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  • Essay / Soy Case Study - 2623

    Introduction: The focus on healthy eating is on the bottom tier of the food pyramid, which includes fiber-rich grains, and the second tier, which includes vegetables and beans. Beans have been nicknamed "poor man's meat", a metaphor that is consistent with the inverse relationship between bean consumption and income. Now, there is more focus on foods that are rich in nutrients and are found to be healthy for the body. The most obvious example is “soy” (Table 1), which is the sole dietary source of a group of phytochemicals called isoflavones (ISFs). Soy contains complex carbohydrates, plant proteins, dietary fiber, oligosaccharides, phytochemicals (especially soy isoflavones), and minerals. Their complex carbohydrate and dietary fiber content contributes to their low glycemic indices, which benefit people with diabetes (15) and reduce the risk of developing diabetes (27). Soy protein is now recognized as a “complete” protein, with a protein digestibility–corrected amino acid score of 1, equivalent to the gold standard like egg albumin (39). Soy protein contains all the amino acids essential for human nutrition, making soy products almost equivalent to animal sources in terms of protein quality, but with less saturated fat and no cholesterol (18)]. Soy foods have been consumed for centuries in Asian countries, resulting in significantly lower cancer and other chronic disease effects than in Western countries. Soy Isoflavones Isoflavones have been proposed to be the active component responsible for the beneficial effects of soy foods and appear to act in conjunction. with proteins that protect against cancer, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Isoflavones are a subclass of the most ubiquitous substances that attract attention from the public and health professionals. Soy, a complete protein with a low glycemic index, has been shown to be a good alternative to animal proteins in reversing or slowing the progression of established kidney disease (3). Meal studies also indicated that soy protein did not alter postprandial renal blood flow or glomerular filtration rates, compared to animal proteins (24). Additionally, overactive bladder (OAB) has occupied a large field of interest, characterized by involuntary contraction of the detrusor when the bladder is full, regardless of the desire for inhibition resulting in frequent urination. Related studies found that a premixed mixture of pumpkin seed extract and bean sprout extract was able to improve urinary incontinence (Shim et al., 2014 28). Thus, soy isoflavones, alone or in combination, can improve quality of life..