Heart Association Derides Soy Claims

[Guest guest]

[The FDA is to corporate to trust at face value, but

this study is worth looking into, that is if it wasn't

funded by the meat and dairy industry? At least the

FDA is still admitting that soy is healthier than

killing/eating animals. Rick.]

 

 

Heart Association Derides Soy Claims

 

By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 23,

7:20 PM ET

 

DALLAS - Veggie burgers and tofu might not be so great

at warding off heart disease after all. An

American Heart Association committee reviewed a decade

of studies on soy's benefits and came up with results

that are now casting doubt on the health claim that

soy-based foods and supplements significantly lower

cholesterol.

 

The findings could lead the

Food and Drug Administration to re-evaluate rules that

currently allow companies to tout a

cholestorol-lowering benefit on the labels of

soy-based food.

 

The panel also found that neither soy nor the soy

component isoflavone reduced symptoms of menopause,

such as " hot flashes, " and that isoflavones don't help

prevent breast, uterine or prostate cancer. Results

were mixed on whether soy prevented postmenopausal

bone loss.

 

Based on its findings, the committee said it would not

recommend using isoflavone supplements in food or

pills. It concluded that soy-containing foods and

supplements did not significantly lower cholesterol,

and it said so in a statement recently published in

the journal Circulation.

 

Nutrition experts say soy-based foods still are good

because they often are eaten in place of less healthy

fare like burgers and hot dogs. But they don't have as

much direct benefit as had been hoped on cholesterol,

one of the top risk factors for heart disease.

 

" We don't want to lull people into a false sense of

security that by eating soy they can solve the problem

(with cholesterol), " said Dr. Michael Crawford, chief

of clinical cardiology at University of California San

Francisco Medical Center.

 

" If they are radically altering their diet where

they're only eating soy in the hopes that this is

going to bring their cholesterol down, they're

deluding themselves, " said Crawford, who was not on

the panel that issued the new statement.

 

The FDA in 1999 started allowing manufacturers to

claim that soy products might cut the risk of heart

disease after studies showed at least 25 grams of soy

protein a day lowered cholesterol. A year later, the

Heart Association recommended soy be included in a

diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

 

But as more research emerged, the Heart Association

decided to revisit the issue. The committee members

reviewed 22 studies and found that large amounts of

dietary soy protein only reduced LDL, or " bad "

cholesterol, about 3 percent and had no effect on HDL,

or " good " cholesterol, or on blood pressure.

 

They did a separate analysis of isoflavones. The

review of 19 studies suggested that soy isoflavones

also had no effect on lowering LDL cholesterol or

other lipid risk factors.

 

" Soy proteins and isoflavones don't have any major

health benefits other than soy protein products are

generally good foods, " said Dr. Frank Sacks, a

professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public

Health in Boston who led the committee. " They're good

to replace other foods that are high in cholesterol. "

 

Still, the Heart Association statement notes that soy

products like tofu, soy butter, soy nuts and some soy

burgers should be heart-healthy because they contain a

lot of polyunsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins and

minerals and are low in saturated fat.

 

" Soy isn't a magic bullet, but it can be a valuable

contributor to a heart-healthy diet, " said Jo Ann

Carson, a professor of clinical nutrition at the

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at

Dallas who was not part of the panel.

 

It's important not to think about foods in

black-and-white terms, said Dr. Michael Lim, director

of the cardiac catheterization lab at Saint Louis

University School of Medicine.

 

" There's no quick fix, " he said. " Our bad cholesterol

numbers would certainly get worse if instead of eating

tofu burgers we went out and had hamburgers each night

of the week. "

 

___

 

On the Net:

 

American Heart Association:

http://www.americanheart.org