Lowering high blood pressure with this dietary change is a very bad idea

What could go wrong?

It would actually be waiting for me by the time I paid. My decaf grande soy latte, that is.

I was such a regular at my local Starbucks that I didn’t even have to order. They saw me and they would start steaming the soy.

So when I decided to finally pay attention to my own advice and give it up, they wasted a lot of soy before they remembered I switched to a new drink (a decaf grande Americano).

But did I act too soon?

This headline in HealthDay News would have you think so: “Could soy help lower your blood pressure?”

Thankfully, my blood pressure is pretty healthy. But what if that’s BECAUSE I was drinking one or two soy lattes a day?! Maybe I need the soy. And maybe that daily soy would also prevent heart attacks, stroke, and cancer. And maybe it could even help me win Jeopardy and develop a beautiful singing voice.

What could go wrong?

Now…back to earth

Normally I would applaud a National Institutes of Health study that promoted dietary intervention to control BP. But this time, NIH officials wasted their money.

Yes, soy contains isoflavones. And yes, isoflavones prompt the release of nitric oxide. And yes, nitric oxide helps dilate blood vessels.

All of that is good on paper. But in your body? Not so much.

According to the study, an intake of more than 2.5 mg of isoflavones dropped systolic pressure by more than 5 points. For someone who’s borderline hypertensive, that difference could be significant.

Again, it looks good on paper, until HealthDay starts explaining “what that means to the everyday diet.”

At this point, HealthDay could have informed you how many peanuts or pinto beans equal more than 2.5 mg of isoflavones. But that wouldn’t promote the fantasy that soy is “health food.”

HealthDay tells us that you’ll get 22 mg of isoflavones from an 8-ounce glass of soymilk. But to really power up your isoflavones intake, nothing comes close to soybeans. A 3.5-ounce serving of roasted soybeans delivers about 130 mg of isoflavones.

Chomp a handful of soybeans, wash it down with a tall glass of soymilk, and you will be a master of your hypertension domain! That’s the clear message from HealthDay news, anyway.

In reality, isoflavones are not abundant in a normal diet. And that’s a very good thing.

Weston A. Price Foundation research shows that loading up your diet with plenty of daily isoflavones is a really bad idea. The estrogenic properties can wreak havoc with your health. The most obvious problems are suppression of sperm production and infertility.

And it’s not safe for women either.

While estrogen can be a good thing, too much of it can lead to thyroid and immune system suppression. Even worse is the potential for DNA breakage and increased risk of leukemia, breast cancer, and colon cancer.

But the good news: your blood pressure might drop slightly!

Clearly, HealthDay News did not carefully weigh the pros and cons of soy/isoflavones consumption. But why would they? Like so many other mainstream outlets, HDN bought the absurd hype that soy is the modern miracle food.

Soy latte? Sayonara.

Sources: 

“Could Soy Help Lower Your Blood Pressure?” HealthDay News, 3/25/12, healthday.com

“Dangers of Dietary Isoflavones At Levels Above Those Found In Traditional Diets” Sally Fallon, Weston A. Price Foundation, 3/2/09, westonaprice.org