Dr. BT's Blog

Submitted by Dr. BT on Tue, 2008-06-03 17:58.

Many of our patients visiting our anti-aging clinic are confused about tofu. This is because of the confusing report in the media. It has become a FAD that eating tofu is bad, because it "turns" male to female, "due to its phyto-estrogen content", especially when this concept is promoted by some famous doctors (e.g., watch Dr. Mercola's video). There's even articles talking about "soy makes kids gay".       Is phyto-estrogen good or bad? Apparently, soy or tofu has been consumed in Japan, China, and other Asian countries for thousands of years. Why suddenly it is condemned by modern medicine and western countries? First, let me ask you if water is good? I bet you'd answer "good", because we cannot live without. However, we can die due to water toxicity - i.e., drinking too much water. The reason I ask this is to say that everything is about balance.       Phytoestrogen has a lot of health benefit. In this article of a good source information on phytoestrogen, it says, "phytoestrogens have health benefits including potential reduction in breast cancer, prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease risks, possible protection against osteoporosis (bone loss) and menopausal symptoms. Besides, both flavonoid and lignan phytoestrogens have antioxidantactivity."       As I talked about in other articles about estrogen dominance, usually as man and woman age, they develop an imbalance, ie., relative to when they are younger, their estrogen ratios higher. This hormone imbalance is a major reason causing breast cancer and prostate cancer. Following this line, why does phytoestrogen help the situation? This is because phytoestrogen is a weaker form of estrogen. When it's in the body, it takes the estrogen receptors, preventing the more potent body generated estrogen from entering the cell receptors. This effectively reduces the estrogenic effect, thus reducing estrogen dominance.       However, if you takes too much phytoestrogen, too much of the weaker form of estrogen can add up to a higher estrogenic effect than if you don't take the phytoestrogen.       So now let's come back to our fundamental question "should we eat tofu?" The answer is that taking in moderation is good, but taking over dose is bad. Tofu or soybean products are nutrition dense. They are high in protein (plant based), monounsaturated fat, and essential fatty acids. The only drawback is that tofu is cooked. So it's a good food, but not a super food, such as raw fish, raw quinoa, raw flexseeds. Of course, you may choose to eat soybeans raw (soaked). In this case, it becomes a super food!       Hope this helps! Stay young and healthy!

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