A family friend who’s a psychiatrist told us that tofu can worsen depression. I’m skeptical, but a web search revealed the following:
Even though soy is packed with lean protein, it’s also packed with trypsin and protease inhibitors—enzymes that make the digestion of protein incredibly difficult. Soy is also high in copper, a mineral linked to anxious behavior, and loaded with oligosaccharides, which are known to cause flatulence. (Link, TW: meat)
The article also says tempeh is better than tofu in this regard, so that’s good since I like tempeh more than tofu (harder to source though). I wanted to ask here who are more along in life.
I’m by no means an expert on this subject, but that article you linked is not trustworthy. It tells you to try fermented versions of soy instead of tofu, ostensibly to avoid the anxiety-inducing effects of tofu, and then later says fermented foods cause anxiety. It also gives a reason tofu causes anxiety as it contains compounds “that make the digestion of proteins incredibly difficult,” but no rationale for how that causes anxiety. It also says copper is “linked to anxious behavior,” a dubious claim, again with no source.
I’d ask your psychiatrist friend for some literature on the subject.
If you search on Google Scholar for scientific articles on the topic, there are indeed several studies and even meta studies out there. I didn’t read all of them but only screened some abstracts.
My first impression is that a potential negative effect of soy products seems to be not significant as there are several studies finding no or even the inverse effect. However, if you have certain preconditions don’t trust some random guy on the internet. I’d advise to get a second opinion from a doctor and also read through some of the studies in more detail.
The pooled effect size from 10 studies indicated no association between the consumption of a vegetarian diet and depression (pooled effect size: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.84–1.25, p = 0.817). Further, the pooled effect size from four studies suggests that a vegetarian diet is not associated with anxiety (pooled effect size: 1.09, 95% CI: 0.71–1.68, p = 0.678). Due to insufficient data for stress, we were not able to pool the results.
Another study specifically focused on the effect of soy on pregnant or menopausal women. They came to the result that soy products may be even beneficial:
Higher intake of total soy products, tofu, tofu products, fermented soybeans, boiled soybeans, miso soup, and isoflavones was independently related to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms during pregnancy
However, they also say that they are apparantly the first study with such a result:
Our study is the first to show independent inverse relationships between intake of total soy products, tofu, tofu products, fermented soybeans, boiled soybeans, miso soup, and isoflavones and depressive symptoms during pregnancy.
Another one regarding depression among workers says…
High intake of isoflavones has been reported to be associated with decreased prevalence of depressive symptoms. However, no prospective study has examined this association [before this study]. […] During 5065 person-years of follow-up, 276 (23.8 %) workers were newly identified as having depressive symptoms. Isoflavone intake was not associated with risk of depressive symptoms. After adjustment for lifestyle and dietary factors and baseline CES-D score, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95 % confidence interval) for the lowest through highest tertile of isoflavone intake were 1.00 (reference), 0.93 (0.66–1.31), and 0.93 (0.62–1.38) (P for trend = 0.70). Conclusions Our findings suggest that higher isoflavone intake is not associated with decreased risk of depressive symptoms among Japanese.
My search in general: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=tofu+depression&oq=tofu+depress
As a non-vegetarian who has leaned on soy and tofu more and more as a dairy and meat substitute over the years, I have noticed zero psychological or physiological effects.
I have read terrifying things about soy, but part of me thinks there is a market for such narratives, simply because people want to feel comfortable about continuing eating a meat diet.
I still eat meat and carry no judgement towards those who do or don’t, but my objective belief is that there are far more substantial negatives to eating animal products than eating soy.
Also regarding the digestion part, I am much better with soy milk than I was with dairy. 😂
I suppose it’s a little like vaping vs. smoking - sure the jury is out on vaping, but we know for certain cigarettes cause cancer so I’d rather take my chances on vaping.
This is effectively an opinion piece. Find good sources and journal articles to clarify.
See, here is where I would immediately be skeptical about the article:
enzymes that make the digestion of protein incredibly difficult
Enzymes are protein structures and are therefore very susceptible to heat. (I.e. when you would cook an egg and it turns “white” this is proteins beeing degenerated by heat)
You would NEVER eat raw soy (or other legumes thereof). They should always get cooked thoroughly. And in tofu production, you would also cook the soy milk in the process.
I’m not 100% knowledgeable about these specific proteins, but it sounds like big strawman to me from the getgo.