Soy does your body good?

American Cancer Society states; “soy is protective for developing breast cancer and recurrence for breast cancer”

[ This post is for informational purposes only. It is not meant as medical advice or guidance to make any medical or medication changes. Please contact your physician  or pediatrician before beginning any lifestyle or dietary change]

The fear regarding soy originated with the concern over  “estrogen” being present in soy and how that “female hormone” would negatively affect women, men, and girls. Perhaps causing increased hormone effects and the subsequent negative impact including increased risk of breast cancer, cystic breast disease, and sterility. The following will help dispel some of the misunderstanding regarding the dangers of soy.

Soy Confusion

Confusion about soy arises from the term “phytoestrogens.” Some soy nutrients—the isoflavones—have chemical structures that are similar to that of estrogen found in a women . This is where the term phytoestrogen originated. However, phytoestrogens are not the same thing as female estrogens. Soy foods do not contain estrogen.The phytoestrogen in soy have a mild estrogen like effect but tend to have a  positive effect on preventing breast cancer due to a blocking the real estrogen effect on its receptors in the breast tissue. Meaning this phytoestrogen blocks the body’s actual estrogen hormone from binding to tissue such as breast tissue with a milder impact and less pathology compared to the natural estrogen. “In population based studies and real life trials it has not been proven to cause lower testosterone in men or increased risk of breast cancer in women”

                 Soy is safe if you take these precautions –

• Always purchase organic and avoid any processed soy products.
• The majority of your soy intake should be healthy products like tempeh, and tofu.
• Avoid soy from certain regions like Indonesia where processing with toxin like hexadene tends to be common place.
• Stick to brands you trust .
• Moderation with the amount; Not more than 3 servings a day.
• If you’re using soy milk whether it’s a child or an adult servings should be no more than three times a day.

Breast cancer and soy ? The current consensus among health experts who study soy is that breast cancer survivors can safely eat these foods. Recent studies suggest soy is protective against breast cancer recurrence.  The concern over long term increased risk of breast cancer is unsubstantiated and generally found to be the opposite. As discussed above organic soy products tend to be protective against breast cancer and other chronic diseases. There is not as much research involving soy and other estrogen related cancers, including endometrial and ovarian cancers. However, the studies that have been reviewed indicate that soy is also safe for women with a history of endometrial or ovarian cancer.

Sterility in men: misrepresentation of facts.  Although the sperm concentration seems to be lower, the actual load – amount of ejaculate, is greater and possibly better for reproduction.  Making it more effective for transport. Decreased inflammation associated with soy helps both the blood flow and increases the overall fertility.

Asian health argument: When considering the long term safety of soy formula, one argument that frequently comes up is that Asian populations have been consuming soy for a long time, with no known consequences and in fact are healthier than Western cultures.The differences in the overall healthy lifestyle between Western and Asian populations make the ability to compare soy as the main healthy food difference difficult but with controls for populations who eat more soy or do not, those who do are found to be healthier with lower inflammatory diseases and chronic illness.

                       Additional reasons Asian populations tend to be healthier

• Asians consume a traditional soy-rich diet and Caucasians eat a typical “Western” diet  which differs dramatically over the lifespan.
• In Asian populations , soy is consumed mostly in the form of tofu, tempeh, and other unprocessed foods, not as dietary supplements or products enriched with “soy protein isolate”, which is a keyword for a soy product not being healthy.  
• Asian populations also eat considerably higher levels of seafood and low levels of animal fat than Western populations.
• Have a generally healthy diet – low fat, lots of vegetables, not processed, stay thin and exercise.  

• Asian populations breastfeed in higher percentage than other similar populations particularly Western mothers. They do not use soy formula so extensively at the newborn period. However they do ingest lots of soy products once they are introduced to solid foods and throughout life. Westerners feeding their babies soy infant formula the pattern is just the opposite,very high formula ingestion the first year and virtually no soy and significantly less healthy plant based products the rest of their life.

For babies

Breastfeeding exclusively the first 5- 6 months is the most preferred source of nutrition. However, during this time as the main nutritional source soy milk is one of many less than perfect choices to feed your baby. While it is a natural plant product and in theory it should be better than processed cow’s milk based formulas, there is not sufficient research to definitively state that giving human babies exclusive soy food during infancy is completely healthy and free of immediate or long term health risks.  As a supplement to breast milk it seems to be adequate . Soy milk is often recommended as a more natural supplement milk to breast feeding ( should only be in conjunction with breastfeeding) but should not be more than a supplement . Like all soy products, soy formula and milk should be organic and any processing or preservatives should be evaluated for safety.

Children 1 and older

Soy milk should not be the only milk beverage and limit its consumption to a maximum of  3 glasses a day. The total soy servings including milk for a day should also be no more than 3 of all forms of soy as well.

Healthful MD conclusion: Soy products are safe if taken with awareness and used as another healthy food source among a varied and plentiful healthy diet and not the sole nutritionally rich plant food. In addition , soy is not recommended as the only milk for infants or children when other plant options are available.

Environmental impact of  organic unprocessed soy products are less than meat and dairy products.

Warren Krantz MD

HealthfulMD.com

Advance label reading

Getting down to the fine print. Figuring out what is real in the ingredients

THIS IS NOT MEANT AS A CRITIQUE, ENDORSEMENT , OR ADVERTISEMENT OF THE ABOVE PRODUCT.  THE IMAGE IS RANDOMLY SELECTED AND FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AS IS THE ENTIRE POST.  THIS IS NOT FOR MEDICAL ADVICE OR FOR SPECIFIC MEDICAL CONDITIONS. THE IMAGE IS FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY

Magnify and look closely at the label above. 

Ingredients – this is the most important part of the labeling . It is often in small print and hidden on a corner or remote part of the container. I go straight to this section of the label when looking at packages and reviewing the quality for patient’s. This is where the real names and chemicals , compounds, preservatives, taste enhancers, thickeners, food coloring are hidden and can almost be deciphered. . Any multi-syllabic and hyphenated chemical compound additive you cannot pronounce is listed here . Words and phrases such as starch, to preserve freshness, and flavor additives with numbers are some of the content listed here.

Things to look out for in this section that are not good for you or your children:

Protein- soy protein isolates ( chemically processed soy)

Vegetable oil- as unhealthy processed oils such as palm oil, soy oil, and other unnatural oils. Examples of good oils are organic unprocessed olive, safflower or canola if any oil.

Amino acids- have salt

Starch- another word for corn starch, modified corn starch,  and unnatural fillers.

Sweeteners – corn sweeteners , high fructose corn syrup, rice sugar, maltose. An acceptable sweetener is with real organic fruit juice.

Fiber- Should be from good real plant sources not cellulose which can be from wood pulp even though they can list it as vegetable fiber. Not a source of fiber you would choose to eat if you had a choice.

Chemical additives- words with any number, for color, for freshness, for taste, preservative should be a SOS for an unnatural product.

Nutrition facts – making the deception complete- This is the part of the label with the percentages of RDA ingredients. The real facts are in the small print ingredients and very small print the asterisk

Oil is fat . Good bad or otherwise, plain and simple. It does not add any food value to the package. What is the percentage of saturated to unsaturated. Unsaturated is better. Select as little saturated as possible. Really want to keep the number for processed foods to 3 gm. There are a number of natural real foods with high fat but these are whole plant foods with unsaturated fat.

Salt or sodium, The lower the better on the package. As close to zero as possible but shoot for under 100 or less at least. The daily allowance sodium has been moved to 1500 from 2,000 for optimal health. Add it up per serving size. Products often have upwards of 500 mg per serving using salt as a preservative and to hide processed unnatural flavors.

Sugar- cane sugar, brown sugar, sweeteners, chemicals sugar substitutes. Want no added sugar. Actually would prefer for the sugar number to reflect only the natural sugar in the food itself. For instance fruit sugar from the fruit itself will account for the grams of sugar let’s say an apple has natural fructose or fruit sugar, but the label will not say any other sugar added by not saying cane sugar, or natural brown sugar etc..Sweetened with fruit juice with a low sugar number 3-5 gm is an acceptable form of sugar added.

Protein- the recommended daily allowance is 56 gram of protein for  a man and 46 grams of protein for a woman in a day. ( Even though many health experts recommend less) The number here is not particularly helpful without knowing the source. Not all protein is the same or healthy.

Fiber – good sources of natural fiber have at least 3- 5 gm of fiber. The source, see above, will be crucial.

Cholesterol- related to the fat, a new notation on the box, convincing you the product is healthy if it does not have direct cholesterol. But your body can still turn fats and oils into cholesterol. So this number has very little value other than marketing. Low cholesterol is not synonymous with healthy.

Potassium – is good for many of your body function especially heart and blood vessels but the best source if from natural food.The number on processed food is not very important.

Carbohydrates- another new catch phrase for health. The number does not indicate anything of significance. There are good and bad carbs. Equating the absolute number with any reason to buy a package is not meaningful

Portion size. Listed at the very top of the nutrition facts is crucial in understanding how many calories per serving or how much fat or protein for a meal. The portion size could be only 1/4 or 1/2  of what you perceive as a serving  How many nutrients , calories, fat per the real serving size is what counts.

Vitamin fortified-how do they do this . Are these vitamins necessary for your health. Is the form in this package even useful for you or healthy for that matter? . Wouldn’t it be better to get these vitamins from real fruits and vegetables?

HealthfulMD message : In this constantly changing battle with packaging information it is difficult to tell what is really healthy for you and your family. The only true way to make sure what you put in your mouth has not been altered , modified, or preserved it to buy real foods and organic products as much as possible. Once a food source passes through factory processing of any sort the name change game begins and you are playing poker with altered “food products”. Make sure you use due diligence in selecting any food you purchase.

Warren Krantz MD, FAAP

NOT AN ADVERTISEMENT , ENDORSEMENT, OR CRITIQUE OF THIS PARTICULAR PRODUCT. CHOSEN AT RANDOM . NOT A MEDICAL RECOMMENDATION . IMAGE AND BLOG POST FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT FOR MEDICAL ADVICE REGARDING THIS OR ANY CONTENT..

The good the bad and ugly of food package labeling and how to figure out what is the real good.

I review food package labels daily for patients through texted photos. When reading packaging more often than not they become confused with the message on the front of the packaging. It seems as though the main purpose of the labeling is to distract us and lead us to believe the contents of the food packaging is healthier than it is. When I get contacted to approve the ingredients as healthy or appropriate I always ask them to turn the package around and send a photo of the nutritional facts and ingredients.  This misinformation campaign requires detective work to decipher the real health content of the packaging in order to make the healthiest choice. This blog post and the next one that will follow will hopefully guide you in analyzing labels.

S.O.S.is usually a term reserved for a distress signal but I will be using this as a catchphrase for a warning regarding foods and ingredients that are not really “healthful”.-Salt-Oil-Sugar is going to be used to bring awareness when selecting foods for yourself and your family. The closer you get to eliminating SOS the closer you are to nutritional health. Generally these three unhealthy ingredients-salt,oil, sugar are manipulated to change the taste of a food with deceptive labeling exchanging one for higher levels of the other. Low sugar may have higher salt. Low fat would have high sugar. And most oils are responsible for excess and unnecessary fat in foods with no nutritional benefit other than taste.. And all this is without even discussing the new fake fats and sugars, and artificial flavors and colors to imitate your favorite tastes and textures.

                                                  Breaking the packaging code:

Front label and packaging -Is where the deceptive marketing takes place to get your attention in hopes of influencing your decision to purchase the food product without further investigation. Oftentimes the practice uses misleading wording and a confusing message to make you think it is a healthier product inside the package than it really is. This includes wording such as “natural” or ” real”, “ recommended protein”, “organic”, “low fat”, “sugar free”, “gluten free”, “ fiber”, “whole grain”, “ vegetable oil”,  “heart healthy”.

Nutritional highlights, which includes main nutritional information you want to see,  is placed prominently on the front packaging to sway you from looking at the rest of the labeling.

Deceptive language: Terms to be aware of when selecting a healthy product!

Natural or real– really has no meaning. It is allowed for manufacturers to write “natural” because the product starts off natural , but it does no legally mean anything else added to the package is natural. It does not represent unprocessed. And it certainly does not mean organic, or preservative or chemical free. This is legal and the FDA is looking at changing the law. But for now natural usually means very unnatural.

Protein – does not mean good protein like the whole grain or natural source they try to get you to believe. There usually is added processed protein sources to fulfill that packed with the alleged good protein pitched amount.

Organic- even the term organic can be misleading by having an organic ingredient like organic salt, or sugar, but not everything has to be organic to say “ made with organic ingredients “

Free range– chicken or beef. Does not mean what you think. We visualize chicken roaming free in an idyllic rolling hills. But it only means the chicken have to be let outside or even have real sunlight for brief period each day.

Gluten free – the latest catch phrase to make you think it is healthy . But many products are already gluten free. Like fruit, vegetables, etc. Gluten free is now the main packaging distractor from all the other additives like sugar, salt, and fat .

Fat labeling- unsaturated, low fat, etc. some are good , but usually another bait and switch for health. There is always something else they add. Once again sugar, salt, or chemicals. Check the total fat. There might be more unsaturated fats but the overall saturated fats might be the same.

Heart health- all they have to do is add any fiber products, healthy or unhealthy ones. or vegetable oil , or whole grain part and they can say heart healthy.

Fiber- generally connotes something healthy for your heart and gastrointestinal system. But this number and comment makes very little distinction between healthy natural fiber and processed fiber like plant cellulose ( wood has plant cellulose).

Vegetable oil- this is prominent message making you believe it is good vegetable or soy oil. But this often can mean processed Palm, and soy oil neither of which is particularly healthy!

Salt content ( low salt)- may have substitutes such as “ amino acids” which itself has sodium or other forms of sodium like sea salt which is sold as healthier form of salt.

Low or no carbohydrate- does not really indicate any healthier value to a food in the package. Only recently included to make it seemingly trendy and healthier.

GMO free– can mean some of the ingredients are gmo free. The FDA is trying to pass laws to tighten the loopholes for GMO labeling once again read the fine print.

Nutritional highlights- usually on top or bottom corner of the container. It’s purpose here is to tell you what they want you to think. There is a good amount of protein, fiber, grain, carb, etc. But this gives you no information regarding the type or source of these. They are hoping you do not need to look further at the fine print and believe then

Healthful MD message: The closer you can get to real honest to goodness natural – from the ground untouched and unprocessed the better. Spend a few extra minutes evaluating the ingredients from top to bottom front and back of a package.

Convenience usually comes with a price both financially and healthfully !

Environmental conscience- every time you recognize the additives in packaging have come at an environmental cost and choose to make a healthier selection you are indirectly influencing the company’s choice of what to add and hopefully alter where they get their products.

Part 2 of advanced label reading will deal with what is in the small print and ingredients.
Warren Krantz MD, FAAP