The Dangers of Soy: What are Edamames and Tofu Really Doing to You?

The Dangers of Soy:

What are Edamames and Tofu Really Doing to You?

A Vegetarian's diet is mainly built on vegetables, such as lettuce or kale, and protein substitutes, such as tofu or tempeh.  Many vegetarians eat a multitude of soy-based products in order to obtain some of the proteins that meat contains.  What are these soy-based products really made of, though?  Does anyone know what these products contain that enables them to stand in place of beef, turkey, or chicken? I do now.  These soy-based products contain phytoestrogens, aluminum, hemagglutinin, trypsin inhibitors, and many other "healthy" alternatives to meat.

But what's so bad about these meat substitutes?  Well first off, phytoestrogens simulate estrogen in both men and women's bodies.  In a woman's body, this can cause estrogen production to increase which can cause other hormones in the body to rapidly increase to compensate from the overload of estrogen which can in turn cause other hormones to decrease to compensate for the overcompensations of other hormones.  All of this hormone chaos can cause a woman to be come infertile and be extremely susceptible to Breast Cancer.  Think that's bad?  Hemagglutinin is a influenza-saturated protein that attacks red blood cells and causes them to clump.  When red blood cells clump, they block the vessels and pathways that oxygen travels to tissues, organs, and other parts of the body by.  This lack of oxygen can cause the affected parts of the body to shut down, which in turn can cause other parts of the body to shut down.

As a person who likes to dip their sushi into soy sauce, or someone who likes to eat edamames on their salad, I wonder what damage these "proteins" and meat substitutes have already done to my body.  It's really scary to know that those few bites of tofu the other day could have brought some detrimental and nasty "proteins" into my body that will do more harm than good.

Though there are some good attributes to soy-based products, such as 2.4 grams per day lower saturated fat intake or 4 extra grams of fiber each day that soy products are consumed.  But do these good qualities outweigh the fact that soy can cause different types of cancer, infertility, thyroid problems, and kidney failure?

Questions for Reflection:
Is it possible to determine which parts of the body have already been affected by different properties of soy?  Would safer soy bean growth, cultivation, and processing be able to remove all of the detrimental properties of soy?  Has soy actually been the cause of some women's or men's cancers?

Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/soy-health_b_1822466.html
http://thedeliciousrevolution.com/cleanse/why-avoid-soy/
http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/101/motm.do?momID=76
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=79