June 27, 2007

Soy What!

Over at My Thinking Spot, supergirlest is saying bye bye, soy...

Many of my friends are vegetarians and vegans. Has everyone heard about this "dark side of soy"? I left her this comment about my experience, when I started eating more soy in place of meat in my diet:

I too stepped on the soy bandwagon when I tried to become a vegetarian.

My mother's side of the family has always had problems with anemia, and I've always had low iron levels when I've had my blood tested.

In 2005, I went completely vegetarian, replacing much of the meat with soy based recipes. In Jan 2006 I had a physical, and my doctor told me my iron levels were too low (otherwise I was in great shape for someone my age). I tried to increase my iron thru my diet, but it wasn't working. By March I was back at the doctor because of severe RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome), and I couldn't sleep because it, my legs just felt like I needed to stretch them. If I did fall asleep, the legs would wake me up with uncomfortable sensations and electric feeling twinges.

After seeing a neurologist, he confirmed the RLS, and he prescribed the widely advertised drug for it. It worked for me, but he also said that my iron and ferretin levels were way too low, almost nonexistent. I started taking iron supplements and in less than a week the RLS was gone without the RLS drug.

Then I find out that soy actually blocks the absorption of iron.

I'm also a runner, and in the south, during the summer, I produce tons of sweat. I am soaking wet after any run, if the temp is over 70. We lose a lot of iron in sweat, so that wasn't helping, but I wasn't about to give up running.

I changed my diet again, including foods that help the body absorb iron, but no red meat, only fish, and some poultry, and much less soy. I still enjoy edamame from time to time, it is my favorite bean. (I also make a tasty black bean chili, with blackstrap molasses, that is high in iron).

I also noticed that after I changed my diet, my running improved, and I didn't have so many problems with muscle pain and recovery after long runs.

Now last week, I learn that taking iron supplements has been identified as a cause for some types of cancer.......

DAMN IT! What now. We need the people like the oriental plant experts that knew what foods we should consume to keep us healthy. Now we just have fascist corporation creating foods in the lab that only taste good and sell well, but making us sick. The almighty dollar is only thing that matters here, making us ill and, providing the healthcare industry with long term revenues. I think it is a conspiracy.

Don't get me started on the bad things that sugar substitutes do to the body, and trans-fat is just plain poison, causes inflammation, it's all bad. These things make our foods taste better, feel better, but rages havoc on our health, so we go to the doctor to get drugs to make us feel better, and then other drugs to counter the side effects of the first drugs, and then its a downward spiral?

Where/When does it end? It ends when we stop buying all this convenience, and start living more "natural".


Thoughts?

8 comments:

mad said...

So in other words, that big fat juicey hamburger I had is as good (or bad) for me as a tasteless, cardboardish soy burger.

supergirlest said...

i responded to you over at my place, head over thataway.

i wondered what effect this could have on men - thanks for posting your response! all the talk seems to be centered around women and children...

i think that eating as close as possible to the earth is the best thing we can do.

also - i've tagged you! see that post too!

Mary said...

I just heard about the RLS/iron connection on Dr. Oz's radio show. I love his show because he has people on that tell you these simple answers to things.

I told supergirlest to read EAT TO LIVE and ifyou haven't you should too. I learned a lot.

Peacechick Mary said...

We also started limiting soy products and being in the south, we get lots of fresh fish, so fish it is.

Good information here today. I'll also read Eat to Live. Thanks.

pissed off patricia said...

Soy milk is as far as I've gone and I probably use it three times a month. So I'm not going to worry about that. My motto is everything in moderation and so far it's worked for me.

azgoddess said...

a very wise person said it best "every thing in moderation"

BadTux said...

I quit paying attention to all that nutritional BS long ago because I came to the realization that pretty much anything eaten to an extreme was Bad. Nowdays I just try to keep my protein input sufficient and my calorie intake reasonable and let the food fall where it may. I do eat a lot of beans (not much soy though), a lot of tuna, plenty of cheese, the occasional hamburger, and exercise reasonably, I take vitamin and mineral supplements because frankly my diet isn't *quite* as varied as it should be, and otherwise don't worry about it.

So far so good. At least, all my health indicators seem okay. Just need to watch my pizza intake, which is still way too high :-).

- Badtux the Pizza-lovin' Penguin

Anonymous said...

I try to live by...

It's all about balance...

Still trying to figure it out though... where the hell is my balance????

XOXOXOXOOXOX