phytoestrogensTag Archives

Soy and hormones

If you suspect that you may have hypothyroidism, consider eliminating soy.  Soy is a potent goitrogen.  You can find out more about goitrogens here.  Apparently, several fruits and vegetables are also goitrogens when eaten raw.  There’s a list of them on the link.

I’ve had problems of a different sort before with soy.  In one of my big weight loss efforts, I was on the Medifast diet.  Virtually all of the program foods on Medifast are soy.  Time of month became much heavier, and I was more irregular.  Soy is known to affect hormones.  For one, it has phytoestrogens that mimic the estrogens in the body.  Feeding a baby soy formula is like giving it five birth control pills a day.  To make matters worse, most of the soy in the United States is genetically modified, including the soy used by Medifast.  I thought about doing that diet again this time, but I decided that I did not want to expose myself to that much soy.  There’s some in the NutriSystem foods, but it doesn’t comprise nearly as much of the diet.