Soya bean, a perennial Asian staple, reduces the risk of breast
cancer among Chinese women, a published study said on Tuesday.
Conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS), the
University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota, the
study tracked more than 34,000 Chinese women in Singapore aged 45 to 74
for a decade.
Women who consumed Soya proteins in amounts more than in a serving of soya bean curd or a glass
of soya bean milk were 18% less likely to develop breast cancer than
those who ate less, said the findings in The Straits Times. Eating a
serving of soya bean curd or drinking a glass of the milk
every day reduces the risk, the study said.
“Our study shows that the amount of soya needed is not high, and is easily achievable in a typical
Asian diet,” NUH associate professor Koh Woon Puay was quoted as
saying. Post-menopausal women, those with a higher body mass index and
those who had consumed soya for longer, experienced the greatest
reductions in risk, the study found. The results are similar to those
of eight other studies conducted on Asians. One in Japan showed an
average 12% reduction in breast cancer risk for those who eat the soya
bean.
Studies on Caucasian women have been inconclusive, possibly because
of the low levels of soya involved, the report said. Koh cautioned
against consuming too much soya, which could
lead to conditions such as gout. NUS’ Centre for Molecular Epidemiology is planning a 10-year study
of 12,000 Chinese, Malay and Indian women, with and without breast
cancer, to fi nd out how genetic and lifestyle factors interact to
determine breast cancer risks.
|
