No Tofu for Me!

I hate tofu. I have never been a fan. And now I have reasons for not starting to eat it.

There has been a lot of discussion on whether soy is good or bad for breast cancer. Now finally, new research has exposed the answers.

• If you have always eaten a lot of soy your breast cancer risk is lower, and your recurrence rate is also lower.
• If you have not always eaten a lot of soy, your breast cancer risk is at normal levels (whatever they are but I didn't want to use the word 'worse' when talking about cancer rates).
• If you have not always eaten a lot of soy, starting to eat soy after a breast cancer diagnosis, doesn't help you and could even cause your recurrence rate to be not as good.

So, I hate tofu and will never be a fan. Now because of my medical history (one of the few good things due to it) I never have to consider eating it. Here's to a tofu free life!

A Really Good Reason For Not Eating Tofu

I have been aided in avoiding tofu by the confusion over whether eating soy contributes to breast cancer growth. I really hate tofu. My mother fed it to us as children and I didn't like it then and I don't like it now. I might eat a little bit in my hot and sour soup but I will never order a dish which is tofu based.

But now (finally) we have clarification on the soy or no soy for women with breast cancer:

The issue is eating soy products seems to give women protection from breast cancer. Asian countries where soy products are eaten regularly have much lower rates of breast cancer than the US. But the estrogen-similar stuff in soy products has been thought to contribute to breast cancer growth, especially with hormone sensitive breast cancer.

So the truth was found in some recent research using rats:

"The researchers found that rats that were given soybean isoflavones to eat throughout their lives — in particular, one type of soybean isoflavone called genistein — had improved immunity against cancer. But rats that weren't given the isoflavone until after developing breast cancer didn't have that same immune response to kill cancer cells. Instead, these rats had higher rates of cancer growth and higher rates of recurrence after their tumors were removed."

And more:

"All of the rats were then treated with tamoxifen to kill the cancer. The researchers found that the rats raised on genistein had only a 7 percent chance of breast cancer recurrence after tamoxifen treatment, but the rats that were recently given genistein had a 33 percent recurrence rate."

So if you eat soy all your life, your risk of cancer should be lower and remain lower for recurrence. But if you are diagnosed with breast cancer, don't start eating soy. 

See now I really have a good reason for not eating tofu.

Soy and breast cancer, again

I hate tofu (as you may know) and have been avoiding soy and soy products since my breast cancer diagnosis. There has been a lot of controversy on the subject of soy and breast cancer because of estrogen issues. Now I think I have found some better information.

Some new research was done at the University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana that was released earlier this week.

"Researchers at the University of Illinois found that the compounds in minimally processed soy flour stimulate genes that suppress cancer, while purified soy isoflavones stimulate oncogenes that promote tumor growth."

Hence the confusion. Soy is good if not processed and helps prevent cancer but if it is processed it can increase cancer risk.

So if you really want you can eat tofu (without me) and soy flour but skip anything with processed soy.

I still hate tofu

I really dislike tofu. I mean if its cut up in a bowl of hot and sour soup that's fine. But I never order tofu in restaurants. Also due to the ongoing debate about soy and breast cancer, I am find standing my ground on not eating tofu.

And now there is more research to show that soy is bad for women in treatment with breast cancer.

"Adding soy to your diet in the form of milk or tofu, pictured, could speed up the rate at which breast cancer cells spread in those women already diagnosed with the disease, scientists have warned. 

The findings led them to conclude the soy protein could potentially accelerate the progression of the disease." 

The study was done on women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and before lumpectomy or mastectomy.

"Jacqueline Bromberg, co-author of the study, said: 'Although the genes were being expressed, it is not clear that this will translate into actual tumour growth.

'But the concern is that there may be the potential.

'Only 20 per cent of those patients who took the soy had really high levels of the genistein metabolite.'
She said the reasons behind the disparity are unclear, adding that there is no way to predict who would have this reaction after consuming soy."

So there is no way of knowing if you have the reaction after consuming soy. so that keeps me off the tofu diet.

You can read more about this study here.

Its a good thing my mother made me eat tofu

Not really because I hate tofu. But I digress.

I guess it is now important that my mother made me eat tofu because according to a study at Georgetown, women who start eating soy as an adult tend to develop treatment resistant breast cancer tumors. But those who eat soy as a child and then through adulthood are more likely to develop tumors which are very sensitive to treatment.

This means I have eaten my lifetime quota of soy and have no reason to eat any more. I dislike tofu with a passion and have a good excuse for never eating it again. I tried soy yogurt once and found it tastes like Elmer's glue (according to my childhood memories) and tried giving it away to my 'healthy' friends who told me they didn't like it either.

Other things I never have to eat again:

• processed food which has soy added to make it healthy - this includes many of the weight loss programs which supplement their foods with soy.
• Tofu (I add this again as a reflection of its 'ick' factor)

But I do need to be careful in Asian restaurants which often use a lot of tofu and soy products. The only things I might miss by avoiding soy is miso soup and hot & sour soup. If you are a 'healthy' person and invite me as a dinner guest, I may be rude enough to ask the menu to ensure it does not include soy. But if you are one of my processed food friends or tofu hating friends, I'll be happy to come over. And I need to convince my husband to read the cheese packages at Trader Joe's and stop buying soy cheese.

And I will never eat tofu again.

To soy or not to soy - will it ever be resolved?

Soy products such as tofu, edamame, soy milk, (but not soy yogurt which is just foul - sort of like eating elmer's glue) and other items are supposed to be part of a healthy diet. We have soy burgers, soy chips, soy supplements, soy everything. We are told to look at Asian countries where soy intake is high and rates of Western illnesses such as cancer are much lower as our examples.

But then they tell us don't eat soy or soy supplements because there if you have estrogen positive breast cancer and some other cancers. Soy contains something that is considered a plant based estrogen that could be feeding these cancers. If you have an estrogen positive breast cancer, it could be fed by soy products.

This latest article states that Asians who are historically accustomed to high levels of soy in their diet should have no reason to lower their intake levels. But Western consumers who are not accustomed to soy products should be eat only a moderate amount of soy products until more is known and to skip soy pills or supplements until more is known about their effects.

So? What about those of us with Estrogen positive breast cancer? Do we get to eat soy or not? No mention here in this recommendation. So I will continue my soy avoiding ways for now until they resolve it.