Does Soy Mess With Your Hormones?

“Eating tofu will mess with my hormones, lower my testosterone, and give me man boobs!”

I can’t lie, even before looking into veganism, I didn’t really believe that eating soy could mess with my hormones to such a degree that I’d turn into a woman or something. I looked into it because maybe there’s some truth behind it cause I wanted to be sure.

Soy has Phytoestrogens (hello estrogen is literally there)

So soy “has a high concentration of isoflavones, a type of plant estrogen (phytoestrogen) that is similar in function to human estrogen but with much weaker effects.”

So will having this phytoestrogen stuff start feminising me? No. Simply no. Here are some studies that looked directly at this because it was such a large concern:

• Neither soy nor isoflavone intake affects male reproductive hormones: An expanded and updated meta-analysis of clinical studies (2020)
• Soybean isoflavone exposure does not have feminizing effects on men: a critical examination of the clinical evidence (2010)

Both of these studies concluded that there is no link between increased soy consumption and testosterone levels or other male reproductive hormones.

So I can relax and eat Tofu without worrying that my precious testosterone levels or masculinity will be affected.

Never soy never

In fact when looking into Soy, I found out that soy is a great source of protein and should probably be embraced more in my diet, regardless of the ethics.

The nutritional breakdown of soy from Harvard has the following to say:

Results of recent population studies suggest that soy has either a beneficial or neutral effect on various health conditions. Soy is a nutrient-dense source of protein that can safely be consumed several times a week, and probably more often, and is likely to provide health benefits — especially when eaten as an alternative to red and processed meat.

Along with this I saw this study which rated the top protein sources in the Uk based on their effect on the planet and also people. Tofu (a soy-based product) ranked number 1 in both categories. Source

Milk me

Even if I cared about some supposed threat of having estorgen in my diet, milk literally has actual mammalian estrogen in it (which again doesn’t have any feminising effects on men). How crazy would it be if I worried about soy for “estrogen” while happily drinking milk?

What about testosterone?

I need testosterone as issues can arise if I don’t have enough (also if I have too much). Will a plant based diet provide it?

According to studies and general consensus, a well-planned plant-based diet is completely fine for maintaining healthy testosterone levels in men. So no need to worry about that one!

Be a Man!

I feel that there is this idea promoted that I must be the manliest man around, meaning I should avoid estrogen and maximise testosterone at all costs. Even though a plant-based diet is proven to be completely fine regarding both, there is this idea that not eating meat somehow will be detrimental to my “masculinity”.

In my opinion, what’s more manly than making a stand to protect those who cannot protect themselves?