While many risk factors, such as cigarette smoking and hypertension, contribute to risk for CHD, lipid abnormalities are the major factors. Dietary intervention to reduce heart disease risks includes attention to saturated fat replacement, fiber, and antioxidants, contributions from which soy products provide.
Soy protein exerts several cardioprotective effects.
First, it decreases LDL-cholesterol levels significantly 1 . Third, soy isoflavones have antioxidant properties which protect LDL from oxidation 3 . Fourth, soy isoflavones have favorable effects on blood vessel function 4 . The first step in this review was to exhaustively search the literature to identify all of the clinical studies examining soy protein effects on serum lipid levels. Next they established rigorous criteria for inclusion of the study in the analysis.