Soy has been touted to increase bone mass and decrease osteoporosis.  On closer examination, the research that leads to that conclusion is flawed for 2 reasons.  First, there are large studies that show decreased rates of osteoporosis among Japanese women consuming a traditional Japanese diet.  With these studies it is very difficult to control for the numerous other factors that may be contributing to these women’s higher bone mass.  In addition, these women consume soy in a more traditional form, with most of it coming from fermented foods such as miso and tempeh—not the highly processed TVP, soy milk, and soy protein found in this country.  These more traditional forms of soy are healthful because bacteria break down plant estrogens and trypsin inhibitors (substances that block the effect of trypsin in your gut--trypsin allows you to digest protein).  Most soy products in this country are very high in trypsin inhibitors and plant estrogens.

The second reason that these studies are suspicious is that most of them are funded by Monsanto—producer of round up and world leader in soy production.  This is tantamount to a recent rebuttal to a paper on aspartame causing cancer by a representative of Ajinomoto Corporate Services LLC which holds 45% of the market share for worldwide aspartame production!

Research released this month in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that soy protein does not improve bone mass.  

Recall that undenatured whey protein has consistently been shown to improve bone mass and has a host of other health benefits.  Read more here, then buy it here!

Read the monkey study here.