Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5875

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Publication type: news

Morris R.
Rats, Soy and Heart Disease: More shocking news
breadandmoney.com : The Free Radical Report 2006 Aug 11
http://breadandmoney.com/thefreeradical/

Full text:

Rats, Soy and Heart Disease: More shocking news
Richard Morris
August 11, 2006

by Richard Morris. This article first appeared in the Free Radical Report.

Rats!

That’s what I said after reading an intriguing article by Sue Ambrose with the Dallas Morning News. Rats are among the most widely used animals in medical research. Along with mice, they account for more than 90 percent of research animals. They have participated in literally thousands of experiments, contributing to several decades worth of knowledge. In fact, we owe much of what we know about cancer and heart disease to the lowly lab rat.

Now comes the news that many of those studies may have been inadvertently skewed, because of what the rats were fed.

Phytoestrogens are plant compounds that mimic the hormone estrogen. While these plant-based chemicals are known to be weaker than the hormones produced in the human body, they are also known to be powerful enough to exert an effect. Wheat, barley, corn and soy are just some of the ingredients found in rat chow, but it is soy, that ubiquitous ‘miracle’ food that is a primary source of phytoestrogens, in the form of isoflavones. Soy is also high in protein, which makes it a preferred ingredient in many popular rat food formulations.

There is a growing concern among researchers that the results of thousands of studies may have been affected by the amount of phytoestrogens in the rat’s diet. Most of what was learned in those studies eventually became the basis for human medicines, treatment and even government health policy.

Human foods derived from or containing unfermented soy have come under more strident attacks in the last few years as a growing body of evidence points to excess soy consumption as a potent contributor to killers like cancer and heart disease.

As if to support this contention, the article notes the following:

“The University of Colorado’s Leinwand said she stumbled on the chow issue when an employee switched a particular breed of mice from a soy-based diet to a milk protein-based diet in preparation for an experiment.

Suddenly, she said, it seemed like there was nothing left to study. The male mice, which ordinarily developed heart disease, were much healthier on the milk protein-based chow. Further studies implicated the soy hormones as part of the reason.”

Now consider that rats and mice are preferred for research because of their genetic similarities to humans. If a soy-based diet has been shown to accelerate heart disease in mice, what does that say about humans? People who believe they have nothing to worry about because they don’t consume much soy should think again. The relatively low-cost of soy production makes it a very attractive ingredient for many processed foods. Whether it’s baby formulas, baked goods, beverages, condiments or meat substitutes, soy is the processed food industries’ cash cow.

As for animal research, the only way to gauge the impact of plant estrogens on our knowledge of human health is to go back and replicate many of the key rat and mice studies using a phytoestrogen-free diet. Fat chance. Soy may be cheap, but research costs a bundle. It was noted in the article that switching to milk-based protein for lab rats adds to the cost of the research. Since a lot of research being done today is funded by companies with stingy accountants who abhor spending money unless it’s a matter of life and death, and sometimes not even then, change within the industry will probably occur at a glacial pace.

Evidently, despite the fact that milk appears to be a healthier source of protein, rats will continue to be fed soy and other less nutritious foods, perhaps well into the future…. Just like us.

Rats!

.,._