Health News: Soy Linked to Low Sperm Count

A recent study published in Human Reproduction illustrates the effect that soy has on the fertility of men. Indeed, in a study that has drawn considerable criticism from veg*n communities, researchers discovered that men who ate the most soy each day were the same men to have the lowest sperm counts–lower by 41 million sperm per ml than average. The connection between lowered sperm count and soy eating was particularly strong among those men who were obese or overweight.

Though the cause behind the connection is unknown at this time, what is known is that soy is highly estrogenic. That, in combination with the higher levels of estrogen produced by overweight and obese men, may well have been the reason behind the decreased sperm count.

What is important to note is that these effects were seen in the men who ate the highest amount of soy each day. What was that amount? Only half a serving.

Personally, I’m not anti-soy. We do eat soy in this household, but in limitation and only in fermented forms like tempeh or miso.

What does bother me, though, is the hold that the soy-pseudo-food culture has on the American public. Americans have always felt that if some is good, more must be better but that’s hardly the case. And the soy-based foods we’re eating in abundance now are not the soy-based foods of anyone’s ancestral diet: Asian or otherwise. Soy milk formula, soy yogurt, soy ice cream, soy-isoflavone packed energy bars, soy-flour pastries, soy cheese, soy burgers, soy pepperoni, soy deli slices did not exist until very recently and they are a new, industrialized addition to the human diet. Human health is suffering as a result of these and other industrialized foods.

It’s simple: eat real food that has been traditionally prepared and eat everything in moderation.