Do soy foods contain or produce estrogens?
You are right in that the research studies do not support the idea that soy foods produce estrogen and therefore should be avoided by women with a history of breast cancer. The idea that soy foods are related to human forms of estrogen comes from the fact that these foods do contain a group of nutrients that are known as phytoestrogens. Phyto means plant and estrogen means estrogen. Therefore, phytoestrogens literally can be translated as “plant estrogens”. This term caught on because soy foods do contain some nutrients that look chemically similar to some of the estrogens that occur naturally in the human body (1,2). However, it is important to note that these nutrients are not the same as naturally occurring human estrogens. Soy foods do not cause the body to produce excess estrogen and they do not contain human estrogens. However, because soy foods do contain nutrients that look a bit like human estrogens, researchers are interested in how these nutrients affect how our bodies produ
