Rest assured, soy foods are one of the easiest, most adaptable foods to add to your repertoire. It just takes a little sense of adventure and experimentation to fit soy into a healthy diet. And healthy it is. Unique among most foods being touted for their role in a heart-healthy diet, tofu itself is not a typical low fat, high fiber food.
Firm tofu has about seven grams of fat per four-ounce serving.
That's roughly equal to the amount of fat in a lean four-ounce cut of top round steak with visible fat trimmed. The similarities, however, stop there. Unlike round steak, tofu is relatively low in saturated fat and high in polyunsaturated fat. It and other soy foods also contain an array of amino acids, plant hormones and other plant-based chemicals of interest to researchers. Though the verdict is still out, soy continues to be studied for its potentially positive role in everything from heart disease to cancer to menopause.