When my kids were just getting off the bottle, I was learning that cow milk isn't GREAT for us. It's hard to digest. And of course drinking a lot of juice wasn't good because of sugar content. So though I always keep organic milk on hand at all times, and we have juice too, I got them started on chocolate and vanilla soy milk as an alternative to milk and juice. I've read that soy is good, it's full of protein, etc. I figured they'd be drinking something healthy and drinking less cow milk, less juice.
So that's my story on how soy was introduced into my life.
Well, recently, I was startled to find out that soy is actually BAD. Huge red flag for me since my kids drink soy milk a lot. Of course, for every positive said for a food, there's a negative statement about the same food to follow. But I became concerned because we go through maybe two cartons of soy milk a week. I also heard nothing but GOOD things about soy, so I was curious as to WHY soy is now bad. Because if it's bad, I don't want my kids to continue drinking it. And how can soy be bad? Vegetarians eat lots of soy, don't they?!
Well, I did my research on it.... And here's why it's bad:
1) The soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or 'antinutrients,' including potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. They can produce serious distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake.
2) Soy is higher in phytoestrogens than just about any other food source. Phytoestrogens are dangerous to the human body. Phytoestrogens are plant-based estrogens that mimic estrogen in our bodies.
3) It raises cancer risk, and causes nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis, thyroid problems, reproductive difficulties, and Alzheimer's Disease.
4) There have been studies that soy lowers sperm count.
The list can go on. And the truth is that these studies have given us these results, but that doesn't mean it's been proven.
The bottom line is that it's given me a scare strong enough to make me ween the kids off of soy milk a little. There ARE alternatives like goat milk, almond milk and coconut milk. I found chocolate almond milk, so I'm giving that a shot. And as with all foods, I'm keeping the soy milk in moderation. There are no studies that confirm that soy is totally, irrevocably BAD for you...and there are studies that show there IS some good to soy. That being said, I'm going to probably seek out the alternatives for now, just in case.
I just wanted to inform you that soy is NOT the BEST out there because everyone is so gun-ho thinking that soy is so good for us, when there's a very real possibility that it's NOT. The food industry won't tell you that, so I will.
*Some info based from:
http://www.vegfamily.com/health/is-soy-bad-for-you.htm
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/articles/soy-truth.php
Go figure! I started with soy yogurt when Becky was a baby and we thought she was allergic to cow milk. So "oh soy" yogurt became a staple. Since then, we did buy chocolate soy milk, true, but it has been out of the picture for a while, though for different reasons :)
ReplyDeleteI think the best source of hydration should be water anyway. I limit my kids' sugary drinks to no more than 2 cups of chocolate (cow) milk a day and no more than 2 cups watered down juice.
Thanks for the heads up!