Nutrition
Soy Food
American
& Japanese
Ten
Benefits of Soy Food
Lipid
Profile
Cholesterol Lowering Foods
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Soy Food for Lower Cholesterol & Better
Menopause If
you want to lower your Cholesterol, consider filling your
menu with soy products.
Researchers at Wake
Forest University Baptist Medical Center in
Winston-Salem, N.C., say soy high in plant estrogens
called isoflavones significantly lowers cholesterol.
Study participants
were fed a soy-protein diet that contained one of four
amounts of isoflavones, ranging from 3 milligrams to a
high level of 62 mg. and compared their outcome to
participants given a milk-protein placebo. The most
dramatic results during the nine-week study were for
those consuming the 62 mg. isoflavone diet. These study
participants experienced a 10 percent reduction in their
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), or the
so-called "bad" cholesterol that clogs
arteries.
"It's now
evident that isoflavones are responsible for the
cholesterol-lowering effect," says researcher Dr.
John R. Crouse. "How the isoflavones work is another
question. There is some evidence that they need the soy
protein to work since other research has shown that
isoflavones alone do not lower cholesterol."
Asian women have low rates of breast
and uterine cancers; some studies attribute this to their
diet, which is abundant in phytoestrogens, plant
compounds with estrogen-like effects. Asian women are
also less likely than Western women to suffer menopausal
hot flashes. A study in the January Obstetrics and
Gynecology suggests phytoestrogens might take the
credit for that too.
Soy has garnered lots of attention in
recent years as a possible hedge against breast and
other cancers and as a "natural" alternative
for easing menopausal
symptoms. Now there's further
evidence to support its role in warding off heart disease.
A study of 51
middle-aged women published in a recent issue of the
journal Menopause found that a twice-daily dose of
powdered soy protein lowered cholesterol, reduced blood
pressure and improved menopausal symptoms, compared to a
once-daily dose of soy or a carbohydrate supplement. Each
woman in the study tried all three diets — 10 grams
of soy twice a day, 20 grams once a day, or a
carbohydrate placebo — for six weeks at a time.
Participants mixed the soy powder into milk or juice or
added it to yogurt, cereal or other foods.
The twice-a-day soy
diet lowered total cholesterol by 6 percent, LDL (bad)
cholesterol by 7 percent, and diastolic blood pressure
(the smaller number) by about 5 points. Unlike estrogen
replacement therapy, soy protein did not appear to raise
blood levels of the fats known as triglycerides. High
triglyceride levels are a risk factor for heart disease.
Researchers believe
that plant chemicals called phytoestrogens are
responsible for soy's health benefits. Phytoestrogens act
similarly to the hormone estrogen in the body but
have the remarkable ability to mimic estrogen in certain
tissues and block it in others. So phytoestrogens can
theoretically both alleviate menopause symptoms, as
estrogen does, and act as an anti-estrogen to prevent the
growth and proliferation of certain cancers. In this
study, the 20 gram dose of soy protein contained 34 mg.
of phytoestrogens, about half the daily amount consumed
by the average Japanese woman. Eating soy twice instead
of once a day may help to keep phytoestrogen levels in
the body more constant.
The Wake Forest
University researchers say that because they saw
beneficial results with a relatively small amount of soy,
women who wish to add soy to their diets don't have to
make radical dietary changes.
Adding soy to the
diet is easy to do,but in some women it can cause
gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating and gas, and
it does add calories.
|
The ancient herb red clover
(Trifolium pratense), long used to ease estrogen-related
menopausal symptoms, has now been found to significantly
increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels in postmenopausal
women. |
