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by sly phil_Archive
The whole soy-gay link is a very long bow to draw. I am scientist working in the food industry where there is a lot of research into the health benefits of soy, in particular why some asian nations have lower incidences of particular cancers. Soy products contain phytoestrogens, chemicals that occur naturally in the soybeans and mimic the behaviour of the hormone estrogen when ingested. I believe Australian scientists were the first do discover phytoestrogens after sheep ingesting a certain type of clover didn't breed as successfully. The current wisdom is that exposure to soy products is needed very early in life so the body can optimise (turn on)its biochemistry to gain the maximum benefits from ingestion of soy products. Basically, the asian nations have this biochemistry switched on, whereas only one in three caucasians has. This doesn't mean to say it can't be switched on later in life, but studies have shown that increased intake of soy products doesn't necessarily translate into health benefits. This doesn't mean to say soy products are harmful (although recent noises suggest those with cancer who begin to increase soy intake can suffer deleterious effects, as the phytoestrogens screw up their already screwed up biochemistry).
The good news is, researchers now have a handle on the gut chemistry required to mke sybeneficial, and the biochemical conversion of these hytoestrogens to their beneficial end-product will soon be done on large-scale in labs. Food will be fortified with "equol", a conversion product of daidzein, one of the soy phytoestrogens. Links are ubiquitous on the internet.
Beware though, a large percentage of the vegetarians I work with who have had soy exposure since infancy have developed some questionable beliefs, for example, many are proponents of intelligent design. I'd like to see them explain this one.