http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0123soy23.html
Review casts doubt on soy health benefits
Associated Press Jan. 23, 2006 12:00 AM
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 casting doubt on the claim that soy-based foods and supplements significantly lower cholesterol.
The findings could lead the Food and Drug Administration to re-evaluate rules that allow the touting of a cholesterol-lowering benefit on the labels of soy-based foods.
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.
Based on its findings, the panel said it would not recommend using isoflavone supplements in food or pills. It concluded that soy-containing foods and supplements did not lower cholesterol greatly, and it said so in a recent statement in the journal Circulation.
Nutrition experts say soy-based foods still are good because they often are eaten in place of such less healthful fare as 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.
The FDA in 1999 started allowing manufacturers to claim that soy products might cut the risk of heart disease after studies showed that at least 25 grams of soy protein a day cut cholesterol. A year later, the Heart Association recommended that soy be included in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.
But as more research emerged, the Heart Association revisited 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 had no effect on lowering LDL cholesterol or other lipid risk factors.