Harness The Benefits of Soy

There are very few foods that are allowed by the U.S. FDA to include health claims on the label. Yet, soy is among those that are. You may have even read one of the claims lately saying that diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol that include twenty-five grams of soy protein daily can lower the risk of heart disease. Soy has a lot of good properties, some of them are mentioned below.

Soy helps a variety of ailments from cardiovascular disease to prostate cancer to menopause symptoms. Even with these benefits many people simply don't eat soy because they are not familiar with it. The soybean is a legume and is made into a variety of foods such as soy milk, tofu, miso, and tempeh.

Soy helps cardiovascular disease by lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol up to 4% to 5%. Even greater decreases of LDL can be achieved when soy is substituted for red meat or other sources of saturated fats. Current theories suggest soy has such a beneficial effect because it increases the activity of receptors that "trap" LDL.

Soy is replete with isoflavones. These chemicals are very similar to estrogen and bear some of the same effects, but not as strongly as estrogen. Also known as phytoestrogens, isoflavones help arteries relax and expand which helps blood circulation and decreases blood pressure. A few studies have revealed decreases up to fifteen points. Additional blood flow to the body and its organs is always a beneficial thing.

Men will be happy to know the following facts. Studies have shown that cancer patients who consumed soy isoflavones for six months showed a leveling off of prostate-specific antigen, a key indicator in prostate cancer. In addition, isoflavones are believed to inhibit enzymes that fuel tumor growth.

Men aren't the only ones to benefit from consuming soy. Menopausal women also get great benefits from soy because the phytoestrogens in soy are metabolized in the body into equol. Women who have had more than 5 hot flashes each day have found that eating soy can help reduce hot flash frequency up to 40%. Soy has also proven helpful in reducing vaginal dryness in some menopausal women.

Finally, people with kidney disease can also be helped by eating soy. Glomerular filtration rate is a measure of kidney stress that is reduced when animal proteins are replaced with soy proteins. This reduction in kidney stress may help slow kidney damage.

With its unbelievable health benefits for men and women of every age, and its power to provide a beneficial source of high protein, low fat calories, soy is likely to remain a popular, and healthy alternative for dieters all over. So begin integrating soy based foods into your diet now, and harness all the good things soy has to offer.

Article Source: Main Articles

For an incredibly effective way to raise the amount of soy in your diet try Herbalife Formula 1. Its a delicious waste slimming shake made by the industry leading weight loss company Herbalife.

This article may be reproduced wholly or in part without written permission provided the byline, resource area, and any hyperlinks remain in order to give proper credit to the author.

Internet search engines and directory listings are imperative to your sites existence and success. Submit Your Website to the Searchen Networks directory and search engine to achieve authoritive inbound links.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5