Scientific American: Soy won’t give you teh ghey, we promise
posted at 2:42 pm on December 13, 2006 by Allahpundit
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But … World Net Daily said it would. Whom to believe?
Can the vaunted “gay lobby” have infiltrated the sacred precincts of SciAm?
Phytoestrogens are estrogen mimics. BUT – get this – they are actually less effective than regular estrogens when they hit estrogen receptors on your cells. That’s right – these substances, far from juicing you up with lady-hormones, might actually block the effects of estrogen, which as we all know is a good and important thing if you’re a man, since John Wayne is dead and it’s on us to pick up the slack. (Riiiight.)
Anyway no one’s ever shown that soy is biologically active in the amounts a normal human can consume in a day. Plus, there are billions of asians who are eating way more of it than most westerners every day, and you don’t see them mincing about town in spotless waistcoats like Oscar Wilde now do you?
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FWIW,I don’t recall any notable male Asian pornstars. Just sayin……
bbz123 on December 13, 2006 at 2:47 PM
whew!
i don’t have to cancel my soy milk service after all.
jummy on December 13, 2006 at 2:52 PM
Watch a lot of pr0n? Just sayin…
TheThink on December 13, 2006 at 2:56 PM
I don’t know what’s in that cup on the front page, but it is teh ghey, for sure.
a4g on December 13, 2006 at 2:57 PM
Its white. Its creamy. Sounds gay to me. I’ll avoid it anyways :)
lorien1973 on December 13, 2006 at 2:57 PM
This sucks…I had a really great practical joke planned out where I would slip some concentrated soy into my roommate’s food every day until he came out of the closet (figuratively), upon which I would come out of the closet (literally), point and laugh and call him a gay.
JaHerer22 on December 13, 2006 at 2:57 PM
The Japanese are the kings of Porn…really kinky porn…Why do you think Sailor moon was such a hit?
Look up Hentai, Bukakke, or anything on the “j-list:
(And no, I don’t watch a lot of porn, just went to the wrong web sites one day when I was an innocent youth and looking for some good anime)
Wyrd on December 13, 2006 at 3:01 PM
And I thought I had a new discipline tool for when I get kids.
“You kids behave or I’ll make you drink soy milk and turn you gay!”
frankj on December 13, 2006 at 3:02 PM
Erm. Well…
Dash on December 13, 2006 at 3:02 PM
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2397532802194226883&hl=en
Dash on December 13, 2006 at 3:04 PM
You are correct with that second article regarding falling populations in Japan.
I’m a bit of a Japan-o-phile myself, and one thing you cannot help but learn about when you start studying Japanese history, is the recent dramatic downturn in the native Japanese population.
However, I do think it’s a bit misleading to attribute it to soy consumption, as the Chinese consume far more soy per capita than the Japanese, and less of it in fermented form as well. Yet they have an OVERpopulation problem.
I (along with others) suspect that the primary factors contributing to Japan’s population drop are more socio-economic and cultural than anything else. Japan’s top-down economic policies have kept them from being flexible enough to meet the demands of a changing society and world economy, forcing a greater and greater concentration of population in the cities (Tokyo in particular) resulting in severe living-space shortages which greatly discourage large families.
In other words, if you want to make something of yourself in Japan you have to work in a big city. If you work in a big city, due to Japan’s infrastructure issues, you must therefore also LIVE in the big city. If you live in a big city in Japan, there are only small apartments available (as in ONE ROOM apartments). If you live in a tiny, one-room apartment, you are far less likely to have kids, and even less likely to have more than one. See the problem now?
Japan’s birthrate is currently BELOW Replacement level (The level it must be at to replace the current population with one of equal size) and has been that way for some time (over 10 years, I think). At this rate, the only Japanese left in 100 years will be those living in America, and Japan will be a Chinese province.
Obviously Japan has a serious problem on it’s hands, but issues of Soy Milk aren’t part of it.
Having said that, I am still somewhat concerned about the potential of soy milk to cause issues with young infants, although I am somewhat relieved in regards to my own six-year-old daughter’s health.
wearyman on December 13, 2006 at 3:08 PM
Obtuse. And oblique.
RiverCocytus on December 13, 2006 at 3:15 PM
Shallow. and Pedantic.
lorien1973 on December 13, 2006 at 3:19 PM
Laughing – sounds like you had quite a long day that one day!
Wearyman,
Japan and China are both having negative birth rate problems but for different reasons. Your analysis of Japan’s was spot on. China’s problem was self-inflicted when they tried to enforce the one child per family rule. Infanticide took off as couples wanted males for a whole bunch of cultural reasons. 20+ years later there are not nearly enough young women to go around for all of the boys that were born.
Both countries which are xenophobic to some degree face an interesting dilemma – women from other countries are being encouraged to settle down with a nice Japanese or Chinese guy and that train has already left the station. As the numbers increase the dilemma in the societies will be mothers of a different culture being the primary caregivers to the children. 25 years from now these cultures may be quite changed in their outlooks on many issues.
Bradky on December 13, 2006 at 3:19 PM
In any case, it is a great excuse for not eating tofu, without having to tell someone their meal is nasty.
Kevin M on December 13, 2006 at 3:20 PM
Guess we can expect to see an advertisement in the not too distant future with Rosie O doing a “Got Soy” commercial.
Sorry for those on the west coast who may be eating lunch when you see this!
Bradky on December 13, 2006 at 3:23 PM
Wow.
I didn’t really believe that any of this was true…
…but now that I think about it, asians… who happen to include some of the shortest, most feminine male populations in the world, who notoriously have trouble getting non-asian women, and who also have trouble with asian women because so many of them date non-asians…
I think I’d better lay off that soy.
kaltes on December 13, 2006 at 3:31 PM
I am in no way drinking anybody’s kool-aid here, BUT Sci-Am doesn’t really refute WorldNet’s main point, which is that it’s too much soy given to *babies* that causes hormonal overdose, not adults–therefore their Asian thing is irrelevant.
Anwyn on December 13, 2006 at 3:39 PM
Perhaps, but when you trace it to the Devil, SciAm isn’t obligated to refute THAT.
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on December 13, 2006 at 3:46 PM
Anwyn: Yes, actually, the article did.
Phytoestrogens … are actually less effective than regular estrogens when they hit estrogen receptors on your cells. That’s right – these substances, far from juicing you up with lady-hormones, might actually block the effects of estrogen…Anyway no one’s ever shown that soy is biologically active in the amounts a normal human can consume in a day.
So, since a human adult can consumes more than a human baby and phytoestrogens may block the effect of estrogen, WND’s “point”* is completely refuted.
* Point = faux-scientific justification for a religious opinion.
torrentprime on December 13, 2006 at 3:48 PM
Uh… that would be me. *barf*
infidel4life on December 13, 2006 at 3:51 PM
Heh, that’s true. The Japanese definitely have a penchant for unusual porn. Heck, they INVENTED the concept of “Tentacle Rape”. (Don’t ask if you don’t REALLY want to know)
Most of the Japanese porn we get here in the states is of the animated variety. Of course, most “live action” (non-animated) Japanese porn isn’t really watchable anyway. They have some really freaky decency laws there, and native Japanese porn always has all the naughty bits either blacked out with black blobs, or “pixellated” into unrecognizable blurs. It makes for some very unsatisfying porn watching.
The Hentai (Animated porn) can go either way. Some of it is pretty good (Romantic themes, a normal storyline but with sex), some of it is just grotesque (rape, domination, gore and other nasty stuff). But most of it is fairly bland or stupid. (What do you expect, it’s animated porn.)
Yeah, yeah, I watch porn sometimes. So sue me. I don’t get Playboy for the articles either. (Oooo! I’m an Eeevil male mysoginist because I like Teh Boobies!)
wearyman on December 13, 2006 at 3:51 PM
Bradky,
Ach! I forgot about the Chinese laws regarding one-child per household. You are completely correct.
wearyman on December 13, 2006 at 4:05 PM
Soy boy?
Kokonut on December 13, 2006 at 4:06 PM
I heard soy causes amnesia too!
Bradky on December 13, 2006 at 4:08 PM
There I fixed it for you.
mrflashman on December 13, 2006 at 4:10 PM
We have large Asian populations (as a percentage of our population) here on the Left Coast. Tofu is very popular around these here parts. I am suspiscious. What else is in those scientific reports? Do they say anything about there being something in soy that feeds the fungus growing on the inside lining of the brains of all the moonbat liberals in Seattle and San Francisco? Maybe we can start a new conspiracy theory.
CyberCipher on December 13, 2006 at 4:20 PM
Here we go:
Hops are full of female hormone.
Beer is full (or should be) of Hops.
I am often full of beer.
So far, so good.
Wander on December 13, 2006 at 4:20 PM
Skater? Is that you?
Laura on December 13, 2006 at 4:21 PM
This would be true only if the phytoestrogens are competing with real estrogen that is already present.
An analogy from medicine: Nubain is partially active at opiate receptors. If you give it to a patient with no opiates on board, there will be an effect and pain will be reduced. If, however, the patient already has a stronger opiate in his system, the competing Nubain will occupy some of the receptors and have a lesser effect; thus pain is worsened.
I don’t know enough about the baseline level of estrogen in children or adult males, so I don’t know which of the above scenarios is most applicable.
mikeyboss on December 13, 2006 at 4:51 PM
Um, the WND article was talking about soy formula. In other words, babies young enough to be only eating milk as yet–in other words, 100% of their diet containing soy.
That’s not less than an adult eats, even an Asian adult. It’s far more.
Anwyn on December 13, 2006 at 4:59 PM
Uh, dude … you actually typed that, and then hit “submit comment.”
Ali-Bubba on December 13, 2006 at 6:16 PM
All japanese anime (even the stuff on cartoon network) make a point of showing the girl characters’ panties ALL the time. Low camera angles. Ackward positions they stand in. Anything. Gotta love the japanese animators! Country can’t reproduce in real life, but they can draw characters who are ready to get funky at the drop of a hat :P
lorien1973 on December 13, 2006 at 6:34 PM
The soy/estrogen thing is a load of junk. HOWEVER, I will never trust SciAm after they published that long hit piece of Bjorn Lomborg. It was a disgrace, and entirely contrary to science.
Clark1 on December 13, 2006 at 10:37 PM
Not so fast. Now, full disclosure, I’m not opposed to soy, especially if it is properly handled, so I’m not thrilled with the idea of it being portrayed as inducing femininity into males. Non-GMO sourced soy protein is one of the most effective health-enhancers available anywhere, with much less downside than whey protein. (Hmm, whey…ghey, couldn’t be a connection, right?)
However, somebody thinks it’s worth studying. If you follow the links at the NIH PubMed site you’ll encounter more than a dozen studies concerned with connections between soy consumption and estrogen levels.
Last point, not everything Jim Rutz writes is 100% serious. Even when he’s making a serious point, he intentionally tosses a bit of hyperbole in there to keep the pot stirred. It’s always a good educational tool; people learn more when they are involved, and sometimes getting them involved takes ruffling their feathers. AP does it here all the time, with virtuosity.
Freelancer on December 14, 2006 at 3:14 AM
Ted Kennedy is and educational tool…hehe
urbancenturion on December 14, 2006 at 9:54 AM
LOL considering there are about 4 billion Asians in the world Asian males seem to have overcome these challenges.
Bradky on December 14, 2006 at 11:37 AM
After 20 plus years, I cancelled my subscription to Scientific American a few years ago. Seems PC is more important than pure science. That new editor holds some seriously flawed views of people who practice their religion and he gets a lot of exercise jumping to conclusions. In my opinion, Scientific American is Junk.
Zorro on December 14, 2006 at 7:44 PM
I agree Zorro, I have much more confidence in World Net Daily than the politically correct crowd over at Scientific American.
Maxx on May 17, 2007 at 10:38 AM
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