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Soy and Heart Disease
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The American Heart Association notes that heart disease is the number one killer of American women.
Making significant changes in your diet and lifestyle can help improve your overall health and decrease your risk of developing heart disease. If you already suffer from heart disease then including soy in your diet may decrease your risk of a heart attack and benefit your overall health. Here’s why:
Read the Label: The Food and Drug Administration approved a health claim for foods that contain at least 6.25 grams of soy. The health claim states that, “25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
Soy Foods Can Replace Less Healthy Foods: Soy foods are a source of high-quality protein and, unlike many other sources of high-quality protein, soy foods are low in saturated fat and cholesterol-free. Soy foods come in a variety of forms, everything from soy sausages to soy flour, so it is easy to replace foods and ingredients in your diet with healthy soy foods and soy ingredients. So try a soy burger; you won’t be able to tell the difference, but your heart will!
Soy Foods Can Lower Your Bad Cholesterol: Soy foods are a tasty way to lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase your HDL (good) cholesterol. Soy foods also include dietary fiber, high quality protein, iron, essential fatty acids, and other important nutrients.
We Want To Hear From You: Have you used soy foods to help decrease your risk of heart disease? Share with us your soy success story and see your story published on our website! Please e-mail info@soyfoods.org with your soy and heart disease story.
Additional Information on Soy and Heart Disease:
- Soy Nuts May Improve Blood Pressure, Cholesterol in Postmenopausal Women: JAMA Report
- "The Healthy Heart Handbook" for women, by the NHLBI Information Center at the NIH (pdf)
- The Impact of Soy Consumption on Cholesterol Lowering: A Comprehensive Review
- Soy Protein Supplementation Creates Significant Cholesterol Reductions - Tulane Meta-Analysis (at soyatech.com)
- Latest News on Soy and Heart Health
