Soy: It's More Than Just a Bean

Consuming Soy Decreases LDL-Cholesterol

No matter where you look these days, there's a push for Americans to eat more soy foods -- even some of Nutrio's recipes use one or another soy ingredient, such as soymilk or tofu. So why are health and nutrition experts recommending that we try to include soy foods?

Benefits of eating more soy?

At the top of the list -- consuming soy foods is thought to decrease blood cholesterol levels, especially levels of the "bad" cholesterol fraction called LDL-Cholesterol. The evidence is so strong, in fact, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows food manufacturers to label soy foods with a statement that it may help reduce the risk of heart disease.

No one knows for sure which part of the soybean confers the health benefits. While at one time food scientists thought a lot of the good stemmed from a naturally occurring food chemical called isoflavones (one type of phytochemical), most now think that the benefits come from something else in this ancient bean, such as the protein. It's even possible that a combination of factors are responsible for the health benefits. The point of telling you this? We recommend eating soy foods as opposed to taking soy supplements. Even if there is nothing in soy foods that helps specifically, we know that soy foods help simply when you eat them in place of meat protein -- providing lean protein without the saturated fats found in animal protein sources.

In addition to fighting artery-clogging heart disease, soy may also reduce your chances of developing cancer, osteoporosis and symptoms of menopause.

Coming Thursday: In Part 2 of our series on soy, find out how you can add more soy to your diet.

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