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RE: Got Soy?
Nice, a soymilk supporter.
However, it seems that you are restating a lot of the things I covered in the article. This makes me wonder if my points were confusing or unclear. Was that the case?
I found most of what you said to be true in my research. There was just one exception. You mentioned that skim milk might be prefered over soy milk if the soy milk is not fortified due to calcium content. I addressed this issue straight up in my article. There is no evidence that cow's milk intake prevents osteoporosis in any form or fashion. In fact, as I previously cited, countries with the highest dairy intake also have the highest osteoporosis occurance rate. In what I read on the disease, weight bearing excersize (especially in teenage years) and calcium quality played much higher rolls in osteoporosis prevention than simple calcium intake.
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Got Soy?
Hmmm...
Okay, well, I think hands down, even when comparing nonfat skim milk with Soymilk, soymilk would win out in terms of health maintenance. Mind you, the soymilk would need to be fortified. What are the benefits of soymilk? Without using too much medical jargon, it contains a solid amount of isoflavones and estrogen. Studies with the isoflavones have shown that they decrease cholesterol longterm and decrease one's risk of acquiring Coronary Artery disease ( which basically leads to a myocardial infarction ( heart attack) or stroke... then death.) There are 2 recent studies I know of comparing the efficacy of soy milk vs. skim milk. One is a 2004 article published in the New England Journal of Medicine discussing research conducted in Brazil and another one is a study conducted at Wake Forest Medical Center. Both studies concluded that soymilk reduces the amount of "LDL" in the body. LDL is short for low density lipoprotein... you can basically view it as a "car" for which cholesterol likes to travel around in. Unfortunately , "this car" likes to park in your arteries. Blocked arteries aren't good ( see above). The Brazil study also stated that Soy milk raised your "HDL" which is High-density lipoprotein. Picture this molecule as a sturdy storage trunk. You want to have high levels of HDL to pick up the excess cholesterol in your body because this type does not occlude arteries and prevents excess cholesterol from storing itself in your liver, causing a "fatty liver." So, in terms of an "ideal" lipid panal, Soy protein is the way to go. Skim Milk actually was noted to raise the LDL levels in your body and also causes an increase in the amount of "rancid" free-floating fat in your bloodstream ( triglycerides) which also is a huge risk factor for Coronary Artery Disease ( which will kill you.) Hypercholesterolemia has been noted in several studies with "chronic" skim milk intake.
However, if the soy milk isn't fortified, it might be better to go with the skim.... especially if you are a woman. Regular Cow Milk has a ton more Calcium than regular skim milk, and calcium is a potent inhibitor of the horrible disease, osteoporosis. The other thing in skim milk is vitamin D, ( which is a natural vitamin your body's skin absorbs from the sun), which basically serves as Calcium's assistant in building strong bones and preventing bone thinning. Osteoporosis is 10x more common in Women and the elderly population, but if you buy the soymilk fortified with it, you should be golden. I know they also fortify both skim and soy milk with Vitamin B12, which basically is a precursor molecule for making red blood cells, and if you have too little of it, you can become "anemic"... however a little bit of this goes along way.
In terms of the "estrogen" in Soymilk.... post-menopausal women would find this highly favorable in decreasing breast and vaginal atrophy, and estrogen has also been noted in preventing osteoporosis ( however the mechanism isn't known at this time.) It also cuts back on the terror symptoms of menopause .... ( which inadvertently helps the husbands out too.)
Regular whole milk has been noted to increase the risk of prostate cancer, whereas evidence suggest soymilk reduces the risk. Regular whole milk also increases the risk of colon cancer, and colic in newborns.
Another thing to consider is that if you do choose to buy regular whole or skim milk, you definitely want to go with the "organic" kind. Reason being is that more and more evidence-based research is showing that the antibiotics and hormones these cows are fed are/may be carcinogenic ( cancer causing) in humans. On that note, I would highly highly recommend "organic" for everyone using anything. ( on an aside, a recent research paper talked about fish in an Idaho water supply that are demonstrating both male and female sex organs due to the plethora of hormones and chemicals that leaked into this freshwater river... mind you, people's drinking water too.) Of course, with the soymilk option, you don't even have to worry about antibiotics or hormones.
Also, there really isn't much distinction between allergy to cow's milk vs. allergy to skim milk. Usually , ( aside from being lactose intolerant), if you are allergic to one, you are allergic to the other one, so you'd want to steer clear of both. Soymilk can cause a bad case of gastro enterocolitis ( "unhappy guts") in newborns... but of course, breast milk is the best answer in that case.
Um.. .this stuff is just off the top of my head..... I hope it is helpful, maybe? I guess I'll close with...
Got Soy?
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