If I turn into a "girly man" . . .
. . it's because I ate some unfermented soybeans today. Soybeans contain possibly dangerous levels of a vegetable version of estrogen. This is probably a defensive mechanism to cause developmental and fertility problems for animals that dare to eat soybeans.
If I do turn into a girly man, I'll immediately run for the California state legislature so I can be among my kind (see Arnold).
Soy products may be the next "big thing" for lawyers looking for a follow-up to sueing the tobacco companies, especially since sueing fast food joints for obesity doesn't seem to be taking off. Some child development lawsuits have already been filed (in New Zealand, I think).
Despite extreme indultry pressure the FDA has strongly resisted giving soy products a generally considered safe designation, but several of their scientists are now under a gag order due to industry pressure.
Most uses of soy in the U.S. are not traditional uses. Traditional uses are mostly for fermented beans (soy sauce, miso, bean sauce, etc.) which are safe and tofu where most of the toxins are discarded with the water.
On the other hand, some researchers feel the growth spurt among post WWII Japanese is not due to the high protien of a Westernized diet but from a reduction of consumption of soy products, even though most of the soy products consume in Japan are considered reasonably safe.
Many of the textured vegetable protien products consumed by health enthusiasts in place of "unhealthy" meat are considered highly supect by some researchers.
The whole problem started when paint manufacturers moved to petroleum bases leaving soy and canola growsers without a market, so the soy people in particular put the marketing and product development departments on afterburner and started heavy political pressure to allow them to make health claims for benefits that were uncertain.
In any case, I don't think eating a few soybeans now and then is going to do any harm, particularly for a "fully developed" guy like me, but I sure wouldn't feed soy based infant formulas to babys or much soy anything to developing children until this all gets sorted out. Here's a link to a typical soy article [link|http://www.mothering.com/10-0-0/html/10-6-0/soy-story.shtml|The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food] for anyone interested.
It's going to have to be sorted out in the courts, because when several powerful industries are paying scientists, "experts" and politicians, it is impossible to know the truth any other way, and even then it's iffy.
