Today's Dining Out section in the New York Times includes an article by
Marian Burros entitled "For Soy, the Time May Have Finally Come."   It's
about how healthful it is believed to be for adults to add some soy to their
diet, and how Americans are finally doing that.

About halfway down there is a paragraph that states, carefully enough,
"Studies have suggested that soy products also offer protection against
breast and prostate cancer and may ease menopausal symptoms.  Soy contains
phytoestrogens called isoflavones that do have a weak estrogenic effect.  But
. . . evidence about soy's benefits is still not proven except for the
cholesterol-lowering effect.  No long-term human clinical trials have been
conducted..."

She is obviously writing about adults, but I am sure many readers will take
away from this piece the implicit idea that soy formulas are probably
healthier than cow's milk formulas.

If someone more knowledgeable and more credentialed than I were to write a
letter TODAY to the New York Times pointing out that this is not so -- that
adding a bit of soy for an adult is different from taking a baby and feeding
it nothing but soy, etc -- it would have a good chance, I think, of being
published, and might expose a lot of people who have never thought about this
before to the idea.

Maureen Minchin, are you out there?  Or other researchers with good initials
after their names?  Larry Gartner, are you on line?

(However please folks remember that this article was a GOOD article about
real health benefits, carefully phrased, that did not say ANYTHING explicit
about formula or children at all!  So no flaming the New York Times please!
The idea is to be *adding* to the store of readers' knowledge, rather than
disagreeing with the article.)

I don't see an address in the paper for letters to the editor.  I'm pretty
sure you can email off of the Times website, though.  (www.nytimes.com)

Hopefully,
Elisheva Urbas
uncredentialled bf-supporting Times reader in New York City

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