There are a number of foods that you may have heard are safe when you're not pregnant but are best avoided when you are. Thankfully for fans of tofu and Asian cuisine, soy is not among these foods. You can safely consume soy -- in fact, it can be an excellent source of protein -- throughout your pregnancy.
First Trimester
You may have heard that the first trimester is a time during which you need to be particularly careful about what you eat and drink. This is correct. During the first trimester, your developing baby builds its organ systems. This takes place in large part during the embryonic phase of development, which lasts until eight weeks of gestational age. Babies are particularly sensitive to certain toxins and chemicals during this time.
Soy Concerns
The concern about eating soy comes from the fact that soy contains chemicals called phytoestrogens, which are a kind of plant hormone. They're similar to human estrogen, and because high levels of estrogen can increase your risk of some cancers, there has been some concern among researchers that phytoestrogen exposure would do the same. No scientific studies have yet demonstrated any correlation between soy consumption and increased cancer risk, however.
Soy and Cancer
In fact, far from showing that soy consumption increases risk of cancer, studies have actually shown the opposite. A 1991 study in the scholarly publication "The Journal of the National Cancer Institute" by Dr. Mark Messina and colleagues notes that those individuals who regularly eat soy products appear to have much lower rates of cancer than those who don't eat soy. There's therefore no reason to be concerned that soy will increase your -- or your baby's -- risk of cancer.
Other Concerns
Cancer aside, there are those who wonder whether eating soy early in pregnancy will harm their developing baby in some other way. A 2002 article in the "Journal of Nutrition" by Dr. Thomas Badger and colleagues looked at two groups of individuals: women who ate soy during pregnancy and infants fed soy formula. Because infants on soy formula consume more soy than any other group in the U.S., they're an excellent group to study for information on soy safety. The study showed that neither group was harmed at all by soy.
References
- "Journal of the National Cancer Institute"; The Role of Soy Products in Reducing Risk of Cancer; Mark Messina et al; 1991
- "The Journal of Nutrition"; The Health Consequences of Early Soy Consumption; Thomas Badger et al; 2002
