A new study supports the safety of soy foods, finding that eating them ‘had no effect on key markers of estrogen-related cancers’
The U of T study, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s United Soybean Board and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, analyzed 40 randomized controlled trials with more than 3,000 participants. It found that eating soy foods had “no effect on key markers of estrogen-related cancers,” supporting the safety of soybeans “as both a food and potential therapy.” (Namely, as a possible alternative to hormone replacement therapy, or HRT.)
Though similar to estrogen in structure, the U of T research supports the understanding that soy isoflavones function differently in the human body.
“We have estrogen receptors throughout our bodies, but, contrary to the hormone estrogen, isoflavones from soy don’t bind to all the estrogen receptors equally,” said Viscardi. “That’s why we see a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system and no effect on the female reproductive system.”
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