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Phytoestrogen	List All Literature Bites

First alerted to the sheep problems in the 1940's, scientists came to understand that phytoestrogens serve as a plant's natural defense against grazing animals.  When plants such as red clover are stressed (by drought, or even spraying with herbicide) higher levels of estrogen are produced.  By mimicking mammalian estrogens, plant estrogens diminish the fertility of predators and so protect the plants.

Comment:Isoflavones from soy are commonly used phytoestrogens today, primarily in supplements for meonopause and osteoporosis. However, isoflavones are now implicated in increased risk of breast cancer and thyroid disease.  Soy infant formulas have never been proven safe.  Now there is mounting evidence bringing them into question.  Two warning signals are flashing!

1. BEWARE OF  ISOLATES FROM NATURE.  No single isolated nutrient, molecule or compound exists in nature alone.  Isolates have pharmaceutical effects --always a mixed bag -- not nutritive effects.

2. BEWARE OF NEW FOODS.  Hydrogenated polyunsaturated oils, e.g., margarine, were new foods in the 1930's.  A graph showing the rise in margarine consumption over the ensuing decades is identical to the increase in cardiovascular disease.  The "...phytoestrogen-laden soybean has entered the Western food chain in a big way" in the last 50 years, because the soy industry exerts a "strong influence over the media, research institutions and government agencies."  The goal of the soy industry is profit, NOT public health!