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What is Soy?

Soy foods include moong dal (small beans similar to peas or lima beans), tofu, tempeh (bean curd), miso (soybean paste), and soymilk. All soy foods come from soybeans-a legume widely grown in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and India (Voora et al., 2020). While soy foods are readily available and enjoyed by many people around the world, they are the most common element of the Asian diet. The types and amounts of soy foods consumed vary across different regions and countries in Asia, but studies have shown that most people living in Asia consume about 8-10 grams of soy protein per day, with some consuming as much as 25 grams per day! (Messina, 2016a)

What is the nutritional value of soy foods?

First, soy foods are an excellent source of plant-based protein. Unlike most other plant-based proteins, soy protein is considered a “complete” protein. What does this mean? It means that soy protein contains all nine of the essential amino acids or building blocks that our bodies need to create muscle, other body tissues, hormones, and more. It’s similar to having all the vowels when playing Scrabble because it means you can say the most words. This makes soy protein the best plant-based alternative to meat in your diet.

Soy foods are typically lower in saturated fat and higher in fiber than animal protein sources like red meat and poultry. This is very useful for keeping your heart healthy, which we’ll discuss in more detail later.

Soy foods are also rich in many vitamins and minerals, such as B vitamins, calcium, zinc and iron (Harvard University, 2022).

What’s wrong with soy?

The ongoing concern about soy has to do with the mistaken belief that soy disrupts hormones in the body because soy foods contain isoflavones, a natural plant-based compound unique to soy. Isoflavones have a similar chemical structure to the estrogen our bodies naturally produce. This means that through a very long and complex process, isoflavones can mimic the way estrogen works in the body, but they don’t always have this effect (Harvard University, 2022). This has created a common misconception that eating soy foods disrupts the body’s natural hormone production and response, but current research suggests this is not the case (Messina, 2016b). The very few studies that have shown isoflavones to have a negative effect on hormone production have been done on animals (not humans!) on them, and the amount of isoflavones provided is much higher than what you would get from a normal sized soy food (Messina, 2016b).

Let me assure you that adding soy foods to your diet will not have any bad effects on you. This is borne out by the wealth of research on soy over the past decade, which debunks lingering myths about soy and speaks highly of its health benefits.

How do we know that soy is safe to eat?

As with most research, the results of a study can vary, so when we examine the evidence, it is important to look for the cumulative results of high-quality studies to see the key findings that emerge and to maintain consistency on a particular topic. The more studies conducted on the same topic with the same results = the stronger the evidence and the greater the confidence in knowing that something is indeed true. This is how nutrition or any health-related topic becomes a “fact” – it doesn’t come from personal experience, opinion, or hearing your neighbor claim something is true.

In the following sections, we’ll dig deeper and discuss what we know about soy foods based on the latest research, so once you’re done reading, you can feel confident clicking on this page to find out the answer to the age-old question: Is soy safe to eat?