Soy Products Safe for Infants
An independent committee of scientists formed by the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction at NIH on Friday said that concerns about the potential effects of soy formula and other soy products on reproduction and development are "negligible," the USA Today reports. About 10% to 20% of U.S. infants receive soy formula, according to NIH (Rubin, USA Today, 3/20).
Recent studies conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and a Syracuse University researcher found that genistein, a steroid found in soy products, affected the development of the ovaries in infant mice.
However, Karl Rozman, chair of the committee and a toxicology professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, said that the studies should not raise concerns because the human body absorbs less than 1% of genistein in soy products.
In addition, the committee said that the mice in the studies received much higher doses of genistein than human infants would receive.
Jatinder Bhatia, a committee member and a professor at the Medical College of Georgia, said, "After 40 years of soy exposure we haven't seen a blip on the radar screen. Right now, we don't have a problem" (Brown, Wall Street Journal, 3/18).
NIH on Tuesday will publish a summary of the conclusions of committee at www.niehs.nih.gov (USA Today, 3/20).