Turns out that, once again, accepted dietary guidelines/recommendations are incorrect. This time disastrously so. An article posted on WND today outlines numerous dangers of soy intake.
One of the trends that I am sure you have noticed is the early maturation of girls. It is simply WAY to young anymore. How young? According to one study 1% of American girls are growing breasts and/or pubic hair by age 3. Age 3! By age eight it is 14.7 percent among white girls and 48.3% amongst black girls. Almost half. It is being linked to increased soy intake.
Soy contains isoflavones, an estrogen-like compound found in that particular plant. Soy is used in most every processed food known to man and is almost unavoidable in this day. But one place where it is perhaps dangerously used is in baby formula. Babes on soy formula can receive the equivalent of 3-5 birth control pills every day. And this is in a child about a tenth of the size of a grown woman. (Note: As I posted previously, the Mayo Clinic has determined that the Birth Control pill AKA "The Pill" is linked to pre-menopausal breast cancer) This intake was found by one study to result in a blood-estrogen level ranging from 13,000 to 22,000 times the level of estrogen in the body of a milk fed baby.
Also linked to this problem are vegetarian mothers. A British study in 2000 showed that vegetarian mothers are five times more likely to give birth to a boy with hypospadias than mothers who eat a varied diet
What is Hypospadias? It is a birth defect where the urethra exits the wrong place from the penis. From the article hypospadias is far more serious. In worst case scenarios, it can require as many as 10 separate operations. Even then, the boy may not grow up to be an adult male with full sexual function. His penis typically never gets longer than one and a half inches. Now perhaps being a guy I find that particularly disturbing. But I think that any parent should be worried about the health of their child, and sexual health is no different even if we don't really want to think about it.
Is cutting out all soy the end all answer? No, probably not. Like most dietary scares this is probably a bit exaggerated too. But I think it is safe to say that the less processed the food is the better it will be for the child. Whole foods (organic when possible) are what we are made to eat: whole wheats, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables and real unadulterated meats.