It’s time for a little myth busting. Y’all know we do that around here now and again. Let’s roll.

I’ll never forget the day a teammate of mine saw me destroying one of my signature giant salads topped with organic soybeans. “Kap, you know that soy murders testosterone, right?”

I nearly spit my bite out right there.

I went home and immediately started Googling. Check out this headline from Men’s Health:

SOY’S NEGATIVE EFFECTS

Is This the Most Dangerous Food for Men?

The unassuming soybean has silently infiltrated the American diet as what might just be the perfect protein source: It’s cheap and vegetarian, and could even unclog our hearts. But there may be a hidden dark side to soy, one that has the power to undermine everything it means to be male.

Well now, that’s scary. Here I am avoiding Cheetos, but it’s really the organic edamame with sea salt that I should be worried about. I’m so irresponsible. How about the sharp play on the male ego? Never fails.

Perhaps I should have considered my original source. This dude wasn’t a student of the health game, and Men’s Health is just scare-mongering. Men, go ahead and enjoy that edamame at the sushi bar. Ladies, don’t worry about soybeans’ contribution to breast cancer.

Here’s the thing, soybeans in their original, whole food form have solid vitamin and mineral pop. From whfoods.com:

Soybeans are an important source of the minerals copper, manganese, molybdenum, phosphorus, and potassium; the B vitamin, riboflavin; and omega-3 fatty acids (in the form of alpha-linolenic acid).

Okay, but at 39 years old, I can’t be trading testosterone for minerals. I sort of need it for my weight-training program. Many women have concerns related to breast cancer and will be happy to get their B vitamins elsewhere. Worry not; here’s the real deal:

As far as any downside, most of the health concerns about soy stem from its concentration of phytoestrogens, a group of natural compounds that resemble estrogen chemically. Some experts have questioned whether soy might lower testosterone levels in men and cause problems for women who have estrogen-sensitive breast cancers. Animal studies have found, for example, that large doses of phytoestrogens can fuel the growth of tumors.

But phytoestrogens mimic estrogen only very weakly. A number of clinical studies in men have cast doubt on the notion that eating soy influences testosterone levels to any noticeable extent. And most large studies of soy intake and breast cancer rates in women have not found that it causes any harm, said Dr. Anna H. Wu of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. In fact, work by Dr. Wu and others has found that women who consume the equivalent of about one to two servings of soy daily have a reduced risk of receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer and of its recurrence.

Look, I eat very few soybeans. I’d say my soy products are limited to sushi bar visits and an occasional salad topper. This post is more of a reminder. Let us not be sheep. We can all do the Google search I did. My teammate meant no harm; he just wore wool to the ballpark that day. It was late September in Colorado, after all.

Kap