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[Montana]

I enjoy tofu a lot. It's versatile and low calorie, so I can eat a pretty good amount and it fills me up.  :-)

Recently, I've heard that soy products can make women's estrogen levels go wonky.  This is a problem especially for women who have had breast cancer or other cancers where extra estrogen can make tumors grow.  My concerns are more of the vain sort. My new best friend Jillian Michaels tells us to avoid alcohol because it can stimulate the release of estrogen, which in turn makes your body store fat.  I wonder if tofu would have the same fat-storing effect? 

Also, I've heard that tofu can be dangerous because of the pesticides and GMOs.  Is anyone educated about this?  I just buy the Trader Joe's organic kind, so I think I'm safe in the pesticide department, but it doesn't say anything about GMOs.  I'm not really sure how worried I need to be about GMOs in tofu since I think they're in a lot of produce that I eat.

I know a few people here are vegan/vegetarians.  Have you had successful weight loss while still eating plain ol' tofu?  I mean, how unhealthy can it be, it's a central part of Asian cuisine which is one of the healthiest ways to eat, right?

Thanks in advance!

[Arkay]

I've heard a couple of things...neither of which I can back up with links to evidence I'm afraid!  However, if I remember correctly, the reason soy products are a worry now in terms of effects on oestrogen is because soy is used to bulk out pre-packaged/processed food, so people are eating far more than they realise.  If you're not eating that kind of food I think the amounts you would be eating would be ok...??  The other thing is that soy fields are the biggest cause of destruction of the rain forests in Brazil. 

Don't take either of these as gospel tho please!  Just something I vaguely remember from an article read years ago...

[shovelqueen]

The phytoestrogens in soy are the plant's equivalent to our estrogen, but are much weaker in their activity level.  When we eat them, they can circulate in the blood and attach to receptor sites on the cells that are meant for our estrogen.  If your body is estrogen dominant, meaning that it has an overabundance of your own estrogen, then this phytoestrogen replacement is a positive thing, as it only flips your metabolic switches partway, due to it's less potent estrogenic activity. 

Here are two sites with info about estrogen dominance.  I haven't reveiwed them myself, so don't take it all as gospel.

http://www.johnleemd.com/store/estrogen_dom.html

http://www.drlam.com/articles/Estrogen_Dominance.asp

If your soy is certified organic, there cannot be any GMO material in it.  I'd stay with the organic stuff only - my feeling is that we just don't know enough about long term implications of GMO's yet.

Pinkmug was following an anti-estrogenic diet last year.  Hopefully she will chime in.

[Montana]

Thank you both!  This is such a great board!  :-)

[Maychi]

Just my personal experience with soy, both soy milk and tofu: a few years ago I decided it was a good thing for a pre-menopausal woman and started having some soy milk and/or tofu every day. My breasts became swollen and tender throughot the month and I had other PMS symptoms almost all the time, as well as some other peri-menopausal symptoms. As I didn't put two and two together, I carried on for probably two years and things never improved. Then I read somewhere that a study had been carried out, the results of which showed that soy in some people caused tumors, I think it was brain tumors. As there's a lot of cancer in my family, that scared me and I immediately stopped eating soya. And all my symptoms disappeared almost overnight, moreover, if I now occasionally have tofu (I keep flirting with vegetarianism), they return within a day or two. But let me add that I am ridicolously sensitive to just about everything as far as my hormones are concerned - anything throws them out of balance, even the things that are widely considered as very beneficial, such as Omega-3, calcium and magnesium, etc. etc., so this is just my personal story which may or may not apply to anyone else.

[Pinkmug]

Hi, I used to enjoy tofu a lot too, though I ate it infrequently. But 10 years ago my mother had estrogen-related breast cancer and I became very afraid of using soy or anything that could affect my hormonal balance.
Especially because I've read that the eastern people who have low cancer incidence don't eat soy the way we do, but rather fermented soy only.
I think the general opinion of doctors is stay away from soy if you're at high breast cancer risk.
The anti-estrogenic diet recommends to stay away from soy.
So, much as I liked tofu fried in olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper and turmeric, I stopped having it...

[m.c.]

I love tofu too and used to eat it alot. But I had all the problems that Maychi described. And it kept me from losing weight at the time too. Just a few pounds. But I was always swollen.

[Montana]

Ha!  It seems like everything that is supposed to be healthy for us makes us swell.  No more cardio or tofu for me -- I'm going to eat donuts and watch tv.  ;-)

I checked out the links that shovelqueen provided (thanks for the info!) and, as Pinkmug pointed out, we Americans don't do soy the traditional asian way (WHAT??? Soy ice cream and soy burritos are not healthy??  The heck you say!)  so I guess if I do want to incorporate small amounts of soy in my diet, it'll need to be the fermented kind, as in the miso.  Which, again as Pinkmug pointed out, defeats the purpose of having something to fry up and season.  :-)

Thanks for the input!

[VeganKitten]

I eat organic, non-GMO tofu... but not a lot. I think it's fine in moderation.