Weight:  Another theory, for some oriental women's getting less cancer,
was that they weighed less than American women. They were slim.

Minerals:  Another theory, was that there was more selenium in the soil,
& in the food.

???

Susan, Su_Texas   my opinions

Sandy L  wrote: << Breast cancer rates among oriental women are said to be
lower than among
western women (I haven't verified that), and I have heard conjecture
that the soy in diet may be a good thing.  >>

There could also be a genetics factor, too, and I am not sure if the research
also looked out or separated the above from the possible total amount or
addition of green tea consumption, also supposedly of benefit.  However, I do
believe that something must be going on with soy for it to be repeatedly
discussed.  At the same time, there is a great deal more of soy in our products
than there was in the  past.
At one time soy was considered the "perfect" food.  And supposedly certified
organic soy products (i.e. tofu) was included as such.  Unfortunately, there is
actually no longer anyway to guarantee that any soy product is 100% organic.
The reason for that is because corn (and possibly something else, like even the
soy bean, although think that only it was the corn that was involved) was
genetically engineered to resist certain pests.  What happened was when the
pests than ate the corn, there was something toxic in them that caused them to
die and it allowed the corn to survive.  Supposedly this was thought to be
toxic only to the pests or very little else and was at the least thought to be
confined to the involved crop or plant on which it had been done.
What was not known or taken into account when this was done was how it might
affect all other organisms that ingested this genetically engineered corn.
Unfortunately, it also happened to be toxic to the monarch butterfly and has
since reduced their number such that we were told (in a cooking class a took a
few years--'everything you never wanted to know about tofu'--which I took after
my 2 youngest daughters went vegetarian on us at ages 13 and 16--for different
reasons, although separately but around the same time).
Anyway, the monarch butterfly is responsible for cross-pollination.  It
pollinated not only with the genetically engineered plants but with the
certified organic ones as well.  So supposedly, there can no longer be any
guarantee that anything (or at least any soybean) is 100% organic.  However,
supposedly those that are certified organic are more so than ones that are not.
We were also told that this was here to stay and that there was no way to
undue that damage once it was done.  I really don't know enough about the
process to comment one way or the other.