Right-Wing Columnist: Tofu Turns You Gay
Yes folks, it’s still the silly season. The people at WingNut Daily, er, I mean WorldNet Daily, have peddled all sorts of lies and distortions over the past few years, but this one takes the cake.
According to the seriously misinformed Jim Rutz, tofu turns you gay. Yes, Rutz writes that soy contains estrogen and is therefore “feminizing”:
Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That’s why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today’s rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t homosexual.” No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can’t remember a time when excess estrogen wasn’t influencing them.
Well, at least the WND editors had the good sense to label this idiocy a “commentary.” Who pays this guy, the American Dairy and Beef Cattle Assn.?
OK, let’s think about this for a moment: if soy products turn one gay, wouldn’t you expect to see a larger proportion of gay people in the population of Asian countries, where soy products like tofu have been a dietary staple for centuries? Wouldn’t there be a higher incidence of women’s health problems associated with high estrogen levels: fibroids, breast cancer, bleeding disorders?
What about the gay males whose mothers breast-fed them, and never touched soy products in the criticial developmental stage Rutz mentions? What about gay vegetarian females? They eat tofu, and they’re still gay! What about the gay penguins, for crying out loud!
This is just more stupidity from the right-wing, science-allergic community. But you gotta admit, it’s pretty hilarious stupidity. WingNut Daily, you outdid yourselves on this one.
Okay, here goes: soy does not contain estrogen. It contains estrogen-like compounds called phytoestrogens; soy isoflavones are a kind of phytoestrogen found in tofu, soybeans, soy milk, etc. Some studies suggest that isoflavones inhibit the activity of natural estrogen in the body, which explains why Asian women have a much lower incidence of breast cancer than Western women.
But don’t tell Jim Rutz. He’ll just use that as an excuse to write a column about how tofu turns girls into lesbians.