Just received this through email... Hmmm, so soya is not as healthy as perceived...
Hi friends:
>
>read on and it make us very confuse now, soya or milk , which is heatlthier
>and suitable for women....
>
>>
>Soya/Tofu lovers
>
>
>
>
>ONE WOMAN'S STORY ON SOYA...All Males-PLEASE pass this info to ALL your
>female friends... It may save their lives! Something to take note of.
>
>This is my true story, nothing altered. These are facts, as they relate to
>my experience, my opinions based on what I have read and felt. I am
> relating them to warn other young health-conscious women who are
>unwittingly harming themselves.
>
>In 1989, I graduated from high school in Texas and couldn't wait to hit the
>big college city. One of the changes I wanted to make was to eat
>healthier. Once I moved to health-conscious Austin, Texas, I began to
>fortify my body with the best and healthiest foods I could find.
>
>Tofu was the main ingredient in every healthy dish and I bought soya milk
>almost every day used it for everything from cereal to smoothies or just
>to drink for a quick snack. I bought soya muffins, miso soup with tofu,
>soybeans, soybean, sprouts, etc. All the literature in all the health and
>fitness magazines said that soya protected you against everything from
>heart disease to breast cancer.
>
>It was the magical isoflavones, the estrogen-like hormones that all worked
>to help you stay young and healthy. I looked great, I was working out
>all the time, but my menstrual cycle was off. At 20, I started taking birth
>control pills to regulate my menstrual cycle.
>
>In addition to this I began to suffer from painful periods. I began to get
>puffy, it was as though I was losing my muscle tone. I began to suffer
>from depression and getting hot flashes. I mistook all this for PMS since
>my periods were irregular. By the time I was 25, my periods were so bad, I
> couldn't walk. The birth control pills never made them regular or less
>painful so I decided to stop taking them.
>
>I went on like this for another two years until I realized my pain wasn't
>normal. At 27, my gynecologist found two cysts in my uterus. Both were the
> size of tennis balls. I went through surgery to have them removed and
>thank God they were benign. The gynecologist told me to go back on birth
>
>control pills. I didn't. In 1998, he discovered a lump in my breast. Again,
>I went through surgery and again it was benign. In November 2000 my glands
> swelled up and my gums became inflamed. Thinking I had a tooth infection I
>went to the dentist who told me that teeth were not the problem.
>
>After a dose of antibiotics the swelling still did not go down. At this
>point I could feel a tiny nodule on the right side of my neck. I told my
> mother I had thyroid trouble. She thought I was being silly. No one in the
>family suffered from thyroid trouble. Going on a hunch I saw a specialist
>who diagnosed me with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. After a series of tests
>he told me it was cancer. My fiance and I sat stunned. We were not
>prepared and I was so scared. We scheduled surgery right away.
>
>The specialist told us that it would only be after the operation that a
>pathologist would be able to tell us for sure if it was cancer. They found
>a tumor at my right lobe composed of irregular cells and another smaller
>tumor growing on the left, so the entire thyroid was removed. They told me
> that after undergoing radioactive iodine I would be safe and assured me
>that I could live a long life.
>
>After treatment I began to search for the cause of all these problems. I
>never once thought it could be all the soya I had consumed for nearly ten
>years. After all, soya is healthy. I came upon a web page that linked
>thyroid problems to soya intake and the conspiracy of soya marketed as a
> by-product of the vegetable oil industry. This was insane, after all, the
>health and fitness magazines had said nothing about soya being harmful.
>
>I visited a herbalist who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1985. She
>informed me that soya was the culprit. She had a hysterectomy due to
>cysts and other uterine problems. A few months later another acquaintance
>who had consumed soya came down with thyroid cancer.
>
>A girl in England I met through the Internet in a thyroid cancer forum had
>just undergone surgery and she was only 19. What was going on? Breast
>cancer is linked to estrogen. What mimics estrogen in the female body,
>SOYA!
>
>But I never suspected soya because until now I never once found a single
>article that stated soya could be dangerous. Women who took soya prior to
> thyroid problems will continue to take it after if they are not aware of
>what soya actually does, what it contains and how it reacts in the female
> body. I think this is the reason that women with thyroid cancer often
>develop breast cancer later.
>
>My co-worker is big into soya and I see her losing hair and gaining weight
>despite a walking workout during her break and after work, and apples and
>oranges for lunch. She just had cysts removed from her uterus too. I warned
>her to stay off soya. I referred her to websites but until it is on the
>evening news on all four networks, women will suffer. Since the
>thyroidectomy, I do not touch soya, haven't for two years.
>
>Dear readers,
>
>Please use my story in any way you can. There are so many young girls who
>are consuming soya because they think they are taking care of themselves,
> and women taking soya because they want to be healthy. It is so unfair
>that the information about the dangers of soya isn't more widely
>circulated. It is sad.
>
>There are many out there who feel this way and it is a terrible blow when
>you realize you are not as healthy as you thought and that the information
> that you depended on was wrong.
>
>Here are some references:
>
>
>
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http://www.netlink.de/gen/Zeitung/2000/000813.html
>
>
http://www.biotech-info.net/soya.html
>
>
http://www.haelan.co.uk/Wholefood-Soya.shtml