The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Women eating increasing amounts of soy have a higher risk of breast cancer

This study was published in the British Journal of Cancer 2003 Oct 6;89(7):1255-9
 
Study title and authors:
Flavonoid intake and breast cancer risk: a case--control study in Greece.
Peterson J, Lagiou P, Samoli E, Lagiou A, Katsouyanni K, La Vecchia C, Dwyer J, Trichopoulos D.
Schools of Nutrition and Medicine, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
 
This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14520456

The study investigated the association between flavonoids and the risk of breast cancer. The study included 820 women with breast cancer and 1,548 control women without breast cancer.

Regarding isoflavones, (the overwhelming dietary source of isoflavones are from soy products, see table below), the study found that for every 0.8 mg per day increase in isoflavones there was a 7% increase in breast cancer.

Isoflavones contents of food

Below are isoflavones contents (total isoflavones, daidzein and genistein) of foods taken from the USDA database. Values of isoflavones are expressed in mg per 100g.


Food product Total isoflavones Daidzein Genistein
Soy flour, full-fat 177,89 71,19 96,83
Soy flour, textured 148,61 59,62 78,90
Soy flour, defatted 131,19 57,47 71,21
Soybeans 128,34 46,46 73,76
Soy protein concentrate, aqueous washed 102,07 43,04 55,59
Soy protein isolate 97,43 33,59 59,62
Natto 58,93 21,85 29,04
Soybean chips 54,16 26,71 27,45
Tofu, fried 48,35 17,83 28,00
Tempeh 43,52 17,59 24,85
Miso 42,55 16,13 24,56
Soybean sprouts 40,71 19,12 21,60
Tofu, soft 29,24 8,59 20,65
Tofu, silken 27,91 11,13 15,58
Soy infant formula, powder 25,00 7,23 14,75
Tofu, firm 22,70 8,00 12,75
Soy hot dog 15,00 3,40 8,20
Okara 13,51 5,39 6,48
Soy protein concentrate, alcohol extracted 12,47 6,83 5,33
Bacon, meatless 12,10 2,80 6,90
Soy milk 9,65 4,45 6,06
Vegetarian burger 9,30 2,95 5,28
Soy cheese, Mozzarella 7,70 1,10 3,60
Soy cheese, Cheddar 7,15 1,80 2,25
Soy drink 7,01 2,41 4,60
Split peas 2,42 2,42 0,00
Shoyu 1,64 0,93 0,82
Pigeon peas 0,56 0,02 0,54
Clover sprouts 0,35 0,00 0,35
Peanuts 0,26 0,03 0,24
Navy beans 0,21 0,01 0,20
Mung beans 0,19 0,01 0,18
Granola bars 0,13 0,05 0,08
Chickpeas 0,10 0,04 0,06
Green tea 0,05 0,01 0,04
Broadbeans 0,03 0,02 0,00
Cowpeas 0,03 0,01 0,02
Lima beans 0,03 0,02 0,01
Lentils 0,01 0,00 0,00
Alfalaval seeds, sprouted 0,00 0,00 0,00
Black beans 0,00 0,00 0,00
Flax seed 0,00 0,00 0,00
Rye bread 0,00 0,00 0,00