Tofu Cuts Heart Disease Risk

A block of tofu with a bowl of edamame, a bowl of soy beans, garlic cloves,soy sauce, and ginger root.

1 min

Significant heart health benefits were associated with tofu consumption in three studies, especially among younger women and postmenopausal women who weren’t on hormone replacement therapy. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital reached this conclusion after analyzing data from more than 200,000 people who took part in three health and nutrition studies. After adjusting for a number of other factors known to influence heart disease risk, the investigators found that compared to those who ate tofu less than once a month consuming tofu once a month was linked to a 12 percent lower risk of heart disease and eating it more than once a week was associated with an 18 percent lower risk. In addition to tofu and whole soybeans such as edamame, rich sources of isoflavones include chickpeas, fava beans, pistachios, peanuts and other fruits and nuts. Even so, lead study author Qi Sun, M.D., Sc.D. at Harvard’s T.H. Chan of Public Health said despite the new findings he doesn’t think “tofu is by any means a magic bullet. Overall diet quality is still critical to consider, and tofu can be a very healthy component.”

Learn more about soy and soy foods.

Source:
Qi Sun et al, “Isoflavone Intake and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in US Men and Women: Results From 3 Prospective Cohort Studies,” Circulation, March 23, 2020, doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.041306

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