Monday, November 23, 2009

Soy & Nutrition


It is important to monitor what we eat everyday so as to know its contents and the benefits that we can get from them, hence, the saying which goes "we is what we eat". Thanks to recent discoveries in the science world, soybean is a good and better alternative for meat as a source of protein. Even recent research has noted that soya and other plants of legume family is good especially for women. Those whose diet has more of these food has proven to be heathier and less prone to receive cancer such as breast cancer and cervival cancer.

As what has been stated earlier, the soybean or its scientific name Glycine max is part of the pea family and is a legume -- plants that can take nitrogen and convert it into protein.And that as far as your health is concerned, that's as valuable as spinning straw into gold!


Health in Islam: Cross-Cultural Comparisons Cross-Cultural Comparisons

While people in Western cultures know soy as a superior source of plant protein, soyfoods have never become the staple of Western diets that they were in the East. But that could be changing.

Soy protein is now recognized as the only complete protein from a plant source. That means soy protein contains all of the essential amino acids that you must get from food. These amino acids are present in just the right balance to meet your body's need for protein. More good news - soy protein is equal in protein quality to animal proteins such as meat, milk, and egg proteins.

The second area of interest involves soy and the effect it could have on the prevalence of several common chronic diseases. These include heart disease and some specific cancers, among others.


Cardiovascular Disease Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) refers to diseases and conditions that affect your heart and arteries, including heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure. Although CVD is a major cause of death in the United States and most developed countries, not all populations have the same degree of risk.1

Compare death rates from CVD in the United States and Japan, for example, and you'll see startling differences. CVD death rates for both men and women are more than twice as high in the United States than in Japan.


Health in Islam: Cancer Cancer

Epidemiology also reveals significant differences between East and West in death rates from certain cancers. Breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men are the most common cancers and second leading causes of cancer death in Americans. Comparisons of death rates from these cancers in the United States and Japan show that, here again, the Japanese have a clear health advantage.

Compared with the Japanese, death rates for breast cancer are more than 2,5 times higher in American women and death rates for prostate cancer are more than three times higher in American men.2


Soy: The Healthy Differentiator


Researchers began looking for an explanation of the dramatically lower death rates from CVD and certain cancers in Japan when compared with the United States and many other Western countries.

Although there are many differences between East and West, a great deal of interest focused on diet, and specifically soy protein consumption.

On average, Americans consume only 1-3 grams of soy protein a day. The average soy protein intake in Asia, on the other hand, ranges from about 10 grams a day in China to 30-50 grams a day in Japan and Taiwan.3 As a rule, Asians average consuming 20-50 times more soyfoods than Americans.

However, when Asians migrate to the West, their diets change over time. In one survey, the soyfood intake of Chinese people living in China was 10 - 15 times higher than that of Chinese people in California and Hawaii.

Scientists have noted that the risk of many chronic diseases increases in Asians who move to the West. For example, researchers compared the incidence of breast cancer in Chinese-American and Japanese-American women born in Asia with those born in the United States and with American-born Caucasian women.

They found that, compared with Caucasians, breast cancer risk was about 50% lower in women born in Asia and 25% lower in American-born Asians.6 Other researchers have noted that as Japanese men move from Japan to parts of the world where prostate cancer is more common, their incidence increases.

This same trend holds true for heart disease. One study showed that heart disease mortality was lowest in men living in Japan, intermediate in Japanese men living in Hawaii, and highest in Japanese men living in California. These findings support evidence that external factors, including dietary choices, influence death rates from heart disease.

There's no direct evidence that the reduced intake of soyfoods in Japanese people who migrate to the West plays a role in their increased risk of chronic diseases. However, dietary changes in general-possibly including soyfood intake in particular-most certainly play a part.


Disease & Prevention


Preventing Chronic Disease - The Soy Connection Preventing Chronic Disease - the Soy Connection

In many countries, people are living longer than ever before. However, a longer life span may also increase your chances of developing the chronic diseases that can accompany aging.

Prevention is the key to improved health throughout your life. Diet is an essential element in any program of disease prevention. As scientists work to identify which foods and substances in foods may benefit health and prevent disease, an increasing amount of research attention is focusing on soy protein.


Cardiovascular Disease Cardiovascular Disease

Considerable evidence supports a role for soy protein in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, the number one killer of adults.


Bone Health Bone Health

Good bone health throughout life helps prevent osteoporosis - a major cause of disability in later years. Women especially has to pay a bit of attention here. In women primarily the result of the reduction in oestrogen levels that occurs during mentruation and also during natural and surgical menopause resulting from wieght loss or from a toovigorous excercise. Research suggests that consuming soy protein may help protect bones from becoming weak and brittle as you age.


Cancer Cancer

Although heart disease kills more people, many individuals are more afraid of cancer. Epidemiological (population) studies suggest that soy may have a role in reducing the risk of certain cancers.


Health in Islam: The Research Continues The Research Continues

Other potential health benefits of soy protein are currently under investigation. These areas of research include soy protein and diabetes, weight management, and kidney disease. In addition, studies of the antioxidant activities of the bioactive molecules occurring naturally in soy protein cut across several disease states.


# Links: http://www.vegsoc.org/info/soya.html
# http://uk.protein.com/

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