Can Soy Increase Breast Cancer Risk? Top Breast Cancer Surgeon Answers!

You may have heard that consuming soy increases the risk of breast cancer — but is it a myth?  

According to surgeon-to-the-stars Dr. Kristi Funk, this is FALSE.

"Consuming soy is good for you," the doc says.

With that said, she didn't always think this way, she says. In fact, she spent 16 years believing that there was a correlation between soy and breast cancer, because soy has phytoestrogens, which — chemically speaking, she says — have a structure that's very similar to estrogen.

So, she would tell her cancer patients to avoid soy in all its forms, because she thought it would act like estrogen (which, she says, fuels 80% of breast cancer).

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Recently though, while researching her new book Breasts: The Owner's Manual: Every Woman's Guide to Reducing Cancer Risk, Making Treatment Choices, and Optimizing Outcomes, she examined the extensive research about soy consumption in humans and came to a realization.

"Not only is soy safe," claims Dr. Funk, "it literally drops breast cancer rates by 60% for soy consumers. And if you have breast cancer, it drops recurrence by 60%."

The doctor does advise, though, to always purchase non-GMO soy items. And in terms of soy milk, make sure the first ingredient on the box is whole soy beans, not soy protein isolate.

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