Japanese women and breast cancer - what has been overlooked

[ALS]

One thing I can't agree with you is the consumption of tofu products by Japanese people. In general, you won't see much tofu in restaurants, but we all know, restaurant food and what's served at home is completely different. I personally think it's enormous part of their diet. Take abura-age, which is fried tofu strips, or tofu is ALWAYS in their miso-soups, and as you know, miso is a staple food.
Japanese women add tofu to a lot of dishes as it's a "healthier alternative" to meat. They add tofu to minced meat "to add volume";
what about tonyu - soy milk? They add it literally everywhere.

I am not in disagreement, however it's not apparent to an outsider how much tofu is eaten - what I said was "Tofu is consumed but hardly in public".

"miso is a staple food" it's also fermented, which makes a difference.

"tofu is ALWAYS in their miso-soups" - yes, but not a lot. small cubes of it, maybe less than an ounce.

I am aware that tofu is sold in supermarkets and that there are tofu shops as well.

The issue is connecting the consumption of soy to a lack of breast cancer without taking into account the fact that hormonal birth control was not available / legal like it's been in other countries.

 

[ALS]

Kombu contains extremely high levels of iodine. While this mineral is essential for normal growth and development, the levels in kombu can cause overdoses; it has been blamed for thyroid problems after drinking large amounts of soy milk in which kombu was an additive.

Hashimoto's disease (which I have) was first observed in Japan in women who lived on the coast and consumed a lot of sea vegetables. I'm not sure which ones they consumed. In my case, hard to say how it started.

As I stated before, seaweed consumption among average Japanese is more on the level of a condiment, in spite of what some people want to believe. You see little shreds of lightweight nori on pizza, small pieces of wakame in miso soup, nori (fairly lightweight) wrapped around onigiri. It's not like they're eating bowls of it. Corn is really popular in Japan, as well as is beer and whisky, but you don't see anyone attaching magical health outcomes to those..

The average Japanese isn't as long lived (I'd say they weren't remarkable in that aspect) as the people in Okinawa. Andrew Weil pointed out that Okinawans eat a lot of bitter melon, which is not as common on the mainland. Bitter melon has effects on insulin / blood sugar. The coral calcium guy (R. Barefoot) attributed the longevity in Okinawa to their access to the calcium degrading from the coral reefs in the area and the fact that they use it (adding it to chicken feed, enriching the soil with it - so he said).

Getting back to breast cancer and soy, when soy was being pushed as an antidote for breast cancer, the statement was made that the Japanese language doesn't have a word for 'menopause'. I'm not sure what they call it medically, but the fact that the common language doesn't have a word for it (and I'm not sure if that's true) MAY be because it's one of those personal issues that doesn't get inserted into common conversation. There may be a medical term for it, idk.

Personal lives are not spoken about much in Japan, I found this out the hard way when teaching English. In the textbook, there was an activity involving bringing a picture of a family member, spouse, SO etc. to class, which backfired a little. (long story). Talking about menopause would be crossing some cultural line there. For all we know, they go through it.

On another note, Danny Roddy and Haidut had a recent interview with Ray Peat and they spoke about estrogen, aggression and authoritarianism. I have to wonder if the Japanese were affected by the estrogenic aspects of their diet. Pre-modern Japan was exceptionally accepting and encouraging, of male homosexuality and bisexuality. Francis Xavier was pretty shocked by the level of sodomy going on when he landed there in the 1500's.

 

[Asya_D]

The issue is connecting the consumption of soy to a lack of breast cancer without taking into account the fact that hormonal birth control was not available / legal like it's been in other countries.

That I fully agree.

 

[burtlancast]

resulting iodine intake is a difficult task, and with ever changing diets, a close estimate is all that can be made."

Not true.

A simple urine analysis will reveal the amount of iodine ingested, and there's many scientific publications available that provide this information.

It proves Japanese people consistenly ingest between 10 and 1000 times the iodine RDA, and yet their thyroid disease incidence remains among the lowest in the world.

 

[ALS]

Not true.

A simple urine analysis will reveal the amount of iodine ingested, and there's many scientific publications available that provide this information.

It proves Japanese people consistenly ingest between 10 and 1000 times the iodine RDA, and yet their thyroid disease incidence remains among the lowest in the world.

The entire quote from the study (not from me) was this:

"Interpreting information to determine Japanese seaweed consumption and resulting iodine intake is a difficult task, and with ever changing diets, a close estimate is all that can be made."

Stating they cannot determine how much iodine intake results from seaweed consumption alone.

 

[kaybb]

No. That's a mentality. They have no moral issue with suicide.

Japan is somewhat unforgiving of people who don't fit in - it may have to do with the concept of 'shame' - (however, not completely unaccepting, too long to go into here), and that may be a contributing factor. There is also a lack of empathy in some cases.

They have a belief in hierarchy, which at times can reach weird extremes. For example, I once read about two girls who were applying for jobs as strippers, one got hired 5 minutes before the other one. The one that got hired first used her 'status' to bully the other and have the second one hired wait on her. This is a mentality that is quite foreign to people in the US. I wouldn't say it's a rule there, but those two seemed to think it was 'normal' behavior.

After looking into narcissism, I discovered that covert narcissism is part and parcel of the culture and is encouraged as a way of coping. Don't ask me how that got started. This video, in fact, describes the Japanese really well (Japanese acting badly, that is) Narcissists employ a lot of shame when interacting with people. Japanese culture is known as 'the culture of shame' and not for nothing. I think this might be a reason some people there feel like they've hit a brick wall.




There is also a ***t ton of alcohol consumption, and that is a depressant and a neurotoxin. In spite of the fact that they lack the enzyme to process alcohol (like most east Asians) and they tend to vomit easily after drinking. Friday and Saturday nights you will find 'sidewalk pizzas' just about everywhere. They still enjoy getting wasted, go figure.

That Utube clip was the best covert Narc analyses!