Speaker 1: It's been a staple of Asian diets for centuries, now Americans are discovering the benefits of adding soy to the general plate and while we test our taste buds medical researchers are also looking for the recipe back in transform this small bean in to a miraculous medicine. At first glands it's hard to imagine that a farm nestled in the mid west could be medical sciences field of dreams. But for people who suffer from a variety of ills these are acres of hope.
Larry Alexander: To lower the total cholesterol.
Nagi Kumar: It stops the prostate cancer from progressing.
Speaker 4: There may be a modest attenuation of the severity of heart process and night sweats.
Speaker 1: The magical is Soy.
Jane Ebert: I was period menopausal really begin in my early 40s.
Speaker 1: Jane Ebert grows up on a farm, and these boys are bought her use of soy to relive the symptoms of menopause.
Jane Ebert: I was looking for alternative methods of working with estrogen replacement.
Speaker 1: Jane became part of the study at Wake Forest University which looked at ways women get menopausal relief from natural sources, like soy.
Jane Ebert: That eliminated the nut soy and that was heavenly. Think whole fruits were soy is dietary staple, resources so low intensives of heart disease, obesity and cancer as well as here we reported menopausal symptoms.
Greg Burke: The isoflavones themselves are a form of estrogen.
Speaker 1: And researches think isoflavones can fight disease. Some other stuff would begin in the flower Art Blumenthal has prostate cancer.
Art Blumenthal: I realize and I have seen some of our neighbors and friends who went through the more elaborate treatments I have seen the side effects which can be so bad.
Speaker 1: As a stage one patient heart was eligible for a study looking at how soy isoflavones may hope the progression of prostate cancer.
Nagi Kumar: We took this early teach prostate cancer patient and gave them 60 milligrams of whole soy protein with the isofalvones, we notice that over 70% of them reduced PSA.
Speaker 1: PSA is the indicator of disease progression, researcher Nagi Kumar, says they continued to study how isoflavones make kill of prostate cancer cells.
Nagi Kumar: We've seen that in pet treaters, but can we see it in a live human.
Speaker 1: Heart will never know if we took the soy for a placebo but now he is not taking any chances, he make soy a part of his regular diet. We have nothing to loose. Soy comes in many shapes and sizes and doctor says you can help the obese change their shape and size too.
Larry Alexander: It works on fat metabolism so that you don't actually want to know storing as much of your calories has fat.
Speaker 1: Soy may also help control diabetes, and high cholesterol, the American heart association recommends 25 grams of soy protein a day. There are hundreds of varieties of soy from the textures vegetable proteins to the sauce in from to edamame the raw beans.
Speaker 1: Chef Jason Hanners frequently uses soy in his dishes.
Jason Hanners: 75 grams is not that much, it really isn't it could fro instance a rice bowl with edamame mix in then to a stored fried dish for a dinner and or a soy 4-5 cereal at breakfast.
Speaker 1: Dietitians and Doctors recommend food sources not pills.
Nagi Kumar: And instead of taking capsules or tablets, which are not you know inspected by the FTA, we don't know whether the portent agent isoflavones in their tablet.
Speaker 1: So how many isoflavones do you need? Some scientist say 50 milligrams a day, others say 150. As researchers cultivated findings they offer this advice.
Nagi Kumar: The ounce of prevention is better than any amount of cure.
Speaker 1: Just recently Vendible University researches found that whether is that eating soy may help prevent in the neutral cancers.
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