Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia'

[Sgent]

Source: BBC

Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests.

The study focused on 719 elderly Indonesians living in urban and rural regions of Java.

The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.

The Loughborough University-led study features in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/7490202.stm

[BlooInBloo]

1. Anybody eating organic cardboard MUST be demented...

(Goes back to eating his spicy chicken cacciatore.)


EDIT: Alternatively, one might have no other viable options than to eat all soy, all the time. But people *that* poor in America are almost never vegetarians. Vegetarianism in America is a bourgeois phenomenon.

[jobycom]

2. At least it doesn't taste like chicken.

:P

[BlooInBloo]

4. Heh. You got me there.

[roguevalley]

56. this is good. now I can tell a coupla dippy people I know to shove it.

thank you. :)

[emilyg]

3. Thank God I'm allergic to soy.

[MADem]

5. Uh oh....I had soy for dinner tonight.....

:crazy:

Bummer!

[WatchWhatISay]

27. Are you sure?

[MADem]

54. Yeah--it tasted great, too....! Now, where are my glasses!!

:rofl:

[notesdev]

6. You got to be demented

in order to eat that stuff in the first place. Yeeeccchhh!!!

[MADem]

8. I kinda like it. The extra firm, barbecued, is pretty good with teriaki sauce.

Of course, I'm only a Part Time Vegetarian, and that doesn't sit well with some members the full-time crowd.

:evilgrin:

[Warpy]

55. We've all had badly prepared tofu

and it took me a long time to learn how to cook it properly.

There's little worse than badly prepared tofu.

I don't eat the stuff every day, but I do like it.

[EFerrari]

7. Too late!

[thelordofhell]

9. 719 Indonesians vs. over 1,000,000,000 of everybody else

Yeah, sounds like a fair representative study. This is worse than vegetarians ragging on all the meat eaters out there.

[elleng]

10. And recently we've read that Hot Tea may cause cancer.

Well, folks, we just can't win if we READ!

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[WillParkinson]

12. Riiiiiight....

This is DU after all.

That's about as likely as people who say 'yuck' who have likely never tried properly prepared tofu.

[SOS]

43. No mention of formaldehyde in the OP

"A third theory is that damage is caused not by the tofu, but by formaldehyde, which is sometimes used in Indonesia as a preservative.
The researchers admit that more research is required."

Let's douse those McNuggets in formaldehyde and do a study!

[FloridaJudy]

13. Whew!

I'm safe. I never could stand that nasty stuff, and I was a vegetarian for over five years.

[Mojambo]

14. I knew it!

Suck it, hippies!

[Believing Is Art]

16. They make tofu lollipops now? n/t

[Norrin Radd]

15. Yeah, because tofu is the one and only meat substitute that

vegetarians eat. :crazy:

[jennied]

17. *busy eating tender steak* Um, what? *smack, smack*

[zazen]

18. maybe it's less B12 (untreated pernicious anemia will cause dementia) and not tofu itself

Course, that depends on whether these folks had fewer animal products as a result of the high tofu consumption. I'm assuming they aren't strict vegetarians, this being Java and not India or the first world.

B12 deficiency is notoriously underdiagnosed and is so comparatively easy to treat, at least here. But beyond the soul-sucking fatigue it can lead to neurological problems and ultimately death (pernicious anemia). People died from it before the 20th century.

[Turborama]

20. Meat is an expensive luxury for most people in Indonesia and tofu is their main source of protein

The formaldehyde problem could be playing a part in this too, apparently, but I think that's more to do with the way some unscrupulous businessmen have been preserving meat. Tofu can last for quite a while in brine so maybe the whole theory has been debunked by themselves by writing:

"A third theory is that damage is caused not by the tofu, but by formaldehyde, which is sometimes used in Indonesia as a preservative."



Edited to add a huge thanks for the interesting and very important B12 info.

[Gormy Cuss]

41. The focus seems to be on phytoestrogens and their effect on the brain.

Phytoestrogens seem to be a very hot topic lately.

I wonder if there are some other studies underway on the vitamin B12 deficiency issue

Two notes from the article that I found interesting: a similar study of Japanese men had similar results and high consumption of tempeh didn't produce the same effect, which the researchers posit may be because unlike tofu and other unfermented soy products tempeh is high in folate (vitamin B9.) High folate/folic acid consumption was related to a positive effect on memory in another recent study.

[HaloHere]

19. 719 doesn't strike me as representative of anything

[juno jones]

21. They may be poor and lacking in other sources of protien.

It doesn't say these people were paragons of the balanced diet during the course of the study. There may be other elements of diet that need to be considered and are not covered by what appears to be a simplistic study.

Other cultures eat tofu and haven't been reporting concerns.

on edit: Formaldehyde, no shit! Compare with brine tofu...geez, bad control of variables there.

And yes, I doubt these people are completely and abosolutely voluntary vegeterians.

[comtec]

22. I call BULLSHIT!~

While not a veg-head by any stretch of the imagination, i like tofu.

This sounds like a flawed study. IF it were true it would have been noticed in such unheard of places like... ALL OF ASIA!

People have been eating tofu, and soy products for literally centuries, if not thousand(s) of years.

The cause is more likely to be nutritional, or lack of same, as someone else posted.

[DesertDiamond]

23. I'm with you. The Japanese, for instance, are fine. When I hear anti-vegetarian propaganda....

I think about who could profit from it. The meat industries? The big pharmaceutical companies, who stand to lose lotsa bucks if Americans start eating a healthier diet? My guess, someone in that category paid for this "study" -- IF it happened AT ALL.

[comtec]

25. I don't necessarily see this as anti-veg-head but it does raise an eyebrow

I find it curious why they would want to find this link.
This has the feeling of and agenda.
Honestly I'd think farmers would want to push towards a less meaty diet, because the amount of energy to create a pound of meat (in general) is far more than needed to create a pound of vegetable food.

Mind you I LOVE a good steak, ribs, chicken, fish, etc.
And I see a lot of hypocrisy from the veg heads in general.
but that's a "religious" issue for me ;)

but this does not have the smell of something legitimate.

I mean, at some point, people are going to say, FUCK IT! I don't want to live to be 150 if it means I can't ENJOY life.

I agree, we Americans (and Euros) NEED to reduce the amount of meat we consume.

There are plenty of alternatives, and the technology is available to make tofu enjoyable. (but I find milk in tofu snacks a little odd)

Because of my wife's newly restrictive diet I have had to learn more about alternatives.

I would, however, be interested in finding more out about the real cause - nutritionally - to dementia.

IMHO the number they cite, sounds like normal dementia numbers - that is people who will get it anyway.

[DesertDiamond]

47. Some vegetarians are because of conscience, I think a large percentage do it for their health.

As for enjoyment of life, there are a lot of things to enjoy in life besides meat. If a person can't be happy without meat, then that person isn't truly happy, and needs to seek it inside themselves, not outside. But that's a whole other subject.

[comtec]

48. I won't argue that point

But a nice juicy steak, season right, cooked over a fire.. MMM -M
While I agree, food is no way to measure life enjoyment, it is a metric.
Being a fat bastard, I suppose I put too much emphasis on enjoyment of food - in moderation is always best.
But it does change the fact that done right, it's a great experience. Something just tastes right - to most people anyway.

But that's an argument for another time.

I am a Karnivore with a kapitol KAR, and something smells to high heaven about this story.

It might amuse you that on the list of things we should take to other planet, Soy is on the top of my list for food for it's raw protein content and versatility. Granted I also have cannabis and hemp on that list too, for the same reason, versatile, and easily grown.

[NashVegas]

32. The Japanese Are Fine?

Except for their odd tastes in porn, I guess and habitually groping teen women on trains.

[DesertDiamond]

44. Are you calling that a sign of dementia? LOL! But it happens in meat eating societies as well.

[NashVegas]

53. No, I'm Just Calling That a Sign

That the Japanese are not necessarily "fine."

[GOPNotForMe]

24. Correlation does not equal causation. nt

[Mari333]

26. O*UNsn9l)lxmOIl,,#rh

Lnsthaiuasuig oh..wha...Nsdbduih,,dribble...jBsd djagsg..huh....blurb.......doh.....

[BlooInBloo]

35. I lol'd.

:rofl:

[cobalt1999]

28. These threads are funny.

The same folks that will praise a similiar type of scientific study about meat being bad for you, will condemn this one & vis versa.

It'll fun the next time a study comes out about meat eating and be able to quote back peoples own words here.

[LiberalEsto]

29. Like, uh, wow

far out
no shit?

[ShortnFiery]

30. This irrelevant study - has been brought to you by the BEEF industry?

It's what's for dinner? Any hidden agendas, ya think?

[crim son]

31. Well then I'm screwed.

I love tofu.

[kentauros]

40. Try the tempeh :)

It's supposed to improve memory function.

So, if you eat equal amounts of both, you cancel out the ill-effects of the tofu :D

[crim son]

50. That's good news because I do eat about equal amounts of both.

Tonight, for example, is tempeh. Cool!

[Odin2005]

33. Methinks they got it backwards, you gotta BE demented to eat that shit.

Tofu is frigging NASTY.

[kentauros]

36. My guess is that you've never had it properly prepared

or that you tried to do that yourself with no clue as to how to properly prepare it ;)

Try it marinated and baked, or cube it, freeze it and then stir fry it. Freezing it makes it chewy and less prone to fall apart when it's frying.

And really, like other types of meats, it takes on the flavor of the spices and ingredients used in its preparation. Would you gladly eat chicken or fish with nothing added? No salt, no pepper, not even oil? It all adds to the final flavor, just like anything cooked, or not cooked as in the case of sushi.

[kentauros]

34. There are two rather telling bits in that story y'all might want to look at.

And since I know most won't, here they are:

A third theory is that damage is caused not by the tofu, but by formaldehyde, which is sometimes used in Indonesia as a preservative.

The latest study also found that eating tempe, a fermented soy product made from the whole soy bean, was associated with better memory.

I read that link, mainly to try and discover just what the hell was an amount called "at least once a day" yet, it was never stated. So, is that like for a full meal of tofu, or just a few ounces? Why is a very important detail like that left out?

[dysfunctional press]

37. you have to be crazy to eat that shit to begin with.

so what's the surprise?

[kentauros]

39. Of course, if you consume any kind of processed foods

it's likely to be included in the ingredients. So you're damned either way ;)

Then again, I love tofu and consider being called crazy a highbrow compliment

[dysfunctional press]

42. i don't do processed food either.

we buy whole foods, and make our own meals.

coagulated bean-goo is not on the menu.

[kentauros]

46. I do whole foods, too, though I love some of the meat analogues

such as Quorn and Boca. You might try Quorn, though, as it's not soy; it's micoprotein (mushrooms) :)

What about tempeh? The article did say it improves memory function...

[Javaman]

38. Tofu is SOYLENT GREEN!!!!

I'm going back to Soylent Red.

[HopeHoops]

45. Shit, I can't remember what I had for dinner last night.

:think:

[hedgehog]

49. I've lost all respect for the BBC when it comes to presenting

new scientific information. Despite the grand language, their coverage of science tends to be as superficial, credulous and exploitative as anything from the National Enquirer.

[L. Coyote]

51. HELLO! worse memory IS associated with the over-68s

I would make sure the controls worked before doing this study.

[ninety lives]

52. Please....

Maybe they are eating all of that soy to get their health back.