X-Message-Number: 5350
Date: 06 Dec 95 18:05:53 EST
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: Soy and cancer

Steve Harris notes the importance of Soy protein isolate in decreasing 
cancer risk in his recent post on breakfast drinks.  He mentions the diets 
of Asiatics in particular.

He is quite right.

I would like to add some observations closer to home:

1) For sometime now it has been know that vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists 

live about 7 years longer than non-Adventists when smoking and alcohol 
intake are adjusted for.  About 3/4ths of this improved longevity is due to 

decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).  This is puzzling because 
even in those Adventists whose saturated fat intake was comparable to 
non-Adventists (via eggs, dairy products and cocoanut oils) the incidence 
of CVD is still much lower.

One reason for this is probably that iron intake and thus serum ferritin 
and tissue iron stores are much lower in Adventists from lack of meat 
intake.  Iron is implicated as a major driver of atherosclerosis.  
Premenopausal women, for instance, have lower CVD rates than men of the 
same age and risk profile, and men who give blood regularly and 
consistently, again with same risk profiles as other men not giving blood 
regularly, have CVD rates comparable to those of menstruating women.

2) The remaining increase in Adventist longevity is due to decreased 
incidence of colon, breast and prostate cancers.  This may well be due 
to the high intake by conventional vegetarian Adventists' of soy proteins 
(in sharp contrast to many other vegetarian diets).  Most Adventist 
vegetarian diets are *not* low in fat; with dairy, eggs, corn oil, and 
soybean oil being the primary sources of the 40% or so fat (typical 
American dietary fat levels) which comprise the traditional vegetarian 
Adventist diet. 

My lover is SDA and I was converted to an SDA diet 10 years ago while 
working at  Francis Hospital in Lynwood by a co-worker who responded to my 
making fun of her soy vegetarian diet (while noting how good she looked for 

her age) by plopping down a stack of papers in peer reviewed journals 
proving her rationale, which I read; she was right! I switched cold turkey 
and have never looked back (note: I do eat fish occassionally).

Soy proteins thus look like candidates for cancer prophylaxis even in high 
fat "Western-style" diets.  Adventist cuisine seeks to imitiate favorite 
Western meat dishes such as steak, chicken, fried foods, meatloaf, etc. 
using soy products which contain fat in generousamounts from corn and/or 
soy oils.  Some products such as their Salisdbury steaks and meatballs are 
quite acceptable.  Other such as Fried Chix require getting used to, or 
being used in curries or seasoned dishes as texture and mouth feel to 
substitute for meat.

Recently several soy meat-substitute products have been introduced which 
are truly incredible in that they are almost indistinguishable in taste and 

texture from the junk food they imitate.

They are made by Yves Fine Foods of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  
The best of these products are in order in my opinion of them:

YVES Fat Free Veggie Hot Dogs
YEVES Fat Free Veggie Pepperoni
YEVES Fat Free Canadian Bacon

The hot dogs on buns with mustard, relish, and ketchup cannot be told from 
Oscar Mayer Weiners by seasoned meat eaters (I know, I've tested them!). 
Truly an incredible product; the best job I've ever seen in 20 years of 
eating soy meat products.

The pepperoni is as good as any lunch meat on a sandwich and does not taste 

fat free.  It has good mouth feel, excellent flavor and texture.

The Canadian bacon is OK, but really shines when fried in Canola oil or 
MCTs.

They also make a "Burger Burger" (veggie) with 3 grams of fat.  I like them 

on sandwiches with Kraft fat free cheeses, fat freemato (Kraft) mustard, 
hamburger dills, and ketchup and onions.  Most people DO NOT like this 
product, so don't judge 
the others by the hamburgers!  Some like it chopped up in Sphaghetti sauces 

for texture and mouth feel to take the place of ground beef or meat balls.

The YVES hot dogs are also great sliced-up in Buschs'  Vegetarian Baked 
Beans (the best Vegetarian Baked Beans on the market IMHO and available in 
most Ralphs, Vons, and major grocery chains nationwide).

They (YVES) also make chili-dogs, but I don't care for them.

Most health food stores carry YVES products and here in California most 
Ralphs carry them too in the section with deli meats, pickled herring, 
cheeses, lunch meats, etc.

Aside from supplementation, increasing soy protein intake may be a way to 
greatly decrease risk of cancer.

Finally, if you get cancer, high dose multivitamin therapy may simply 
increase the rate of progression of the disease; cancer cells need 
vitamins and improved tolerance to ischemia too.  There is at least one 
study showing that vitamin and mineral supplemented patients did worse once 

they had advanced solid tumor disease than unsupplemented patients -- at 
least in advanced stages of the disease nutritional benefit to the tumors 
seems to outweight advantages gained from any possible immune situmation...

A final word of warning:

The FDA is about to release the fat sunstitute Olestra.  I have serious 
concerns about this product:

1) I guarantee you it WILL get into your tissues with prolonged use. No 
molecules that are that small are going stay confined to the gut. Period.  
I have not 
seen radiolabelled studies of this compound with prolonged feeding.

2) I have seen no single or multispecices lifespan studies with Olestra.

3) Olestra will likely greatly solubilize carcinogens produced in feces and 

increase contact with gut wall cells in the colon.

4) It will act as a laxative.

5) It will leach a wide variety of oil soluble nurtrients from the body. 
Olestra's makers plan to add vitamin E and A, but not beta carotone.  We do 

not know what other oil soluble vitamins or compounds are critical to 
health which will be solubilized out of the body and excreted in the stool.

6) I confidentally predict that Olestra will be widely used in all or most 
fat containig foods.  This means that within a few years 15 to 40% of 
fatty food intake will be Olestra.  This polymer of sucrose WILL IMHO find 
its 
way into cell membranes over time and will penetrate the gut.  This may be 
good.  It may be bad.  The point is, we don't know.

7) Olestra was first submitted to the FDA when I was in high school (I'm 40 

now).  Strange things are happening in FDA such as witch hunts against 
innocous products and release of dangerous products with inappropriate 
adverstising such as Tagamet and Pepcid OTC; if you need more than an 
antacid you need to see an MD and be worked up for heliobacter pylori 
infection (a major cause of stomach ulcers, heart-burn and gastric cancer) 
and/or active ulcer disease.  Tagamet, (cimetidine -- is a powerful drug 
with 
many serious side effects; liver damage, masking stomach cancer, masking 
Barrett's esophagus (a dangerous premalignant condition which responds well 

to early treatment), gynecomastia in males (breast enlargement), impotence, 
 
and masking peptic ulcer disease.  If you need Tagamet or Pepcid for 
chronic heart-burn, you need a gastroenterologist. PERIOD. Not OTC Tagamet 
or Pepcid.  Something BAD and SLEAZY is going on at the FDA in my opinion, 
though this nothing new.

More on acetaminophen (Tylenol) in the future. 

Food for thought.

Mike Darwin


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