The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that online rumors that eating soy products increases the risks of premature sexual development and breast cancer are incorrect, as phytoestrogens contained in soy products are very limited.
Soy is rich in nutrients and especially high in isoflavones, which belong to a class of plant-derived compounds that have estrogen-like structures, similar to mammalian estrogens, which are generally known as phytoestrogens, it said.
Some people fear that soy isoflavones, with estrogenic effects, could increase risks of sexual precocity and breast cancer.
Soy isoflavones only account for about 0.2 to 0.4 percent of soy beans’ weight and someone eating 1kg of soy beans would ingest a maximum of about 20 to 40 milligrams, the FDA said.
The absorption rate of soy isoflavones in the human intestinal tract is only about 20 percent, it said, adding that a person would need to consume a very large amount of soy products to absorb excessive soy isoflavones.
Intake of phytoestrogens does not directly increase mammalian estrogens in the human body, so there is no direct relation between soy product intake and sexual precocity or breast cancer, the FDA said, adding that some studies have even suggested that eating soy products could lower those risks.
More studies are needed to prove the relation between soy product intake and various diseases, and in the meantime people should maintain a healthy diet with balanced nutrients and exercise regularly, the FDA said.
People should acquire a correct understanding of dietary concepts instead of believing rumors and seek medical attention when they feel ill, the FDA said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS