Soy's Heart Benefits Questioned
Soy's Heart Benefits Questioned
Studies Fail to Show Protective Effect on Cardiovascular Risk
Jan. 23, 2006 -- "Eat soy to protect your heart" has been the message from government and private health agencies for the past six years, but the American Heart Association now says it looks like soy has no independent impact on cardiovascular risk.
Recent clinical studies have failed to show a protective benefit for soy protein in the diet, and, especially, for taking soy-based isoflavones in supplement form, Harvard School of Public Health nutrition researcher Frank M. Sacks, MD, tells WebMD.
Sacks and other members of the AHA nutrition committee reviewed 22 such studies and concluded that eating soy-based foods has only minimal impact on cholesterol and other heart-disease risk factors.
The studies indicated that people who ate about 50 grams of soy protein a day, which represented about half of the usual total daily protein intake, reduced LDL, or "bad," cholesterol by only about 3%. Eating large amounts of soy had no effect on other risk factors such as triglycerides or HDL "good" cholesterol.
Combined data from 19 studies assessing isoflavones -- the plant estrogen derived from soy --suggested that isoflavone supplements had no effect on cholesterol at all.
The new research prompted the AHA Nutrition Committee to revisit its scientific advisory on soy protein published in 2000. In the earlier statement the group concluded that "it is prudent to recommend including soy protein foods in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol to promote heart health."
That advice is still sound, says Tufts University nutrition researcher Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, who helped write the new statement. But not for the reasons suggested in the earlier report.
The clinical evidence available in 2000 led the AHA nutrition panel to conclude that as little as 25 grams a day of soy protein could reduce LDL cholesterol by as much as 8%. That has not been borne out in the subsequent studies, she says.
"Soy is a great food. It is low in saturated fat and it is a good-quality protein," she tells WebMD. "It is helpful because a lot of the products made with soy can be used to displace foods that are high in saturated fats, like meat and cheese, from the diet."
But Lichtenstein says it is now clear that "the independent benefits of soy, in terms of protecting against heart disease, were overestimated."
Soy's Heart Benefits Questioned
Studies Fail to Show Protective Effect on Cardiovascular Risk
Jan. 23, 2006 -- "Eat soy to protect your heart" has been the message from government and private health agencies for the past six years, but the American Heart Association now says it looks like soy has no independent impact on cardiovascular risk.
Recent clinical studies have failed to show a protective benefit for soy protein in the diet, and, especially, for taking soy-based isoflavones in supplement form, Harvard School of Public Health nutrition researcher Frank M. Sacks, MD, tells WebMD.
Sacks and other members of the AHA nutrition committee reviewed 22 such studies and concluded that eating soy-based foods has only minimal impact on cholesterol and other heart-disease risk factors.
The studies indicated that people who ate about 50 grams of soy protein a day, which represented about half of the usual total daily protein intake, reduced LDL, or "bad," cholesterol by only about 3%. Eating large amounts of soy had no effect on other risk factors such as triglycerides or HDL "good" cholesterol.
Combined data from 19 studies assessing isoflavones -- the plant estrogen derived from soy --suggested that isoflavone supplements had no effect on cholesterol at all.
Is Soy a Bust?
The new research prompted the AHA Nutrition Committee to revisit its scientific advisory on soy protein published in 2000. In the earlier statement the group concluded that "it is prudent to recommend including soy protein foods in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol to promote heart health."
That advice is still sound, says Tufts University nutrition researcher Alice Lichtenstein, DSc, who helped write the new statement. But not for the reasons suggested in the earlier report.
The clinical evidence available in 2000 led the AHA nutrition panel to conclude that as little as 25 grams a day of soy protein could reduce LDL cholesterol by as much as 8%. That has not been borne out in the subsequent studies, she says.
"Soy is a great food. It is low in saturated fat and it is a good-quality protein," she tells WebMD. "It is helpful because a lot of the products made with soy can be used to displace foods that are high in saturated fats, like meat and cheese, from the diet."
But Lichtenstein says it is now clear that "the independent benefits of soy, in terms of protecting against heart disease, were overestimated."
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