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Comment by blacksmith_tb | Hacker News Reader

I would think insect protein could easily play the role that soy protein does in lots of 'mystery meat' processed foods like hot dogs or hamburgers. That said, I am skeptical it could be produced more cheaply than soy.

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IDK, the reason soy works so well there is the texture you're able to produce with it. I feel like one of the largest issues most people have with insects are the texture.

The bigger issue here becomes all the side effects of consuming large quantities of soy and how it affects hormone production. Not saying cricket flour wouldn't have a new set of health problems associated with it, but it could be a reason for people to move into insect protein.

There is no hormonal side effect for humans consuming large quantities of soy.

I’d like to believe this, but there’s too much published research to the contrary.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soybean-fertility...

If only that article linked to actual studies to backup those claims. The article also discusses rats at length, but doesn't support any of its claims with human studies. The one link I attempted to follow is a dead link. That being said, my confidence in the author's ability to speak intelligently on this subject is pretty damn low.

So here are actual human studies with data.

Clinical studies show no effects of soy protein or isoflavones on reproductive hormones in men: results of a meta-analysis.[1]

Isoflavones made simple - genistein's agonist activity for the beta-type estrogen receptor mediates their health benefits.[2]

Soy food and isoflavone intake in relation to semen quality parameters among men from an infertility clinic. [3]

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19524224 [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16513288 [3] https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/23/11/2584/2913898

There are of course hundreds of millions of people in Asia eating large quantities of soy every day - presumably if that correlated with hormonal disruption it would be hard to ignore. Now, it's possible that other aspects of their diets influence how that impacts them, but there are plenty of people elsewhere in the world eating tofu etc. frequently.

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