The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Landylue]

Hey, guys, I just read a rather interesting, yet disturbing article (link below) on soy and it's dark side. Anyone else have any thoughts on this? Is there a cause for concern here?

<snip>no urls please - Mr. Snippy</snip>

Landylue

[TamiL]

Landylue
I just read the article....the way I see it:
Research Calcium...the mineral that is supposed to help keep our bones strong...what everyone takes and the FDA has said time and time again is needed by all, and you WILL FIND an article about the DANGERS OF IT!!!
Research Chrominum...or Whey protien...and you will find millions of articles on how these supplements are good for you, and another million as to why you should not take them!!
the way I look at it...no matter what it is, on the internet, you will find articles on the good and bad!!
Pretty soon, there will be articles out there about Splenda, the new sweetner that is made from sugar, that everyone seems to be using now..there will be warnings and dangers of why you should not use it!!
I have learned that everything has its plus and minus!! the air you breathe outside has more carbon minoxide than you know...the spray you inhale after perhaps putting hair spray on your head is toxic!! the aspertame in diet soda and diet products causes cancer in labatory animals!! and we drink it!! there are a million things out there that are bad for us...or so we are told!!! its hard to read these things, then wonder am I putting something bad into my body??!!!
I would rather put Medifast into my body..with the soy protien, be loosing weight and feel healthy than the pounds and pounds of sugar and bad carbs that I was shoveling in before this!! SUGAR and WHITE FLOUR can now kill us too!! lol!! the pesticides that is even on organic vegatables can harm you....EVERYTHING has the potential to cause some type of harm...and if you research enuf...youll find articles on just about everything!!!

I guess what IM trying to say is..for me...I wont loose any sleep over that article..or any others out there!! John hopkins Im sure did his own research while inventing this miracle shake...and his rats must have liked the soy in medifast...cuz they got thin and happy!!! lol!! Soy is in alot of products now, untill they start pulling it out and taking if off the shelves...(highly doubtful) I wouldnt worry!!!

Medifast is healthy....if this makes you worried, talk to your Doc about it..get your blood taken and tested for vitamin/mineral deficiencies...every few months. but I would bet money that while on medifast...youll see only improvements!!

[Landylue]

I suppose if you weigh the health risks of being overweight with the risks of soy, it would be pretty one-sided.

Thanks for the reality check, Tami.

Landylue

[elle4nelly]

Hi!

I agree completely with what Tami's saying. Everything we eat or breathe or drink or spray ..etc.. can have a negative impact on our bodies. The key is not to overdo. Soy is good...but in excess all things can be dangerous! And to me, excess body weight is far more dangerous to our health than consuming soy. I could be wrong! Either way...I'm sticking to Medifast.

Nelly

[HD]

Yep the article reads like most things do now a days...however, I have to agree with Tami. She hit the nail on the head when she said "Everything has it's plus and minus" I too would much rather be slim and trim and headed toward good health than to worry over everything the scientist find wrong. I know each person has their own concerns about how they indulge in things that may or may not be bad for you, but In my case I tend to try good ole common sense.....well most of the time anyway and decide if I can do without something I know is bad for me. Take for instance FOOD....I knew I was eating all the wrong things and my common sense as they say "Left the building"! Through Medifast I am learning to get a grip back into reality and only put in my body what I know has helped me to feel better about myself. Do I fear all the things I read ? Sure if I dwell on it . Do I fear Medifast? Not at all, I look forward to everything medifast has to offer because I too am proof that medifast works and has improved my health 10 fold
So Landylue the choice is yours for the taking....My choice is to trust medifast. The proof is in the forum.
Keep it shakin for the makin of a new bod

[Landylue]

Thanks, guys! I'm with you all. I've come back around to my senses, and nothing is going to get me off this fast until I reach goal -- nothing!

I remember years ago when there was a rumor that they were going to take diet cola off the market because of the aspartane or sacchrin it contained. Did I pour my supply of Diet Coke down the sink--NOT! I went out and bought cases of the stuff, just in case they yanked it from the shelves.

Thank you, Lord, for the humble little soy plant!

Landylue

[Jims Chick]

Open your cupboard and take out any processed food item.....check out the chemicals and preservatives in the ingredient list....I mean what the heck is all that stuff. I spent a good portion of my life eating fast food and wasn't to worried about that. Fish is contaminated with mercury, red meat is full of saturated fat.....vegetables are becoming contaminated with e-coli at an alarming rate. Heck, the city I live in has close to the worst air quality in the nation......and sometimes (well alot of the time) you might catch me risking my life driving a little faster than the speed limit. I won't even metion all the diet drugs, prescription and over the counter I've taken over the years that have been taken off the market because at some point decided they are no longer safe.

I don't think I'm going to worry about the dangers of soy today. In fact pour me another shake!!

Julie

[MamaD]

Ok here is my 1.98's worth...

It is like my husband says...everything we do or eat is gonna kill us one way of the other. I just heard that overweight men die 10 earlier than their slim friends, and women kick off 7 years earlier. I figure I have a lot to stick around for so I will risk it.

As far as me and soy goes............. well.......... I know that when I am a faithful MF doer...I feel great. I love the soy. I don't have hot flashes I sleep all night... I love it. I even had hot flashes when I took the hormones....this is the only thing that has stopped them. I think we have to weight ..(hehe... I am so clever!!) the good and the bad. We know that this program works...and the health benefits from being thinner are well worth it to me.

have a great Lord's day!!!
mamaD....the soy lover

[hersch1320@aol]

which is better for you.

[BerkshireGrl]

Well... This article appeared first in "Nexus" magazine, as noted at the bottom of the piece. I looked up "Nexus" and found its homepage. It is an Australian magazine with this as its mission:

"NEXUS is an international bi-monthly alternative news magazine, covering the fields of: Health Alternatives; Suppressed Science; Earth's Ancient Past; UFOs & the Unexplained; and Government Cover-Ups."

Not to put too fine a point on it, but between this journalism and say, Johns Hopkins University's research, I'll take JHU!

Now, the article is being promoted by Dr. Joseph Mercola on his own page. I see he also recommends as super foods chlorella algae, virgin coconut oil and raw unpasteurized milk. I could pull up articles disputing the health of taking these easily… Heck, even Dr. Weil, earthy crunchy doc, doesn’t like coconut oil. Or chlorella (“there is little or no research supporting the claims made about the algae.”) And raw milk, he’s not a big fan of that either. Not that I am all gung ho about Weil, but I find him more creditable than Mercola.

A bit from the article:

"Parents who have contacted the Jameses recount other problems associated with children of both sexes who were fed soy-based formula, including extreme emotional behavior, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome - the same endocrine and digestive havoc that afflicted the Jameses' parrots."

Now, personally, I was allergic to cow’s milk as an infant and could not be breastfed because I had to stay in the hospital as a premature infant for a few weeks. So I had soy formula. I don’t have any of those above problems. (And today I can drink either cow’s milk or soy milk with no problems.) My cognitive abilities, well, I missed Menza membership by one point out of a hundred I’m tall/not stunted, strong, and my lungs work fine. My thyroid is fine… my digestion is fine… etc etc.

I think Tami is right on – there are many foods out there that are good and bad. A lot of “natural” foods have “natural” toxins in them too, like potato skins (glycoalkaloids) or kidney beans (lectins) or zucchini (cucurbitacins.) But the risk is made negligible by cooking or peeling.

We are all exposed to carcinogens in our daily environments. Nitrites in bacon, deli meats. Car exhaust. Paint thinner. Household cleaners.

I came across something in my little research here that I think sums it up perfectly:

“It is important to include a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet as these foods lower the risk of more serious health problems (such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity) than those associated with natural plant toxins.”

The same thing could be said about the soy in Medifast vs. us being overweight.

I’ll risk it

[BerkshireGrl]

Pretty soon, there will be articles out there about Splenda, the new sweetner that is made from sugar, that everyone seems to be using now..there will be warnings and dangers of why you should not use it!!

Tami,

The future is now There already are articles out there that say:

The artificial sweetener sucralose, which is sold under the name Splenda™, is one of the up-and-coming "next generation" of high-intensity sugar substitutes. It is non-caloric and about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (white table sugar), although it can vary from 320 tp 1,000 times sweeter, depending on the food application. The white crystalline powder tastes like a lot like sugar, but is more intense in its sweetness.

Research in animals has shown that sucralose can cause many problems in rats, mice, and rabbits, such as:
Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage)
Enlarged liver and kidneys.
Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
Increased cecal weight
Reduced growth rate
Decreased red blood cell count
Hyperplasia of the pelvis
Extension of the pregnancy period
Aborted pregnancy
Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights
Diarrhea

This is off "Shirley's Wellness Cafe" website, which also suggests drinking your own pee as a health cure. Yum!

If you check out this site, you'll find there is much to be terrified of in the grocery store and out on the street. And that the sun doesn't cause skin cancer (my dad, a former lifeguard, who developed and had removed a melanoma off his nose, would disagree.)

Ahhhhh! Now we just need a Chicken Little smilie...

*No offense to those out there who follow alternative health paths... Personally, I have done this myself with success for problems I had, and not all of it is wacko. There IS some helpful advantages to some practices, but then there is the crazy stuff too. Educate yourself and be well!

[raederle]

Hey Sarah-- I'm glad you posted that reply, because I looked at that article and got concerned, until I noticed what a wacko publication Nexus is!

In looking closely at Guest's post, I think he/she might have been asking about the difference between Splenda and NatraTaste sweeteners, though the post is in a weird place for that kind of question. To respond to that, Splenda is made from real sugar, and is as close to an "all-natural" non-nutrative sweetener as you can get. It tastes good enough that I can eat it straight (in granulated form) and not gag! NatraTaste (had to look it up) is just Equal re-named under a different brand; it's just aspartame, which we already know isn't that great for you. I would go with Splenda.

[smartiegrrl]

This article has been floating around the Internet for years. I read one article (and I tried to find it) that suggested once that this Soy thing is a feminist conspiracy to emasculate the next generation of men.

[raederle]

Too funny! I suppose if we wanted to ensure we never ever increased our risk of anything, we would do nothing but drink water. Oh, but wait-- we already discussed here that we can die from that, too! Lordy. what do we do???

I have enough to worry about. I'm eatin' my Medifast, I'm slurpin' my soy, and dammit, I'm puttin' gobs of Splenda in my oatmeal cookies! Caution to the wind!!!

[dlr2424]

Jims Chick

Julie,
First I LOVE YOUR QUOTE!!!
Second I love your response to this question...I agree.... With all the crap I've put in this body of mine.....and all the pollution,smoke etc..etc.. I've inhaled ...I don't believe soy will do me in...nor will a little splenda. They say that sucralose can cause many problems in rats...one being decreased fetal birth weights....Well let me tell you...I've consumed a bit of sucralose and I popped out 2 beautiful little blessings...wait a minute..they were beautiful..they were blessings...but by far were they little...actually they were 8.9 lb heffers...lol...so much for that

Donna