manboobs, soy and blindness

my SO had to get to grips with my weirdness from the getgo - on our first date i was IFing and on my first visit to his place i dumped his soyproteinpowder to the trash... now he is as paleo as it gets - notices every soymanboob around at the gym :)

so my question for today is male gynecomastia in bodybuilders that consume copious amounts of soy - whats up with that? i mean do they think its normal?

i just got to thinking about that some time ago, when i saw a picture of a local chippendale flexing his manboobs in a tabloid. and he mentioned the soyprotein he is using (productplacement im shure, but he must be using copious amounts of the stuff if he gets it for free). he seemed to be proud of his body - yes he should be - just skip the moobs please. so i thought maybe guys dont actually realise that female sexhormones might not be optimal for a man..... so lets dig up all dirt on soy, shall we.

myth 1 - asians are healthy and they eat a lot of soy

well, no they dont. they do consume some FERMENTED soy products as CONDIMENTS. they also usually combine it with fishbroth and seaweed that contains iodine (that offsets soys negative effects on the thyroid). soy popped up around 2000 years ago and was first used in convents to help with abstinence - now we know that the phytoestrogens in soy lower testosterone levels. you want that? i mean im a girl, but id like to build and keep my muscle so i stay away from soy.
in addition to all of the hearthealthy soymilk, soyicecream, soysaossages etc etc we eat, we get a shitload of the stuff in ALL PROCESSED FOOD. and it definately isn`t fermented.

Following are some of the major problems caused by soy, as described by the Weston Price Foundation on their website:

• High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
• Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
• Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
• Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.
• Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
• Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
• Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
• Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
• Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
• Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys

In addition to all this science talk, go and read what real people have to say - soy can really mess up your endocrine system - and that is not a good thing - you can find these stories in the book The Whole Soy Story .

And do you know what worries me more than moobs on male bodybuilders ( i am an esthetic so it is important to me )? its the fact that we feed our babies this shit and believe its good for them. In addition to robbing our kids of the chance to develop a normal infantile gutbacteria and thus a healthy immune system, soy has some very longlasting effects, in addition to the colics that results from the lack of normal gut bacteria and digestive problems (leaky gut) that results from feeding soy to an infant, there is the issue of soy isoflavones messing up the hormonal system.

soy isoflavones are phytoestrogens, which are plant-based estrogens that act like female sexhormones do. and when you mess up an infants endocrine system, the effect are reeeeally longlasting and sometimes they dont pop up untill later in life. early puberty anyone - sound familiar?
natural estrogen levels approximately double during the first month of life, then decline and remain at low levels until puberty. with increased estrogens from soy formula, an alarming number of girls are entering puberty much earlier than normal.(C. H. G. Irvine et al., "The Potential Adverse Effects of Soybean Phytoestrogens in Infant Feeding," NZ Med J 24 (1995): 318; D. R. Mann et al., "Blockade of Neonatal Activation of the Pituitary Testicular Axis: Effect on Peripubertal Lutenizing Hormone and Testosterone Secretion and on Testicular Development in Male Monkeys," J Clin Endocrinol Metab 68 (1989): 600-607). J. S. D. Winter et al., "Pituitary-Gonadal Relations in Infancy: Patterns of Serum Gonadal Steroid Concentrations in Man from Birth to Two Years of Age," J Clin Endocrinol Metab 42 (1976): 679-686.) 1% of girls now show signs of puberty, such as breast development or pubic hair, before the age of three. by the age of eight, 14.7 percent of white girls and 48.3 percent of african american girls had one or both of these characteristics. (Herman Giddens et al., "Secondary Sexual Characteristics and Menses in Young Girls Seen in Office Practice," Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network 99, no. 4 (1997): 505-512) the fact that blacks experience earlier puberties than whites is not a racial difference but a recent phenomenon.(Peter Montague, "The Obscenity of Accelerated Child Development," Ecologist 28, no. 3 (1993): 140-142. ; L. Zacharias, R. J. Wurtman, "Age at Menarche," NEJM 280, no. 16 (1969): 868-875; N. Michaelson, "Studies in Physical Development of Negroes: IV. Onset of Puberty," Am J Phys Anthropol 2 (1944): 151-166.) 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soybean-fertility-hormone-isoflavones-genistein
infants fed on soyformula have more that 20 000 times the amount of free estrogen circulating in their blood than would be normal - how can that be good?



what about us adults?

my mom had breastcancer and when she became menopausal, her doctor warned her about taking soysupplements that are usually ment to alleviate menopausal problems. because it can promote breastcancer:

Breast cancer:  some researchers accredit soy for the lower rate breast cancer among Asian women, but these kinds of studies that dont take into account any other lifestile issues only make me itch so ill let those pass without getting too agitated or this blogpost will be a novel. but even researchers have finally found genistein - the main soy isoflavone and a plant estrogen. high estrogen levels are associated with the development and spread breast cancer, and therefore a key element of modern breast cancer treatment is to reduce or stop a woman's natural estrogen production. so it makes no sense whatsoever to increase consumption of a product which adds estrogen to your system at a time when your medical treatment aims to cut down your estrogen levels... right? (Fallon, S, Daniel KT, Sanda W. Responses to Docket 2004Q-0151 Solae Company Health Claim on Cancer. Documents submitted to the FDA, June 14, 2004, January 20, 2005 and April 11, 2005. Posted at www.westonaprice.org under "Soy Alert."Daniel, Kaayla T. The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food (New Trends, 2004).379-394.) 

fertility in males: i have previously tried to explain how plants use chemical defence as animals use teeth and claws - wheat has WGA, apples have fructode, soy has phytoestrogens that are especially bountiful in the plants during dry season when extinction is a bigger fear - these phytoestrogens cause male animals who eat it to become less fertile. more phytoestrogen -> less testosterone -> less babies -> less plants eaten -> yeah for the plants... not so much for the animals....

the phytoestrogens interfere with how natural estrogens are received in the brain - and compromises brain efficiency. The brain.com full report on soy

boy babies fed soy formula may go into puberty late or not at all. some of these boys are so feminized that their breasts grow but their penises don't. some mature into adults with penises not much bigger than the ones they were born with. others might look normal and go through puberty on time, but can't father children because their sperm are too few in number (Daniel, Kaayla. op cit. 332-339, 365-374). Sperm counts dropped 50 percent between 1939 and 1990 and are continuing to go down at the rate of 2 percent per year (Sharpe R, Shakkeback N. Are oestrogens involved in falling sperm counts and disorders of the male reproductive tract? Lancet, 1993, 341, 1292-1345.)  

so please, please, all you vegan moms, please for the next generation of women - quit with the soy formula - we want men with big or at least normal penises.... and it would be nice to procreate also. 

Alzheimer disease has been skyrocketing lately - could this be to do with soy (at least partly). researchers at the Universities of Loughborough and Oxford found that among 719 older Indonesians living in Java, high consumption of tofu was associated with memory decline.

Dr. Lon White of Hawaii was interested in how tofu eating affected the men in his area. He traced a group of men from 1965 to 1993. Dr. White found "a significant link between tofu consumption during midlife and loss of mental ability and even loss of brain weight."
Hawaii Research 

healthy brain cells are measured by a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). A low BDNF causes brain atrophy and is linked with Alzheimer's. in a study published in "Neuroscience Letters", they found that soy intake lowered the BDNF in rats.
More about the BDNF Study
soy contains "phytates" which block zinc absorption. zinc is critical for brain and nervous system functioning.

Research on Zinc Deficiency and Brain Impairment 

White et al. analysed the effects of tofu on 502 couples (husbands and wives) and concluded :

"These data,suggest that regular consumption of tofu over many years in middle life may have an adverse influence on brain aging manifest as accelerated atrophy, cognitive decline, and a lowering of the threshold for the clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease."

in addition to all this, soy might be the WORST mistake if you are trying to lose weight, especially if you happen to be a woman:

soy and thyroidism: in order to have a healthy metabolism, we need a healthy thyroid. that is especially critical for menopausal women. the thyroid works by making T4 hormone, which is converted to T3. these thyroid hormones control our metabolism, affect protein synthesis, bone growth etc etc. they are also essential to the proper development and differentiation of all cells of the human body. soy inhibits conversion of T4 to T3. phytoestrogens can bind the conversion in the bloodstream. soy (unfermented) actually binds about 2/3 of the conversion in the bloodstream. IF you have any TPO antibodies, (two out of every TEN women have Hashimoto's disease antibodies) soy consumption can 'trigger' Hashimoto's disease - autoimmune hypothyroidism.

About.com: http://www.thyroid-info.com/articles/soydangers.htm 

lets get back to the beginning - manboobs and bodybuilding: soy protein powders contain the highest concentrations of soy isoflavones of all possible sources. they have the following negative effects on muscle building 

- slowing down of protein synthesis

- slowing down the amount of protein accumulation and accretion (muscle growth) .

- inhibiting myoblast production, maturation and activity

- negative impact on the production of enxymes beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and 5-alphareductase, responsible for efficient testosterone production and metabolism

- cutting down testosterone production   (Dillingham et al., 2005; Gardner-Thorpe et al., 2003; Habito et al., 2000; Nagata et al., 2000, Ziesel et al)

- reducing the numbers of androgen receptors in muscle cells

- inhibiting immune function and the production of T-lymphocyte production by up tp 80%

- also the already discussed effect of lowering or stopping the production of T4 and conversion of T3 significantly slows down metabolist

lets come to the manboobs already : soy protein isolates are associated with testicular cell death and infertility only in infancy(thats soys defencemechanism against us - remember?) but also with (drumroll) yes, you guessed it, adult male breast enlargement Men's Health Nutrition Awards - Foods + Features - Is This the Most Dangerous Food for Men?

even though the effects of soy on grown men are less compared with male infants,  soy can cause gynecomastia (manboobs) within months. a study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that men eating whopping amounts of soy experienced breast enlargement and even some nipple discharge (Squires, Sally. Nutrition not for women only. Boys and men can benefit from soy too. Washington Post, June 8, 2004.)  

ok, im done. with soy. how about you?

oh ok, where does the blindness come in? this is my own scientific conclusion, but i cant believe that the most narcissistic creatures on this planet -bodybuilding chippendal proffessional male dancers - actually like to have moobs... so there must be some sort of blindness associated with soyproteinisolates. definately.