Word: soy
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Such souped-up plants are understandably popular with farmers, for whom even a slight increase in yield can mean a big increase in profits. Last year in the U.S., 35% of the soy crop and 42% of the cotton crop were grown with GM seeds. Says Karen Marshall, a Monsanto spokeswoman: "These really do work and have tremendous benefits to growers...
Along with your article on the beneficial effects of soybean products [HEALTH, June 7], you showed a photo of little plastic packets of soy sauce. They contain the sensory equivalent of diesel fuel. This "soy" sauce is an American aberration born during World War II food shortages. Naturally brewed soy sauce contains wheat, soybeans, water and salt and is fermented and aged like wine. If the label reads corn syrup and caramel color, it's not the real thing. BARBARA TROPP San Francisco...
...best evidence to date has to do with soy's ability to lower cholesterol. Over the past 25 years, some three dozen studies have shown that eating as little as 47 g, or about 1.5 oz., of soy foods can lower total cholesterol levels an average of 9% and LDL 13%. (Just in case you're keeping score, that's about the same cholesterol-lowering effect as that promised by Benecol, the new high-priced margarine approved by the FDA two weeks ago.) But every little bit counts, since each 1% drop in total cholesterol translates into a 2% drop...
That's not the only mystery. Scientists are almost embarrassed to admit that they still don't know why soy lowers cholesterol levels in the first place. For a long time they believed the key ingredients to be isoflavones--which sounds like the name of a new rock band but in fact refers to a group of naturally occurring plant chemicals that weakly mimic the effects of estrogen hormones in some parts of the body while acting like antihormones in others...
Since estrogen is known to protect the heart, it stood to reason that isoflavones might too. But when scientists fed purified isoflavones in pill form to test subjects, their cholesterol levels didn't budge. Now some researchers are focusing on the composition of the protein in soy to explain its potentially beneficial effects, while others argue that it's the combination of the protein and the isoflavones that does...