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NZ doctors join calls for caution on soy milk

Wellington, NZPA. – New Zealand general practitioners have joined non-profit groups overseas in cautioning against the use of the soy milk as an infant fee "other than in very exceptional circumstances".

It would be "crazy" for mothers to be encouraged to use soy instead of breast-feeding or cow’s milk, except in exceptional circumstances, they said.

American nutrition lobby The Weston A Price Foundation has joined the British Food Commission in calling for soy-based infant formulas to be withdrawn from general sale to the public, and to carry a warning label.

The said researchers in New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom were concerned high levels of phytooestrogens – plant hormones also known as isoflavones contained in soy formulas could affect hormone development of children.

The isoflavones contained in the formulas mimic a weak form of the female sex hormone oestrogen. In extreme cases, they could lead to premature sexual development in boys and infertility in both sexes.

Royal NZ College of General Practitioners chairman Ralph Wiles said the Health Ministry was correct in saying soy milk provided a useful alternative for babies who could not tolerate dairy-based infant formulas.

But Dr Wiles said the ministry had not emphasised that this represented a very small number of infants.

"The debate on dairy milk formula versus soy milk also risks drawing attention from the best sustenance of all – breast milk," he said.

"If breast feeing isn’t possible, then formula derived from dairy products offer an inferior alternative, but still one that is preferable to soy milk given that dairy based infant formulas have been manipulated by the manufacturers to make them somewhat better, nutritionally, than raw cow’s milk," Dr Wiles said.

Only if those first two options had been tried, or at least properly considered with advice and support from a health professional, should soy milk be considered for infants who were definitely intolerant of dairy-based formulas.

"Until the viability of soy products have been more thoroughly and independently researched, it is crazy to encourage their use in opposition to dairy-based formulas, or worse still, breast milk," he said.

Reliable information on the issue was not yet available, although Asian countries relied heavily on soy based products of all kinds.

"That would presumably be a good place to start research," said Dr Wiles. "How much soy is in an Asian infant’s diet and what is the long term comparative health effect?"

Until those sort of finding were available, it was right to counsel extreme caution.

"And the Health Ministry, while technically right in what it says, should perhaps be exploring the idea of a major publicity campaign to encourage breast feeding by new mothers, and the acceptance of breast feeding in public by wider society."