Post-menopausal women who include soy in their diets may be less likely to suffer from bone health problems, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
For three years, a team of investigators from the University of California, Davis asked women who had already experienced menopause to take supplements containing isoflavones, estrogen-like compounds found in soy. Two groups of the participants were given capsules containing different amounts of the nutrients and were compared to a control group.
The results of the trial showed that long-term use of the isoflavones-enriched supplements had no beneficial effect on preventing bone loss compared to the positive results seen from eating soy.
The researchers concluded that these results may have occurred because the capsules didnt contain high enough levels of isoflavones needed to improve bone health. Also, these findings may suggest that depending on what type of soy source a person consumes, their body may be affected differently by the nutrients in the foods.
In addition to improving bone health, researchers from Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia discovered that post-menopausal women who increase their soy consumption can also experience healthy weight loss.