Dr. Eric Li's Blog

You may be confused by studies and authorities who either prove the benefit of tofu or soybean products, or advise against them.

It basically boils down to a phytoestrogen, or estrogen-like compounds in soy known as isoflavones. It's estrogen-like in the sense that it occupies estrogen receptors, and has weak estrogen effect.

As man ages, the ratio between testosterone and estrogen reduces, leading to many degenerative changes. Similarly, woman after menopause tends to be estrogen dominant (i.e., out of balance between progesterone and estrogen), causing many issues such as cancer.

The good thing about phytoestrogen is that it occupies estrogen receptors where would be otherwise seized by stronger estrogen. Therefore, it reduces the imbalance of estrogen in aging people. However, if you flooded the body with much more phytoestrogen than necessary, you may have more receptors filled where otherwise would be empty. In this case, it gives rise to the inverse, i.e., more estrogenic effect! So you can see that it is all about balance!

Sometimes, sciences are like blind men touching elephants. The one who studied the nose thinks it's like a huge water hose, The one who touched leg thinks it's like a large cylinder.... The experiments seem to be statistically valid, only to be so local and so limited.

• Dr. Eric Li's blog
• Login or register to post comments
• report spam