soy formula linked to brain damage?

EandIMommy86

I keep hearing about this. I keep hearing soy is actually not good and can cause brain damage in infants. I got freaked out and put my daughter on regular formula now instead of the soy. Has anyone else heard this or know if this is true?

sadsadie

Um, I would think that if this was true we probably would have heard more about it by now. But if you're more comfortable with another formula, use that. 

twoitalians

Definitely don't think pediatricians would be recommending it to their patients if it caused brain damage.

Crispity

If you google "soy formula brain damage", the first page has a few very questionable websites making this claim, one Chicago Tribune article from 1985 about a specific soy formula that was recalled in the 1970's, and this post on the Bump. To me, that makes it pretty clear that the answer is no.

danielle2583

I've heard things about soy causing birth defects and overall not being all that great. Probably not enough evidence to prove anything one way or another.

Sorta like high fructose corn syrup is deemed safe even though it's in everything and making Americans fat and addicted to sugar.

...just my unprofessional opinion.

anonsouthernbell

This plus it acts like estrogen so too much isn't good for anyone, but haven't heard of brain damage.  HFCS also has been shown to have mercury in it depending on where it is manufactured.

abbyful

Is there a medical reason she's on soy formula?

If there's no medical reason, I would use regular formula instead of soy. Soy is something I actively try to avoid.

It has been linked to affecting the brain later in adults:

Epidemiological research has demonstrated a positive correlation between tofu consumption and brain atrophy in men. Because correlation does not prove causation, correlation-based hypotheses should be tested against the availability of possible causal mechanisms. While it has been shown that the soy phytoestrogen genistein inhibits neuroprotective functions in cell cultures, recent in-vivo findings strengthen the case for a possible causal mechanism of soy-induced neurodegeneration. The author suggests possible responses to this data regarding soy consumption.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15142435 

 

...higher midlife tofu consumption was independently associated with indicators of cognitive impairment and brain atrophy in late life. 

https://www.jacn.org/content/19/2/242.full

 

Soy also has estrogen-like properties. It's often suggested for menopausal women to eat it for this reason.

Soy acts as an anti-nutrient, it actually blocks your body from absorbing other nutrients.

Soy wasn't eaten until Asian cultures learned to ferment it. Before that, it was used as ground-cover in crop rotation and helped get nitrogen back into the soil for later crops to be grown. And it was tilled-under, not eaten. Fermenting soy helps remove some of the "bad stuff".

 

More on soy:

https://www.westonaprice.org/Soy-Alert/

https://www.naturalnews.com/025513_soy_food_soybeans.html

https://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/dangers-of-soy.html

"The Whole Soy Story" by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN

LittleApple

I tend to stay away from too much soy.  As breast cancer runs high in my family, the less soy, the better as it acts as estrogen in the body.

My pedi actually suggests using soy if only absolutely necessary.