thanks for your questions. I plan on exploring all of these questions very thoroughly in the soy series I’m working on. (the first article was about deforestation and was published this week) It’s too complex to address here, but the short answer is that foods that have historically been made of soy such as tofu and especially fermented products like tempeh, natto, and miso are good for you in small quantities. The problem is that there has been so much attention focused on the health benefits of soy that the food industry has started putting it in everything, using very chemically intensive processes. Now people are consuming a form of soy that isn’t so healthy because its so heavily processed and consuming unprecedented amounts of it to boot, which can cause a variety of health problems. I don’t know about the cholesterol question but will research it. I have heard that soy can contribute to thyroid problems, allergies, and other issues. So, please sit tight and I’ll be publishing the article in the next few weeks. Until then, stick with the items above and avoid soy in energy bars or anything that it may have been added to as a “functional food” Thanks for your interest and questions.