cholesterol and eating soya protein in pregnancy - any nutritional experts out there?

[chiefcookandbottlewasher]

Hi all

have just been looking at my Babycentre email (I'm 24 weeks pregnant this week). There's a section on there about cholesterol levels and avoiding 'foods that claim to reduce it, including those using added soya protein.'

I eat provamel soya yogurt at breakfast each day, not because I'm worried about cholesterol - that's the last thing on my mind at the moment! - but because i really like it. It isn't a product that claims to reduct cholesterol leves, but obviously it is soya-based. Should I be avoiding it altogether or is this yet another thing for me to add to the list of things to worry needlesslly about?

Just been to Tesco and bought 4 tubs of the bloody stuff as well!!

I have heard it's not good for pregnant women to eat soya, but I have no scientific basis for this. Sorry not to be nore help.

well I only drink soya milk and did so throughout the pregnancy, I also had tofu fairly regularly

no side effects that I can see - what was the concern?
is it about hormones etc?

Do you mean the phytoestrogen products?

Afaik, soya is safe to eat in pregnancy - plenty of pg women in China and Japan eat soya, and vegan mums too!

Without wanting to sound like a scaremonger (and I would also like to say that I only read this in 1 article - it may not be true), I read that there are links to soya eaten in pregnancy and the baby's early childhood with childhood cancer.

Please note, the caveat in brackets is supposed to be in BOLD.

the article was saying that your cholesterol levels will rise in pregnancy due to amounts present in many growth hormones, therefore you should not try to lower your cholesterol as it may affect your baby's development.

Am certainly not concerned about my cholesterol but was surprised to see this advice as i have not come across it anywhere else.

Good point about vegan mums - there must be loads of people out there who eat soya during pregnancy mustn't there? For me this isn't a lifestyle choice, I just love this yoghurt and would rather keep on eating it if poss!

Anyone else read/heard about this?

Food Standards Agency says soya not important concern to pg women as long as soya eaten in reasonable amounts.
I think there's a blood chemistry change that protects pg women from high cholesterol problems, too.

thanks. Really useful!