed by a Japanese fan of mine, Kamenashi. It goes like this:  You take your bodyweight in kilos, you divide by atomic mass of the most common earth element of your place of birth, you multiply by the numeric value of your date of birth, condensed by using standard numerology, you divide by the square root of the age in days of when your first molar tooth appeared.  Just kidding again; write this down: Any nutritionist that gives you an exact number in grams for a food is either a closet food Nazi or a twirp, or a combination of both.
Listen, you have to retrain yourself to make the distinction between your mouth and a vacuum. I never give quantities in food programs. Just go by appetite.
HCFC: But my previous nutritionist told me it is crucial to count calories…

Charles Poliquin: Did the advice work?
HCFC: No, not really…that is why I am here…I guess

Charles Poliquin: Was she fat?
HCFC: Yes…very fat!
Charles Poliquin: Where her hips much wider than her shoulders?
HCFC: INDEED!

If your nutritionist looks anything like this, you know what you need to do...

Charles Poliquin: Classic case of you are what you eat, she goes by the food pyramid, she is shaped like one!
HCFC: You are ruthless!
Charles Poliquin: Actually, just observant!

HCFC: What should I drink at breakfast?
Charles Poliquin: Any type of organic coffee or tea, and/or water.
HCFC: Can I drink soy milk?

HCFC: Soy milk is healthy for you!

Charles Poliquin: Get off your granola fed high horse. Check the ingredient list on your soy milk and you can be sure you will find a lot of sugar. It will have all sort of names ranging from evaporated, cane sugar, barley malt, rice sugar, fructose, corn syrup.

No matter the manufacturers call it, it is sugar. The most likely reason that you feel “energetic” after drinking your soy milk is that you are getting an sugar buzz.
The second reason being that the soy estrogens are stimulating your thyroid. For most individuals, this induces a mildly hyperactive thyroid with very short-term energy gain. The down side is that over the long run your thyroid crashes, sinking into hypothyroidism. That translates into poor energy levels, brain fog, loss of brain function etc.. Put it this way, the short term benefits are not worth the long term negative effects.

HCFC: But is says on the bottle that it is organic.
Charles Poliquin: So is elk manure.  Listen up. All it means is that it will less pesticide residues that genetically modified soy. Whether it is organic and harvested by Tibetan monks, or grown GMO, all modern soy products are jam packed with anti-nutrients such as phytates, and toxins which are now linked to host of ailments ranging from brain shrinkage to thyroid dysfunction. In men, it lowers testosterone and sperm count to a point where they are 317% more likely to go shopping than to have sex.

HCFC: You are kidding again aren’t you.
Charles Poliquin: No, 76% of statistics are made up on the spot.  Yes, I am kidding about the shopping thing, but not for the ailments brought on by soy. Regarding sperm count, Dr. Chavarro and colleagues studied 100 men who were members of couples having trouble getting pregnant. Semen analyses showed that the men with the highest levels of soy food intake­­ approximately a half serving per day – had 41 million sperm per milliliter fewer than men who did not consume any soy. The researchers used a questionnaire listing 15 soy­based foods to determine soy consumption over the preceding three months.

HCFC: What about soy protein bars?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy protein?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy burgers?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy chips?
Charles Poliquin: No.
HCFC: What about soy lollypops?
Chalres Poliquin: Enough. If you were a male, I would have already roundhouse kicked you to the temple with steel toe capped construction boots.

Go read this article: http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=35
And will see you tomorrow.

HCFC: I’m soy sorry