Scientific research has provided the clues to these important questions. The answer seems to lie in our diet. Nature didn't get it wrong. Many of us in the West made the mistake of changing our diet away from the type of diet our ancestors ate - the same type of diet typically still eaten in Asian, Central American, and Mediterranean countries. The key factors in the diet are compounds called 'phytoestrogens' or plant estrogens.
Plant estrogens or phytoestrogens are the primitive ancestors of our own human estrogens.
Phytoestrogens have been present in the human diet for thousands of years. Phytoestrogens are not as strong as the estrogens the body creates. In younger women who have adequate levels of their own estrogens in their blood, phytoestrogens have a limited effea because the body's own estrogens are more potent. But with increasing age and declining estrogen production, phytoestrogens become increasingly important, taking over the role of the body's estrogens. When women reach about 50 years of age and estrogen production is very low, the phytoestrogens become the major source of estrogenic acivity to maintain the health and vitality of their bodies.