The findings were presented Sept. 16 in Brussels, Belgium, by University of Illinois researchers attending the second International Symposium on The Role of Soy in Preventing and Treating Chronic Disease. Isoflavones act like weak estrogen-like compounds that are thought to have effects on bone and cholesterol metabolism. They also are believed to play a role in low breast-cancer rates among women in Southeast Asia where soy protein is regularly consumed.
Soy isoflavones act like weak estrogens in respect to bone metabolism.
Maybe postmenopausal women can use soy products instead of estrogen replacement. Maybe women at-risk for breast cancer can tolerate this better than other estrogens. The new study is the first to focus on postmenopausal women. In addition to a control group, one group ate soy protein with a standard level of 56 milligrams of isoflavones, another had products with 92 milligrams. The group that consumed the isolated soy proteins, regardless of isoflavone content, saw the greatest improvement in blood cholesterol profiles.