Soy: Miracle Food or Bean of Death?

I will admit to feeling a certain spiteful glee in witnessing death of a fad, particularly one that deserves it so desperately. Here's how things seem to work. Some obscure snippet of scientific research tells us about a certain threat to our well being - trans fats or carbohydrates or whatever the dietary whipping boy du jour happens to be. Then people take that and some other obscure snippet of scientific research (and these people practically never cite their sources) that finds some amazing thing that's going to fix everything and make us live forever. And then, through a brilliant marketing strategy, the health food illuminati separate hordes of frightened stupid people from their money. I find this sickening, mostly because I don't get any of the money.

One of the prime examples of this is soy. We've all heard this before - the miracle food from the orient that will make meat (and dairy and egg) obsolete! It will lower your cholesterol! It will prevent you from getting cancer! It will trim your waistline, program your VCR, do your taxes, raise your IQ, mow your lawn, de-fragment your hard drive, find a unified field theory and a realistic plan for world peace! The only objections that people had to soy was the fact that it feels kind of like old Jello, but without the flavor. But millions of people decided to suck it up and eat soy anyway. They did it for their health. They did it for the children. They did it to save all the little cows and pigs and chickens. And guess what? In classic scientific fashion, the findings that made people go soy-crazy have been balanced by counter-findings. In some cases, not only does it not prevent cancer, but soy may actually make it worse. In addition, soy has been linked to severe allergies, malnutrition, digestive problems, thyroid problems, and even sexual dysfunction.