Phytoestrogen Craze

Diet and Nutrition
1

I came across an article today.

Apparently, coffee is estrogenic and should be avoided. Thing is, I love coffee (I drink it black) and am not willing to give it up anytime soon.

Then I got thinking. It seems that everything these days has estrogen, from soy, to milk, to fruits, to all meds (I seriously had someone tell me that frickin’ gravol has estrogen) and now coffee.

What the fuck doesn’t have estrogen these days, and more importantly, how much do you think this is all a fad in the ever changing fitness industry?

2

phew, at least meat is still safe.

3

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
phew, at least meat is still safe.[/quote]

nope, study came out tomorrow that meat has estrogen too.

4

"Phytoestrogen Foods
There are three most common types of phytoestrogens in human food plants are isoflavonoids, lignans, and cousestans.

Phytoestrogens occur in many, many common foods, including:

â?¢soy products, including tofu, miso, soymilk, soy-based infant formulas, soybean oil, and more (soy sauce does not contain significant quantities of phytoestrogens)
â?¢coffee and tea
â?¢nuts
â?¢oil seeds, such as flax, sesame, and sunflower
â?¢grains, especially wheat germ
â?¢beans and legumes
â?¢garlic and onions
â?¢carrots
â?¢wine, especially red wine
â?¢cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage and broccoli
â?¢berries
â?¢some fruits, including apples, peaches, and watermelon
â?¢alfalfa and clover sprouts "

5

But then here: http://www.hairloss-research.org/GreenTearaisesSHBG.html

“Green Tea Extract elevates SHBG while having the added benefit of reducing estrogen levels, which via an SHBG binding route can upregulate androgen activity.”

6

[quote]pdub690 wrote:

[quote]EasyRhino wrote:
phew, at least meat is still safe.[/quote]

nope, study came out tomorrow that meat has estrogen too.[/quote]

Don’t some claim that they already give cattle both anabolic hormones (more meat) but also estrogenic compounds (for nicer marbling, or something)?

Unless, of course, one eats the magic, cancer-curing, penis-extending food known as grass-fed beef.

7

[quote]forbes wrote:
What the fuck doesn’t have estrogen these days, and more importantly, how much do you think this is all a fad in the ever changing fitness industry?[/quote]
It isn’t so much a fad as it is an awareness. More appropriately, a hyper-awareness.

Whether it’s phytoestrogens in foods or xenoestrogens in things like BPA, scientists are finding potentially harmful chemicals in tons of everyday items. We also talked about this a while back in this thread:

The trick is in finding a balance for yourself that has you leaning more towards a legitimate healthful lifestyle (which will benefit your lifting goals), and leaves you less like the paranoid germaphobe dude from the first Creepshow.

8

Your over thinking this. Eat healthy, lift consistently, be happy. Stay away from this analysis paralysis, it’s only going to slow you down.

9

as the article points out, while many, many things have phytoestrogens, not all are bad.

Resveratrol, for instance, is a phytoestrogen, but while it binds to the receptors it does not activate them, making it anti-estrogenic in action. This also appears to apply to flax estrogens and others.

In response to a post with a copy/paste regarding some phytoestrognic foods, many of these are seemingly non-activating:

fatty grains
nuts
flax, sesame, and sunflower seeds
wine (resveratrol)
some berries
some fruits, including apples, peaches, and watermelon
cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage and broccoli

Almost all of these actually seem to have a positive affect on estrogen levels (i.e. reducing estrogen)

Tea, also, has been shown to have some positive affects on hormone profiles as displayed in a recent article on TMUSCLE (give me a sec and I’ll try to find it).

So, regarding the suggestion that cruciferous vegetables and other such foods might be actively phytoestrogenic, I have found the opposite to be true.

It seems that with this coffee situation, one might not want to jump to conclusions until further research is done, especially if all has been well thus far (also, I never trust a web site with no references).

If I find any specific studies, I’ll post them here.

MID

10

Studies on the estrogenic activity of a coffee extract

EXCERPT of conclusion from abstract: The complete estrogenic effects of coffee constituents, coupled with their failure to inhibit a biological response evoked by estradiol, strongly suggest that coffee contains constituent(s) that are weakly estrogenic.

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a915981453&db=all

The question remains as to whether this means it activates receptors more or less the endogenous estrogen, and I still feel more study needs to be done on these less active estrogens in regard to male health (being that weak estrogens are thought to be positive primarily in breast cancer studes).

Mid