Oh lord, you did skip biology!
"When Impossible Burgers launched their Whopper, a cattle vet called James Stangle published a takedown based on the fact that the main ingredient was soy protein.
The Atlantic reports him as claiming that ‘an Impossible Whopper has 18 million times as much oestrogen as a regular whopper’, and that eating four Impossible Burgers per day (why would you do this?!) ‘has enough oestrogen to grow boobs on a male’.
The scientists at fact-checking site Health Feedback issued this rebuttal: ‘Inaccurate: Soy does not contain oestrogen, which is a mammalian hormone’.
Soy contains phytoestrogens which can mimic oestrogen in human cells but we don’t really know to what extent. The fact that many men in Asian countries live off things such as tofu and haven’t turned into women yet does suggest that this is just a misogynistic fear promoted by guys whose worst nightmare is losing an ounce of their hyper-masculinity.
In actual fact, studies looking into the effect of these plant hormones on men have only really found health benefits.
One randomised trial saw men taking high doses of soy phytoestrogen every day for three months. Rather than grow boobs, they improved their blood sugar and reduced signs of inflammation.
TL;DR plant-based eating has nothing to do with perceived societal standards of masculinity. Duh."