The Conservative Cave
Interests => All Things Edible (and how to prepare them) => Topic started by: DULurkster on April 06, 2009, 01:05:25 AM
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7490202.stm
This answers a lot of questions
Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia'
Page last updated at 15:36 GMT, Friday, 4 July 2008 16:36 UK
Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests.
The study focused on 719 elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java.
The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.
(snip)
But soy consumption is also on the increase in the west, where it is often promoted as a "superfood".
Soy products are rich in micronutrients called phytoestrogens, which mimic the impact of the female sex hormone oestrogen.
(snip)
The latest study suggests phytoestrogens - in high quantity - may actually heighten the risk of dementia.
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You know, the article above, linking tofu with dementia, brought me much merriment and glee, as if seeing another episode on a comedy television show where people are constantly running around in circles, chasing after some "perfect" ideal.
I have nothing against tofu; I've had it before, and while I wouldn't go out of my way to have it again, I'd have it sooner than dead fish or raw meat or grease.
However, nothing in this world is "perfect;" everything, no matter its alleged benefits, has some drawbacks.
Nothing is "perfect."
Well, maybe milk and milk products, but that's just me.
All one can do in this life is strive towards some sort of "balance" (in all things, not just food) that best ensures one's survival and well-being.
Obviously there are some who think the advantages of tofu outweigh the disadvantages, and more power to them; if it works, great.
I was surprised to find that the primitives on Skins's island would rate me a near-vegetablist, given that I dine upon less than a half a pound of meat each week, and that mostly poultry. When thinking about all I've eaten the past week, for example, it appears this diet is, generally, circa 70% fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables (never canned glorp), 25% dairy products including eggs, and the rest fiber-saturated whole grain products.
Coming from the most-important source of beef for America and the world, of course I'm an enthusiast for beef.....for other people to purchase and eat, not me.
However, this near-vegetablist makes no pronouncements of "virtue" about his dining habits, as vegetablists, especially those on Skins's island, are prone to do. There is no virtue at all in a meat-free (or near meat-free) diet; for some of us, it's just common sense.
To each his own; whatever works, great.
However, there remains a particular issue of particular concern to me.
I am not sure how vegetablists in real life are on this matter--I know some vegetablists in real life, but not many--but it seems a common habit among the vegetablist primitives on Skins's island to, on one hand, grandoisely boast about eating "healthy".....and then in a different forum over there, the same vegetablist primitives chit-chat about all the pharmaceutical drugs (usually taxpayer-paid) they take.
To me, this defeats the purpose of eating "healthy," taking all those chemicals.
They won't eat chemically-processed foods, but damn, they gobble down those chemical drugs as if popcorn.
It must be this "better living through chemistry" excresence.
It's a mystery, but as usual, the primitives on Skins's island, vegetablist or non-vegetablist, are noted more for their contradictions, their hypocrisies, than for any consistency.