AHA downplays soy benefits

An American Heart Association committee reviewed a decade of studies on soy's benefits and came up with results that are now casting doubt on the health claim that soy-based foods and supplements significantly lower cholesterol, according to its statement in the journal Circulation.

The findings could lead the Food and Drug Administration to re-evaluate rules that currently allow companies to tout a cholestorol-lowering benefit on the labels of soy-based food.

Nutrition experts say soy-based foods still are good because they often are eaten in place of less healthy fare like burgers and hot dogs. But they don't have as much direct benefit as had been hoped on cholesterol, one of the top risk factors for heart disease.

The FDA in 1999 started allowing manufacturers to claim that soy products might cut the risk of heart disease after studies showed at least 25 grams of soy protein a day lowered cholesterol. A year later, the Heart Association recommended soy be included in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

But as more research emerged, the Heart Association decided to revisit the issue. The committee members reviewed 22 studies and found that large amounts of dietary soy protein only reduced LDL, or ``bad'' cholesterol, about 3 percent and had no effect on HDL, or ``good'' cholesterol, or on blood pressure.

Steve - Bonnie and I were never a proponent of the FDA allowing soy heart health claims in 1999. Soy has its place in the food supply, but only as a complementary food. The FDA, the American Heart Association, and major food manufacturers that jumped on the bandwagon and put soy in EVERYTHING are in a quandry. Soy is literally everywhere and in everything. Not only is it one of the three most allergenic food staples (milk and wheat being the other two), it is one of the most heavily sprayed crops (if not organic). In addition, soy is not very bioavailable protein (in general, plant based proteins are far inferior in bioavialblity than animal protein).

The studies on soy have been a mixed bag mainly because soy is tolerated differently depending on the individual's genetic makeup.

Now that soy is a major food staple worldwide, and has a huge amount of political clout, it is going to be very difficult to make it a "complementary" once again. Of course, you can count on the dairy industry to do all it can to make this happen.