Nutrition Expert Urges Adding Soy to Diets

Soy is good food for heart health. Soy foods, notably tofu, edamame, soy milk, tempeh, and miso, support heart health and provide high-quality plant protein in people’s diets.

“Soy contributes to heart health as it relates to its ability to lower the LDL cholesterol or the bad cholesterol, slightly boost the HDL cholesterol or the good cholesterol, and also manage total cholesterol and help to reduce triglyceride levels, so all those numbers we get when we go to the doctor,” explains Michelle Braun, director of research strategy and partnerships at Soy Nutrition Institute (SNI) Global. “We have hundreds of clinical trials that demonstrate that soy has a benefit on those aspects of heart health.”

The suggestion of specialists at SNI is that people include about 25 grams daily of soy protein. What does that look like? It’s not so hard to reach that target, according to Braun, who spoke with the South Dakota Soybean Network. She recommends reading a few soy-based snack bar nutritional content labels. Those containing soy are worth several grams of protein. Opting for soymilk on cereal provides several more. A half-cup of tofu provides another ten grams, and a half-cup of edamame is at least ten grams of protein.

“There are some emerging products in the marketplace, and these may be found more in the specialty aisles such as soy nuts, soy pastas, soy yogurts, et cetera,” she said. “So, small and highly varied ways, you don't have to eat the same thing day after day. You can mix it up into different types of foods as well as different recipes to easily, feasibly reach that 25 grams of soy protein as part of your total protein intake for the day.”

Soy, Braun adds, is also a food source to consider after exercising to build muscle mass. Those sources might be found in the beverage aisle.

“You can get products that are north of 25-30 and on up grams. But really you can target about 20-25 grams post exercise of a protein source, whether all of that comes from soy or it's a blend with other protein sources, can absolutely contribute to recovery and remodeling that the muscle does after a workout by providing the essential amino acids to fuel that muscle rebuilding.”