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Francine K. Welty, MD, PhD; Karen S. Lee, MD; Natalie S. Lew, BA; Jin-Rong Zhou, PhD

Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(10):1060-1067.

Background  Epidemiologic studies suggest a low incidence of cardiovascular disease in populations that consume dietary soy. For people aged 40 to 70 years, each increment of 20 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure (BP) or 10 mm Hg in diastolic BP doubles the risk of cardiovascular disease for BPs of 115/75 to 185/115 mm Hg.

Methods  To determine the effect of soy nuts on systolic and diastolic BP and lipid levels, 60 healthy postmenopausal women were randomized in a crossover design to a Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLC) diet alone and a TLC diet of similar energy, fat, and protein content in which soy nuts (containing 25 g of soy protein and 101 mg of aglycone isoflavones) replaced 25 g of non-soy protein. Each diet was followed for 8 weeks.

Results  Compared with the TLC diet alone, the TLC diet plus soy nuts lowered systolic and diastolic BP 9.9% and 6.8%, respectively, in hypertensive women (systolic BP140 mm Hg) and 5.2% and 2.9%, respectively, in normotensive women (systolic BP<120 mm Hg). Further subdivision of normotensive women revealed that systolic and diastolic BPs were lowered 5.5% and 2.7%, respectively, in prehypertensive women (systolic BP of 120-139 mm Hg) and 4.5% and 3.0%, respectively, in normotensive women. Soy nut supplementation lowered low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B levels 11% and 8% (P = .04 for both), respectively, in hypertensive women but had no effect in normotensive women.

Conclusions  Substituting soy nuts for nonsoy protein in a TLC diet improves BP and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in hypertensive women and BP in normotensive postmenopausal women. These findings may explain a cardioprotective effect of soy.

Author Affiliations: Division of Cardiology (Drs Welty and Lee and Ms Lew) and Nutrition Metabolism Laboratory (Dr Zhou), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Mass.

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