While I am very uncomfortable with feeding soy to infants  because of the possibility of hormone disruptions, preliminary studies are suggesting that food based sources of soy during early childhood and adolescence may protect against breast cancer.

"By comparing the highest and lowest soy intake values for soy-based foods such as tofu, miso and natto, Korde and co-workers at the National Cancer Institute calculated that women with the highest soy intake during childhood (ages 5 to 11) had a 58 per cent lower risk of breast cancer as adults as the women with the lowest soy intake as children.

The corresponding reductions for adolescent and adult intake were about 25 per cent, they said.

The underlying mechanism is not known, said the researchers, but they hypothesized that the oestrogenic effects of soy isoflavones cause changes in breast tissue during childhood that may decrease sensitivity to carcinogens later in life. A similar protective effect has been found in studies of overweight girls, perhaps because fat tissue also secretes oestrogens, said Korde."

Soy during childhood linked to lower risk of breast cancer

The Vitamin lady writes about protecting against breast cancer

Pancreatic Cancer is an agonizing and all too often fatal form of this scourge.

I am sure that if one of the pharmaceutical companies had developed a vaccine that was even marginally protective against the disease, we would be hearing all about it.

But who has heard about a study which has determined that a simple nutrient can reduce risk by 43%??

Compared to people whose intake of vitamin D was low (i.e. lower than 150 IU per day), there were the following risk reductions:

• 22 percent for those who received 150 to 299 IU per day
• 43 percent for those receiving 300 to 449 IU per day
• 44 percent for those receiving 450 to 599 IU per day
• 41 percent for those receiving 600 or more.

Add to this that Vitamin D has also been found to be protective against breast and prostate cancer, and one would expect the buzz to be as pervasive as the folic acid/birth defect connection.

A strange silence surrounds this promising research, in my opinion.

Science Daily reports here

I like Cod Liver Oil as a natural source of Vitamin D

Old fashioned LIQUID Cod Liver Oil