Hacker News Reader

Comment by wyldfire | Hacker News Reader

We should be concerned because the plastic acts like xenoestrogens in the body. Hormone disruption is bad.

Is that also the case for BPA-free plastics? "Plastics" covers a wide range of chemicals, and I'm not up to date on the latest health information in this area.

>Is that also the case for BPA-free plastics

be careful, the "BPA free" plastic products on the market might have just replaced BPA with BPS (or other plasticizers), which might be as bad as BPA when it comes to your health. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_S#Health_Effects

I'm using a wooden toothbrush handle with "BPA free" bristles and this potential switcheroo has me worried. Are there toothbrushes out there that avoid plastic entirely?

https://www.brushwithbamboo.com

Lot of natural foods do the exact same thing. Soy isoflavones have a very strong estrogen effect.

There is no strong evidence of any link between phytoestrogen consumption and adverse health effects, as shown by a cursory look at the Wikipedia page for phytoestrogens, and the literature.

I’ve consumed minimum 1 cup soy milk almost my entire life. No man boobs and my sperm works just fine.

What’s funny is people usually warn me that eating soy will somehow harm my masculinity, yet they aren’t aware milk, eggs, and meat also contain phytoestrogens https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf801344x

So does wheat, coffee, sesame seeds - in fact: most grains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoestrogen#Food_sources

But soy gets all the press. People believe what they desire to believe...

And good on you. I too drink 1/2 Liter of Westsoy Unsweetened Soymilk daily. Silk just came out with an unsweetened variety too! :-)

This is like saying both water and botulinum are technically toxins, so it’s okay to drink liters of botulinum a day.

What matters is the quantity of phytoestrogens in foods, and soy products happens to have significantly higher phytoestrogens than other foods.

I am not making a two wrongs make a right argument. I argue that grains are pervasive in our society and have no noticable ill effects. You strawmanned by claiming soy has way higher phytoestrogens than other foods. It's not true. It is just more studied due to its increasing popularity. Lignan forms of phytoestrogens are in potent concentrations in common cereal grains.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24284429_Phytoestro...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5302234/

From the first link's abstract:

> Phytoestrogens were detected in all foods analyzed; bread contained the highest amount of phytoestrogens-many as isoflavones-with an average content of 375 +/- 67 microg/100 g wet weight (excluding soya-linseed bread with 12,000 microg/100 g).

This is what I'm saying. You are comparing 375 and 12,000 and saying the difference doesn't matter. It's a two orders of magnitude difference.

So no, what you're saying is not true. Soy products have significantly higher levels of phytoestrogens than other foods.

I stand corrected. This source also confirms your observations.

http://www.pkdiet.com/pdf/pld/phytoestrogen.pdf

Thank you for enlightening me.

Cow milk also contains actual mammalian estrogens.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com