Soy Foods & Menopause

All right, back to foods. Does soy consumption help ameliorate symptoms of menopause? Now, as with nearly everything in the field of human nutrition, the evidence is mixed. So the question is always what does the balance of the evidence show? To bean, or not to bean?

Here’s what the science shows. There have been a dozen studies on soy consumption and hot flashes, and one showed an increase in hot flashes (the one at the bottom). Three didn’t show soy did much of anything, but the remaining eight studies showed a significant reduction in hot flashes.

You can imagine what the headlines were like after the publication of that last study. “Soy doesn’t work!” But you have to take the totality of evidence, and overall, soy really does seem to help.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.

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• M. S. Kurzer. Soy consumption for reduction of menopausal symptoms. In ammopharmacology, 16(5):227-229, 2008.

Image thanks to Katy.Tresedder via Flickr.

• hot flashes
• menopause
• soy
• women's health