East Asians do NOT consume large amounts of soy - the Japanese only ever used it in tofu, soy sauce, and as pig feed. American Chinese food uses lots of soy sauce, but real Chinese food doesn’t. Furthermore, Asians never ate processed soybean oil - that’s a 20th century U.S. innovation.
Since soy oil acts as artificial estrogen, some people are claiming that soy is behind the rise of homosexuality in America. I’m allergic to soy, so I never had to worry about its effects on my manliness, but you might want to think about it. Soy is in many more things than people realize, as it can be listed as many other ingredients. ‘MSG’ is soy, and ‘modified food starch’ in American products (Canadians tend to use potato). ‘Vegetable oil’ (in everything) is usually soy, and almost all lecithin (an emulsifier found in candy and most creamy foods) is soy. ‘Vegetable broth’ in tuna cans, soup, and frozen foods is soy. Soy is even injected into Thanksgiving hams and turkeys.
Bottom line: Americans are the world’s biggest consumers of soy, by eating prepackaged foods. We the people are the biggest biological experiment in the history of the world. And we voted for Obama - what does this tell you?
Nevertheless, Americans as a whole still consume very little soy protein. Based on 2003 data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, per-capita soy protein consumption is less than 1 gram (g) per day in most European and North American countries, although certain subpopulations such as vegetarians, Asian immigrants, and infants fed soy-based formula consume more. The Japanese, on the other hand, consume an average 8.7 g of soy protein per day; Koreans, 6.2–9.6 g; Indonesians, 7.4 g; and the Chinese, 3.4 g.
Source: Barrett JR 2006. The Science of Soy: What Do We Really Know? Environ Health Perspect 114:A352-A358.
Link: The Science of Soy: What Do We Really Know?
The paragraph above is the second to the last of the introduction.
That was very fascinating indeed.