SOY AS BREAST CANCER PREVENTION COMPONENT: CONSUMER’S GUIDE

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Roasted Soy Nuts

Soy nuts provide an almost complete meal. A soy snack will fill you up and give you the alerting hit of a good protein. Soy is like the potato. Just as most of the potato's food value is in the skin, most of soy's mineral value is in the hull. The advantage of whole roasted soy nuts is that they retain the hull.

The newest trend, however, is soy foods engineered for taste and convenience.

Second-Generation Soy Foods

Food technologists at universities and food companies are scrambling to come up with better-tasting and more convenient soy foods. They've also decreased the pure bulk of soy foods. That's key, since consuming 45 grams a day of soy protein would require eating three pounds of tofu! Taste chemists and mouth-feel specialists start with crushed soybeans and aim toward a product that tastes terrific and is more convenient to eat than boiled soybeans.

The New, Improved Soy Burger

These have a true burgerlike mouth feel and taste but without the heavy, pit-of-your-stomach aftereffect. It's a great quick-hit meal in one, with lots of vegetables and soy. The White House orders Boca Burgers, which have nearly zero fat. Boca Burgers, manufactured by the Boca Burger Co., in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are tasty soy burgers that come in three different flavors. They can be found at health food stores and discerning supermarkets. The genistein content of this product has not been made public.

Soy Milk

This has got to be the easiest way to consume soy protein and takes only a couple of days to get used to. You'll find soy milk refreshing, relaxing, and invigorating. Since soy milk is at the low end of genistein concentrations, you'll need to drink lots of it. Look for low-fat varieties, since normal soy milk has as much as four grams of fat per serving.

Engineered Soy Foods

Soybeans may be ground and then processed into a fine flour. Look for soy-based muffins, breads, bakery items, shakes, soups, even pretzels that are engineered to taste great. Be sure to look at the label. Beware of products that combine soy flour with lots of white flour or hydrogenated oils.

Textured Soy Protein

This is the product many veggie burgers are constructed from. It begins as soy flour that is compressed to give it a meatier, more granular texture.

These second-generation products have created a far greater appeal to Western taste buds, but are not as rich in genistein, the key active ingredient that blocks the estrogen receptor. For example, tofu yogurt and tempeh burger contain only 6 to 20 percent of the genistein contained in whole soybeans. The table following shows the amount of genistein in traditional soy foods as compared to that of second-generation soy foods. Only the tempeh burger contains a comparable amount of genistein. The table was prepared by Pat Murphy of the Iowa State University of Science and Technology.

Practically speaking, this means that you'll have to eat more of the second-generation products to get the right amount of genistein.

Be sure that whichever soy product you choose, it has enough genistein, the actual estrogen receptor blocker: 40 to 60 milligrams is the amount of genistein to aim for per day. The table in the Appendix lists the genistein levels for the most popular products.

X-Rated Soy Products

These products won't help you fight cancer.

Soy oils: The one form of soy that doesn't shine is as a vegetable oil. Soy vegetable oil contains 61 percent omega-6 fatty acids. Its hydrogenated form is even worse.

Soy sauce: I love the stuff but it has only a minuscule amount of soy protein. It's often loaded with sodium. If you rely on soy sauce for anything more than good taste, you'll be out of luck.

Genistein supplements: The breast-protective ingredients of soy can only be activated by bacteria in the intestine. Soy works its magic by its conversion in the gastrointestinal tract, which is why actually eating real soy food is so key. That means real foods work better than supplements. Be sure not to take genistein as a supplement by itself until more research is completed. Taken as a supplement — and there are about a dozen such products on the market — genistein can increase breast cell growth, in part because it is so easy to overdose on it. The other big concerns from overdosing are stunted growth and a loss of fertility. In the next year, the safety of genistein supplements should be resolved. Until then, you're better off sticking with soy foods and high-quality soy powders that fully extract all the key ingredients from soy.

Soy Boosters

Curcumin: The most powerful soy booster is curcumin. Dr. Barry Goldin showed that adding curcumin to genistein has a dazzling effect. Take estradiol, the most powerful estrogen. On a scale of 1 to 100, its potency ranks a 100. Add genistein and that potency drops to 31.6; add curcumin and it drops to 1.5! Curcumin significantly decreases the estrogen effect of several pesticides. Curcumin is also a potent anti-inflammatory agent, an anticarcinogen, and an antioxidant. It is the active ingredient in turmeric root. Turmeric, in liquid extract or powder form, gives Indian curries fragrance and flavor and has long been championed in India for its health benefits. Turmeric is widely available on the Internet and in health food stores and is an excellent spice for most vegetarian dishes. Indian turmeric is the best and comes in several popular varieties:

"Alleppey Finger" and "Erode" turmeric (from Tamil Nadu)

"Rajapore" and "Sangli" turmeric (from Maharashtra)

"Nizamabad Bulb" (from Andhra Pradesh)

Vegetarian Diet

The digestive process is vital to activating the key ingredients in soy. That makes a complex-carbohydrate diet important, since it increases fermentation in the intestine, which activates the active ingredient in soy. Asians consume a higher percentage of complex carbohydrates than Americans, as well as less animal protein. This higher carbohydrate intake increases weak-estrogen absorption.

Build Up to It

Soybeans can cause serious intestinal gas and discomfort, as can any food with high concentrations of soluble fiber. For that reason you will want to start with 10 grams a day of whole soy foods that still contain fiber and build slowly over a month. Since you may be eating these foods for years, don't start with an unpleasant experience. There are some people who have a food intolerance to soy and are unable to digest it at all. For them, the best alternative is flax. While soy has captured the spotlight as the primary dietary means of blocking estrogens, flax is quickly catching up.

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