Earthly Eating

Soy foods are derived from soybeans. Edamame (green soybeans), soy nuts, soy milk, tofu, tempeh, and miso are traditional soy foods. In recent years, soy foods have become part of the mainstream American diet and consumers can now find a variety of soy foods at local health food stores as well as the local grocery store now.

In addition to traditional soy foods, the marketplace is full of manufactured soy products including soy hot dogs, soy meat, soy cheese, soy flour, and even cereals and nutrition bars containing soy protein. These are not natural forms of soy, and therefore do not contain the same balance of nutrients. They are not considered soy foods by many health professionals as well as many soy eating patrons of the food.

Soy foods contain isoflavones, which helps to decrease the risk of breast cancer by binding with estrogen receptors, reducing your exposure to the more powerful effects of your own estrogen. However, soy appears to offer the greatest protection to women who ate it regularly before their puberty cycle begins.

If you decide to add more soy to your diet, it’s best to stick with whole soy foods such as tofu, soy milk, and edamame rather than the processed foods out of the market today that are made with soy isolate or isolated soy protein. Skip the soy supplements, which contain high, and possibly dangerous, amounts of isoflavones.

More things to keep in mind about soy. It contains phytoestrogens, as mentioned above. These are natural plant chemicals that have weak estrogen like effects on the body. There are two main groups of phytoestrogens, called isoflavones and lignans. The phytoestrogens in soy are isoflavones.

Eating phytoestrogens is supposed to help reduce hot flashes mainly during menopause. In healthy women, eating phytoestrogens may lower your natural production of estrogen. High estrogen levels have been linked to development of breast cancer, so this may be a good thing to consume soy to help prevent this from happening. Phytoestrogens may have a similar effect on the body as natural estrogen. It may not make any difference to breast cancer risk. Studies are continuing in this, but one thing is for sure, soy is a healthy addition to a woman, man and even children’s diet. So consider adding in with your next meal.
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Earthly Eating Recipe

Jamaican Mint Burgers
Serves: 4 to 6

Serve on a toasted sesame bun topped with a pineapple ring dowsed with some of the remaining basting sauce and your own burger toppings.

Happy Eating!