I was mid-conversation with a friend who already knew me from before this meeting. She stopped what she was saying and locked eyes with me with raised eyebrows.

I knew where she was coming from with that look. “Yes, soy IS a plant” I wearily replied to her.

There are a lot of pervasive myths, rumors and inaccurate beliefs about soy out there.

On social media, I recently saw, “Soy is a hormone.” Ummmmm, no, it’s not.

One of the biggest soy myths is that it’s related to the development of breast cancer.

This outdated soy theory states that high levels of estrogen contribute to many hormone-associated cancers, such as breast cancer, and the isoflavones in soy are structurally similar to estrogen so viola – there must be a health risk with soy.

In reality, there are numerous studies that demonstrate that consuming soy actually reduces the risk of breast cancer.

To be clear: soy foods do not contain estrogen.

I’ve been watching the research on soy since the 80’s, pre-internet, when we got all of our information from books, and I know a few things about what science/research has to say about it.

Which is different from what marketers of products that compete with soy try to sell you. Did you know the meme “don’t be a soy boy” is funded by big dairy to boost milk sales with college age men? It’s unfortunate how misinformation spreads.

There are some specific nuances, such as you want to consume whole soy foods, not soy protein isolates.

Which is the same as any other plant – you want the whole plant, not an isolate.