A second article in another Hawaiian paper on the tofu study has been located. The papers published follow-ups that sought to allay concerns about tofu, raising points from the need for more research before coming to definitive conclusions (obviously) to harming local tofu businesses. Here are the articles I've found on the tofu study:
http://starbulletin.com/1999/11/19/news/story4.html http://starbulletin.com/1999/11/22/news/story4.html http://starbulletin.com/1999/11/24/news/story5.html http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/1999/Nov/20/localnews3.html http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/1999/Nov/26/localnews3.html
I contacted a researcher in a study I quoted showing that the soy phytochemical genistein killed testicular cells. I asked if those cells were normal or cancerous. He said they were altered, but in other studies he has and/or is working on, genistein is found to kill normal testicular cells, yet increase their proliferation at lower doses.
While healthy folks may not need chemicals increasing or decreasing the number of their cells, that evidence suggests that if there's a toxic level, there may also be a safe and possibly beneficial level of soy. With respect to reducing rates of cancer and other major illness, research suggests that soy works. The FDA recently approved the use of health claims on soy products.[*] PubMed searches find numerous studies (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed) over the years that demonstrate an anti-cancer effect of soy phytochemicals, and their cytotoxic effect appears generally to be highly specific to cancer cells.
Of course, the possibility of a risk of brain atrophy is not to be taken lightly. Of all organs, the brain is arguably the most valuable and important to preserve.
[*] http://soy.com/Soy_Information/News/newfdaclaim/newfdaclaim.html
IS SOY SAFE?: http://users.erols.com/igoddard/soy.htm