In a message dated 98-12-16 23:03:56 EST, you write:

<< Q: Can some foods replace a prescription for estrogen?

 A: Some studies speculate that phyto-estrogens, fond in foods such as
    beans, tofu, and peas, could be the reason women in Japan seldom
    suffer hot flashes.  They eat much more soy in their daily diet.
    In the US, to get enough phyto-estrogens to reap any benefits, you
    would have to eat 22 servings of tofu a day or drink 64 ounces of
    soy milk, says Dr. Nachtigall [ob-gyn professor at NYU].  "We don't
    tend to eat that way," he says.


 I don't know how much soy milk would be found in a cup of soy formula.
  >>

This I got from the New Zealand Medical Jounal.

" Four New Zealand scientist say a baby drinking soya milk would consume 100
times the amount of eostrogen that a breastfed child received, equivalent to
several contraceptive pills a day.

It is well establised that soyabean products contain phytoestrogens daidzein
and genistein.  The quantities recommended by manufacturers for infant feeding
provide an intake three to five times as much daizein and genistein as amounts
which disrupt the menstrual cycle when fed to post menopausal women.

Other researchers have similar concerns.  The introductory paper presented by
the US Food and Drug Association Department of Health at a recent
phytoestrogen conference notes 'Given the DES tragedy, it would be foolish to
ignore the possibility that some phytoestrogens constitute a developmental
hazard.'

'It would be prudent for general sales of soy formulas to be stopped,' says
the New Zealand scientists, Dr. Cliff Irvine, Lincoln University, Dr. Mike
Fitzpatrick, Aukland, Dr. Iain Robertson, Auckland University Medical School
and Dr. David Woodams of Aukland."

There are other concerns about zinc absorption and soy formulas in babies
drinking it before two months of age.

Kim Sherwood, in upstate NY