Positive Side of Soy

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends, I appreciate all of your requests for more emails. Today I'm officially back, up and running with a whizzy new laptop. The message below from Dr. Steve Chaney is very important. It is critical that we help people separate mainstream scientific understanding from sensationalism. I have also pasted numerous files from from my "soy" folder.

Editor’s note: Nexus magazine ran a sensational article about the “dangers” of soy.

This is Dr. Chaney’s response. Dr. Chaney is a professor of Chemistry,

Biochemistry, Bio-Physics, and Nutrition at the University of North Carolina, Chapel

Hill. He has run an internationally recognized cancer research program at that

Institution for 28 years. For many years he has also taught nutrition to medical

Students.

Dear Dr. Falentin,

The source that you sent me to (www.nexusmagazine.com) is hardly a

credible information source. I checked out not only the article that you

sent me (which was incredibly one sided) but also the magazine's main web

site. When you look at the kind of articles the magazine publishes, it puts

their article on soy in perspective. This is an organization that sees UFOs

and government conspiracies everywhere! I would just make the following

comments:

1) Much of the negative information was on soy beans themselves and not

textured soy protein or other processed soy products, so it is completely

irrelevant.

2) I am aware of a few negative reports concerning soy phytoestrogens.

However, those are based primarily on cell culture and animal experiments.

Any good scientist will tell you that those experiments have only a 10%

chance of proving true in humans. We don't discount those experiments, but

rather use them as a basis for designing human clinical trials that will

definatively test the hypotheses that they have raised. If they are

confirmed in clinical trials, then it would be appropriate to change current

recommendations - not before.

3) Those reports should be compared with the literally hundreds of clinical

studies showing the safety and health benefits of soy as part of a healthy

diet. The FDA's recommendation for use of soy protein speaks for itself. If

anyone tries to tell you that the FDA is conspiring with industry to promote

one product over another, they are probably trying to sell you something.

4) I have also been following the research with Dr. Bounous' whey protein

product. That resarch is in the very early stages yet. One particular

concern that I have at present is that all of the research has been done by

Dr. Bounous - and he is the one who holds the patent on the product. Past

experience warns me that his findings may not hold up when evaluated by

independent laboratories. Until independent research confirms his findings I

remain very skeptical. I also suspect that the company marketing his

products is likely to run into problems with the FDA in this country. They

are making drug-like claims. You can't do that with a food.

I hope this is helpful.

Sincerely,

Dr. G. Chaney