**CORRECTION** Jan. 9, 2021: BDO has changed the headline of this article from “Doctor Warns Impossible Burger Has 18 Million Times More Estrogen than Beef” to “Doctor Criticized for Claim that ‘Impossible Burger’ May Have 18 Million Times More Estrogen than Beef” to better reflect the content of the article, and show the falsehood of the claim. We apologize for any confusion the original headline may have caused our readers.
--- Original article below ---
A South Dakota doctor issued a warning about imitation meat products like Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, but others believe that it's not that big of a deal.
You May Also Like
Impossible meat is the popular vegan option that many are turning to that is supposed to look like, smell like, and even taste like real meat.
Here are the facts:
Dr. James Stangle created a stir when he revealed what he said may be actually in the patty.
“The impossible whopper patty is made from 24 ingredients,” Stangle wrote. “The most important ingredient is soy protein. The whopper patty has just one ingredient. That would be beef.”
You May Also Like
The Impossible Whopper is a burger with a patty made from plants, including soy, instead of beef. And that's where the issue comes in. He said that the soy in the Impossible burger has 18 Million times more estrogen than regular beef.
“The impossible whopper has 44 mg of estrogen and the whopper has 2.5 ng of estrogen,” he explained to the Western Journal.
“Now let me refresh your metric system. There are 1 million nanograms (ng) in one milligram (mg). That means an impossible whopper has 18 million times as much estrogen as a regular whopper.”
Estrogen, as you know, is the primary female sex hormone. It is responsible for the development and regulation of the female reproductive system and secondary sex characteristics.
Stangle claims, with this level of estrogen it would take only
four impossible Whoppers a day to reach a level that will affect the physiology of an adult male.
There are two interesting journal articles describing the feminizing effects related to excessive consumption of soy in men.
The first was a case report of a 60-year-old man, who had been habitually consuming three quarts (2,840mL) of soy milk every day, which is just over 11 cups. The man developed gynecomastia, or growth of breast tissue, which resolved on discontinuation of the soy milk consumption.
The second case was a 19-year-old vegan man who was consuming large quantities of soy products (>14 serves) on a daily basis, which resulted in hormonal dysfunction, loss of libido, and erectile dysfunction, which resolved following discontinuation of his extremely high soy, vegan diet.
Soy is a phytoestrogen, or plant-based estrogen. It contains two isoflavones, genistein and daidzein, which act like estrogen (the female sex hormone) within the body. Because estrogen plays a role in everything from breast cancer to sexual reproduction, this is where most of the soy controversy stems.
Soy isoflavones can bind to estrogen receptors in the body and cause either weak estrogenic or anti-estrogenic activity.
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, soy can indeed have estrogenic properties. Because of that, its effects can...
... vary depending on the existing level of hormones in the body. Premenopausal women have much higher circulating levels of estradiol—the major form of estrogen in the human body—than postmenopausal women. In this context, soy may act like an anti-estrogen, but among postmenopausal women, soy may act more like an estrogen. Also, women with breast cancer are classified into hormone type—either hormone-positive (ER+/PR+) or hormone negative (ER-/PR-) breast cancer—and these tumors respond differently to estrogens.
So what about other products with soy in them? Soy products include:
- Soy milk
- Tempeh - this is a product not many people are familiar with - it is a traditional Indonesian food, made by forming whole soybeans into a cake and then fermenting it with a mold
- Tofu
- Edamame
- Soy yogurt
- Textured vegetable protein (TVP)
- Isolated soy protein powders (found in processed foods such as faux meats)
- Miso paste
- Natto
- Soy sauce
- Tamari
So you be the judge. What do you think about the impossible burger?
