Mandy, I ate tons of meat before I transitioned. It doesn't take long, but it is tough to do if others are still eating meat around you.
Clarissa, you can have a great or crappy diet as an omnivore, vegetarian, or vegan. It's easier for me personally to lose weight eating a vegetarian diet. It forces me to cook more of my own food and to eat more fruit and veggies.
My protein sources, like my diet as a vegetarian, are varied and include tofu, tempeh, quinoa, egg, lowfat greek yogurt, cheese (mostly home made), beans, nuts, and seeds. I also occasionally eat wild game and I'll eat other meat when work or social circumstances oblige me to.
I have a half cup of lowfat greek yogurt in a fruit smoothie for breakfast 5x a week and I eat cheese once a day at most. I've cut out most of my bread for the last 5 days, but I've yet to see where I end up on bread consumption, but lower than before is a definite. I don't drink calories other than meal supplement or fresh made juice except for the occasional sugar free flavored soy latte.
All the meat you buy and eat is full of hormones unless you actively avoid hormone treated meat. Even without artificial hormones meat contains various levels of hormones and pre/pro-hormone just like soy. Soy has phytoestrogens which may act as estrogen in the body. There are many studies when taken as a body are inconclusive. Phytoestrogens where found to reduce male reproduction in graze animals by reducing testosterone levels. It was found that ruminants are effected by this, but all of the studies conducted on human males show no decrease in testosterone. A meta-analysis was done of 15 clinical studies on the effects in males.
Abstract to the meta-analysis:
Quote from abstract:
"Result(s)
No significant effects of soy protein or isoflavone intake on T, SHBG, free T, or FAI were detected regardless of statistical model.
Conclusion(s)
The results of this meta-analysis suggest that neither soy foods nor isoflavone supplements alter measures of bioavailable T concentrations in men."
Most of the clinical controversy of high soy consumption in females is whether or not there is anti cancer effects or whether it aides in alleviation of menopause symptoms. I've not seen any scientific literature that substantiates issues in females other than potential hazard to fetal development and this isn't conclusive.
If you have information on soy I'd be happy to see it. I am accustomed to finding and reading scientific publications and that allows me to bypass using media information as my information source, but that doesn't mean that I'm not missing something.
A the technical analysis aside. I eat lots of soy and I feel better than when I eat lots of meat. I have increased energy, a reduction in weight, and an increase in the activities that would suggest that my hormones are doing fine
. I used to lift heavy weights 3 x a week on a strict vegetarian diet that was heavily reliant on soy.
In short, there is no reason to not eat soy (that I know of) and that means you can try it for yourself and see how it effects you. Have a checkup and bloodwork done before the switch. Start eating more soy and less meat in your diet and then look at the results in 6 months. See for yourself.
