Soy is the popular health food that's showing up on kitchen tables all over the country. Recipes that use soy products appear in newspapers and magazines. Soy burgers are commonplace in supermarkets. Hostesses offer soy-based dips without apology. Soy is rich in a class of phytoestrogens known as isoflavones, which can act like hormones in the body.
Studies indicate that they can mimic estrogen and to some extent fill in for it.
Researchers think that's partly why women in soy-eating cultures, such as those of China and Japan, have fewer side effects of menopause. And when that pattern is paired with a low-fat diet, those cultures seem to have a lower risk of breast and prostate cancer. So far, the most documented claims about the benefits of soy relate to its cholesterol-reducing effects. Messina organized the third international symposium on the role of soy in preventing and treating chronic diseases, held in Washington, D.C., last October. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that science needs more supportive data regarding the benefits of a soy-rich diet.